Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on Dell Systems Running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Overview

In this paper, various configurations of Exchange Server 2007 are tested in physical and virtual environments to evaluate the performance scalability and to understand the sizing requirements for Exchange Server 2007 in a virtualized environment. Performance is measured for a Mailbox Server configured within a virtual machine hosting 1000 to 4000 Mailboxes. A consolidation of multiple exchange server roles and infrastructure servers simulating a small to medium deployment is performed as well. Finally some of the supported configurations from Microsoft are reviewed and best practices based on supported configurations are discussed.