Microsoft Exchange team has recently released the new version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Storage calculator v12.8. It includes the long awaited active/ active user distribution in two data centers. The other enhancements include:

  • Incorporated Megacycle adjustment formula changes as documented in Guidance Change- Calculating the Megacycles for Different Processor Configurations Formula.
  • The calculator no longer requires you to enter in the adjusted megacycles per core for the server architecture you are deploying.  Instead, you simply need to obtain the SPECint2006 Rate Value for your server platform. To determine your SPECint 2006 Rate Value:
    • Open a web browser and got to www.spec.org.
    • Click on Results, highlight CPU2006 and then select Search CPU2006 Results.
    • Under Available Configurations, select SPECint2006 Rates and click Go.  Under Simple Request, enter the search criteria (e.g. Processor matches x5550).
    • Find the server and processor you are planning to deploy and take note of the result value. For example, let's say you are deploying a Dell PowerEdge M710 8-core server with Intel x5550 2.67GHz processors (2670 Hertz); the SPECint_rate2006 results value is 240.
  • Added Megacycle Multiplication Factor – this works exactly like the IOPS Multiplication Feature does and was added as a result of RIM providing E2010 guidance on megacycle impact due to Blackberry devices.
  • Active/Active user distribution scenarios.  Yes, really!  An Active/Active user distribution architecture has the user population dispersed across both datacenters (usually evenly) with each datacenter being the primary datacenter for its specific user population.  In the event of a failure, the user population can be activated in the secondary datacenter (either via cross-datacenter single database *over or via full datacenter activation).
  • Added a new worksheet/section that documents the Activation Scenarios for DAG deployments. 
  • Added error reporting validation logic if HA solution results in greater than 16 servers in a DAG to not show any results, since the design is invalid.
  • Dumpster size calculations have been optimized as calendar versioning storage has been reduced from 5.8% impact to 3% impact in SP1.
  • Fixed several issues related to Active / Active user distribution that were encountered in v12.3

Download this version of Storage calculator here