Exchange 2003 hardware

[polymath5]

Hi all

We are thinking of switching to Exchange 2003. Currently using MDaemon, which I like a lot, but requre some of things that only Exchange can provide.

We have 60 users. I'm wondering if a 4x 600 Xenon server with 2GB running WS 2003 would be sufficient. I know Exchange likes its hardware, so I thought I would check here and get some HW opinions.

Thanks!

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[Zelandakh]

Yikes, that'll blow mine away and I've got quite a few more using clobbering mine.

It'll be more than enough but make sure that your disk IO subsystem is up to it. SCSI 160s are great, 320s are stunning. Fibre is gobsmacking...

 

[xmsre]

That's overkill. A dual proc box with a gig of RAM should suffice. Zelandakh is correct in that IO counts. You'll want a mirror for the OS, and a mirror for exchange. If the number of users is expected to grow, you'll want to break out the logs and the databases onto their own seperate spindles. If your clients will access primarially via POP or IMAP, then you'll want to redirect the system temp folder to a seperate spindle. If you use Dell hardware, a good box would be the 2650.

You'll need a migration plan to get from MDaemon to Exchange. Sucking in the mail isn't too difficult using mailmig of the Exchange CD. Probably more important is client configuration. If using Outlook, you can use the ODK tools to create a custom outlook.prf file to push the client settings. For other mail clients, you'll need to do your research and come up with a plan to migrate to the new server.


XMSRE

 

[polymath5]

Thanks for the help!

It is a Dell 6300. SCSI 160. I had planned on RAID1 for the OS, RAID 5 for the data. We all use Outlook 2k. I use OL2003, which we all probably migrate to in the near future.

I'll look into the ODK tools. But I'm pretty sure I can do the client configurations via ScriptLogic. So that shouldn't be too much of a strain. Hell, with only 60 users, my assistant I can can hit each desktop.

Does Mailmig pull in the mail/contacts/etc from users pst files?

Thanks again!

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[xmsre]

Mailmig will connect to an IMAP server and pull everything. The question is, are contacts, calendars, etc. in a format that Outlook understands? Mailmig doesn't convert these. Mailmig is similar to exmerge, and does support a two step process. You will be able to import from pst.

 

[polymath5]

Thanks xmsre! All contacts, calendars, etc are in each persons pst file, so that shouldn't be a problem. We do have a global employee address book, in a 3rd party app, but that won't be a problem as Exchange will have its public address book and if necessary we can reente that particular list.

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[Zelandakh]

sounds like you are pretty sorted then.

I'd send the junior round manually and get them to do all those niggles on each machine that have been bugging you - service packs, windowsupdates, get up to Acrobat 6, install VNC to minimise travelling time, apply Office SP2 or even upgrade everyone to Office 2003...

 

[polymath5]

That's what juniors are for!

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