Hi All, I'd like to get your opinion on an upgrade strategy that I'd like to implement. We are a single active directory domain running Exchange 2003 with all the latest updates. I don't have the budget to purchase a new server to install exchange 2007 on and then trasfers my users to. We spent A LOT of money on our current Exchange Server so that's the one I'd like to use. In order to do that, I'm considering creating a virtual server, installing Exchange 2003 on it amd then trasferring my users and public folders over to the new (temporary) Exchange 2003 server. Once that's complete, I'll uninstall Exchange 2003 on my Permanent Exchange server, upgrade to Windows 2003, then install Exchange 2007. Once that is complete, I'll transfer my users and public folders over to my new Exchange 2007 install and once everything has been tested, I'll uninstall Exchange server 2003 from my virtual server then remove the virtual server. The server that I'll be install VM on has 4 gig of memory, and is runnning a single 3.8 cpu. Are there any "gotchas" I may be missing? Has anyone ran Exchange 2003 in a virtual environment before? Thanks in advance for any feedback! Candie

What kind of hardware specs does your current server have? What is the load/number of users? What is your current IOPS, and will the VM handle it. What VM software are we talking about? ESX 3.0, Microsoft Virtual Server? If you have a 4 proc server that is under load, and you move everyone to a VM that has access to 1 proc, there will be pain. If you have a 4 proc server with hardly no load, and you move everyone to a VM, you may be able to get away with it. Remember that HD specs matter a lot here to. If you have your current server on a SAN with 20-200 spindles, and move it to a server that has fewer, virtualized or no, you could see issues. The best bet would be to measure your current IOPSand Processor loadand see if the VM can handle it.The best way to find out if it can handle it, is to measure how much the VM can do. Try this article. If it can, then great. If it cannot, and you want to work a long weekend, then move everyone when e-mail is not being used much, and be sure to get the other one back up and running very soon. If you have a couple hundred people, this would most likely work. If we are talking thosands, then it most likely will not. J.G.