I'm just wondering if someone can give me a sanity-check on the specs of our new Exchange server environment. We currently have two 2-way CCR Exchange 2007 clusters, each with 2 mailbox stores. This is currently running on VMWare, but frankly, even though we love VMWare, we'd like to migrate back to physical servers when we upgrade to 2010. We have about 1200 users, and the combined disk utilization of our current 4 storage groups is about 600 GB. We'd like to plan on at least doubling the capacity, since these new servers will have to last us 4 years. Here's what we're looking at for the mailbox servers: Two HP DL 380 G7 servers, clustered, each with: 2 quad-core E5620 procs. 16 GB RAM (8 GB per proc) 2 x 146 GB 15,000 rpm drives in a RAID1 (then split into 2 partitions - one for the OS etc. and one for the pagefile) 4 x 146 GB 15,000 rpm drives in a RAID 10 (for the transaction logs) 5 x 300 GB 10,000 rpm drives in a RAID 5 (for the mailbox store) 1 x 300 GB 10,000 rpm drive for hotspare. This is all predicated on the notion that we only need 1 mail store. Our CIO has said that he doesn't mind the idea that having one mail store makes backup recovery longer, so as long as there are no other issues with having a single mail store, we're OK with it. The HT/CAS servers will be purchased separately. Those will be pretty straightforward: 2 servers, each with 2 quad core, 8 GB RAM, 2 disks for OS/page file, 2 disks for Exchange program files. Load balanced using Windows Load Balancing (or whatever they call it these days!). Does this all sound sensible? Thanks!

Have you been through the configuration spreadsheet that Microsoft supply? That will give you more of an idea if your configuration is suitable. I have to say I wouldn't do a single mail store with 1200 users. I would be splitting up the data over four mailbox databases at a minimum. You are aware that the clustering technology that you are used to with Exchange 2007 doesn't exist with Exchange 2010 - it is all the DAG now. On the vm point, I haven't installed a new install on to bare metal in over 18 months. Every single installation goes in to VMWARE vSphere. I wouldn't go back to physical hardware now. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/

Thanks Sembee. What's your opinion on a RAID 10 for the logs? Necessary, or could we get by with a RAID 1? Thanks!

If you can get away with a single RAID mirror for the logs, then that will be fine. It is very unusual for a large amount of space to be required for the logs. However you really need to know how much logs you generate in a production day and then also over a weekend and scale accordingly. I like to have four days of space available if possible, allowing for a backup failure at the start of a long weekend. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/