This topic provides the Microsoft support policies for running currently supported versions of Microsoft Exchange Server in production in a hardware virtualization environment. This topic also provides recommendations for running Exchange Server in production in a hardware virtualization environment.

Hardware virtualization software enables you to run multiple, separate operating systems concurrently on a single physical machine. Microsoft has the following three software offerings that provide hardware virtualization functionality:

• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Technology/Microsoft Hyper-V Server: Windows Server 2008 provides 64-bit virtualization technology called Hyper-V. Hyper-V is a hypervisor: a layer of software that sits just above the hardware and beneath one or more operating systems. For more information about Hyper-V, see Virtualization and Consolidation with Hyper-V.
• Microsoft Virtual Server: Virtual Server is software that provides server virtualization technology that was engineered for the Windows Server System platform (Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2). For more information about Microsoft Virtual Server, see the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Product Overview.
• Microsoft Virtual PC: Virtual PC is software that lets you create separate virtual machines on your Microsoft Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a physical computer. For more information about Virtual PC, see Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Product Information.

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