Jose Barreto's Blog

A new article has been posted on TechNet covering “Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments”. This article, posted this week, marks the first time that I have seen details on the requirements for a supported Exchange Server 2007 implementation with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V in production.

In short, for a production deployment of Exchange Server 2007 with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, you will need:

• Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or later
• Fixed sized storage (fixed-sized VHD or pass-through disk)
• No other server applications running on the parent partition
• No CCR or SCC if combined with clustered virtualization servers
• No snapshots
• Processor ratio no greater than 2:1

Keep in mind that the list above is just a summary and there are additional details on each item.

The article is a very interesting read and it addresses a number of related issues, including:

• Virtual Machine Considerations
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery Considerations
• Backup and Restore Considerations
• Exchange Server Storage Requirements and Recommendations
• Performance and Scalability Considerations

There are also references to two support articles:

• http://support.microsoft.com/?id=897615  
  Updated support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software environments (updated on August 19, 2008)
• http://support.microsoft.com/?id=944987 
  Support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software (updated on November 10, 2007)

I recommend that you read the entire article, posted at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx