Introduction
With the release of SP2 for Exchange 2003 we have published the support policy for Exchange Server 2003 running on hardware virtualization software KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=320220
Exchange 2003 SP2 on MSVS 2005 R2 Test Summary
The support policy described in the article above is a result of a team effort conducted by the Exchange CXP Solutions, MSIT, the VS product group, and Exchange SP2 Test teams:
Support policy for Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft supports Exchange Server 2003 running on hardware virtualization software (virtual machines) only when all the following conditions are true:
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do we support Exchange Server 2003 SP1 or below on Virtual Server?
A: No, Virtual Server testing was introduced only on SP2, so that is the minimum version we support.
Q: Do we support Exchange Server 2003 SP2 on Virtual Server 2005 RTM?
A: No, Microsoft Virtual Server 2003 R2 is the version that the Exchange 2003 SP2 tests and production testing ran on so it is the minimum required version.
Q: When Microsoft Virtual Server R2 is going to be available?
A: It is expected to be available in November/2005.
Q: Do we support Exchange on other virtualization platforms?
A: Microsoft has a general support policy for running Microsoft software in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. The policy also applies to any version of Exchange Server that is running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. The link is on the KB article.
Q: Why is Exchange clustering not supported?
A: Because it was not a tested scenario for this version of Virtual Server.
Q: How do we determine the scalability limitations of Exchange 2003 SP2 when running on Virtual Server?
A: Use the Exchange load simulation tools in the same way you would for a physical machine.
Q: I ran Loadsim and Jetstress simulating the expected user profile and number/size of mailboxes and the performance looks good. What else should I worry about?
A: You need to determine how long it is going to take to backup Exchange over the network and validate that against the
Q: If I run Exchange on a virtual machine, can I just backup the VHD files?
A: No, Exchange backups are still required in order to provide a proper data recovery and transaction logs commit.
Q: Where can I find best practices for configuring Virtual Server?
A: See the MS Virtual Server administrator’s guide. The link is on the KB article.
- The Exchange Team
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