Today we've released an update to the Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator that addresses some issues that were identified in the previous (v12.8) release.  You can visit the updates tracking page to see what is in this new version, but here’s a brief synopsis of what’s fixed/changed:

  • Fixed the Activation Results Scenarios so that it no longer displays #NAME when dealing with dedicated lagged copy servers.
  • Fixed 2 LUNs / Backup Set formula for the 11th database grouping set in the DB and Log LUN Design / Server table so that it displays the correct number of databases in the grouping set.
  • Fixed the "Number of Active Databases / SDC Server (After First PDC Server Failure)" calculations to take into account stretched single DAG without dedicated DR servers.
  • Fixed the "Number of Required Mailbox Processor Cores (Primary Datacenter)" formula to respect when site resilience is disabled and A/A (single DAG) is selected.
  • Fixed formatting for scenario that resulted in more HA database copies being deployed in the secondary datacenter than in the primary datacenter and also improved validation checks.
  • Updated "Custom Number of Databases" (Input Section) and "Number of Databases" (Role Requirements section) text to indicate in standalone situations that the "Custom Number of Databases" is per server and "Number of Databases" is for the environment.
  • Fixed 2nd PDC failure formula to enable site resilient scenarios that have 3 copies in the primary datacenter to allow for a double server failure event.
  • Optimized the Number of Mailboxes per Database (I/O Driven) to not round up odd numbers to the next even number.
  • Fixed text in various comment fields.
  • Added conditional formatting for the Exchange Native Data Protection input factor to alert when you are deploying with less than the recommended number of HA copies.
  • The calculator now includes the ability to select different disk types and capacities for the storage architecture being deployed in the secondary datacenter.

You can find more information and download the calculator on the Exchange Team blog at http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/09/453117.aspx.