Planning Your Server and Storage Architecture

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

As with all server applications, computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 need to be deployed correctly with sufficient storage capacity and performance. The primary hardware difference between previous versions of Exchange Server and Exchange 2007 is the move from a 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform. Although both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Exchange 2007 will be available, only the 64-bit version of Exchange 2007 server roles running on the x64-based version of Windows Server is supported in production environments. The 32-bit version is being made available for lab, demo, and training environments, and it can be used on management workstations and to extend the Active Directory directory service schema. However, all server roles deployed in production environments must be 64-bit.

Three of the most critical factors to consider are choice of processor, amount of memory, and selection of storage. The change from a 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform requires a new approach to choosing server hardware for Exchange 2007, especially with respect to these three factors. We recommend that you review the detailed guidance in this section before designing a messaging infrastructure based on Exchange 2007: