Exchange 2007 server specs/recommendations/cals?

[markm75]

I'm thinking of going to 2007 for our company.. can anyone comment on the need for seperate arrays for logs and one for the mailbox data (and another for the OS)?

Is RAID1 (mirror) preferred over RAID5.. I had typically done raid 5 for the mailbox data (and logs) for 2003.

We have about 40 users.. mailbox total size is around 30gb I think.

Should I just go with raid1 OS, raid1 Logs (40gb enough?), raid1 Mailboxes and data (300gb ?)

Is 4GB or even 2GB enough memory? (Currently we have 2gb, but I could up this easily).. the processor is dual CPU's (woodcrest, 2.0ghz)

Any CAL requirements from an outlook standpoint? I dont even recall how i installed 2003 standard edition CAL wise.. I dont recall needing any CALs on the clients, i think we may have had a mixture of Action pack and /or standard licensing in there too.

Any gotchas with installing 2007? IE:.. I'm hoping this goes pretty seemlessly and fast on the install/migration of old 2003 data.. hopefully up and working in say 4 hours time minimally and hopefully not needing to goto every workstation and change the exchange machine name to connect to ?

Thanks

 

[58sniper]

RAID 1 is faster than RAID 5, but RAID offers higher capacity. Typically, it's recommended to use RAID 1 for the transaction logs, and RAID 5 for the mailbox stores. But, given the low number of users you have, RAID 1 would work for the mailbox stores as well.

4GM MINIMUM.

You'll need Outlook 2007 CALs if you want to use that. That's different than previous versions.

Leave the old server on, and Outlook should auto update on the next connect.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[markm75]

thanks for the response..

I'm going to go with this then:

OS: probably 80gb raid1
Logs: 80gb raid1 (assuming this is enough space?)
Data: minimal 200gb RAID5 (probably more like 400, as we have the space already, though mailbox sizes are around 30gb).

For the office 2007 cals.. do these come with office by default?

I am looking to do a simulation using either our action pack or msdn.. i'm assuming any of our office 2007 msdn setups will have these necessary cals.. or is there an addon procedure just for the exchange 2007 portion?


***Secondary question:

I'm reinstalling our failed 2003 exchange server.. do i have this procedure correct?:

Reinstall the OS.. do not join to domain yet.. right click server name in ADUC, reset account.. then join rebuilt server to domain..

Install Exchange 2003 to where we used to have it (same path, but move our existing mailbox files out of there initially).. do standard install.. install latest service patch that we were using...

Then dismount the store..

Copy our mailbox files to the proper location and remount..

At this point it should be back up and running?

Do i also still need to reset all the SMTP settings that we had before.. or will those somehow get imported from the mailbox files or Active Directory?

Thanks for the help

 

[58sniper]

Outlook 2007 does come with Office 2007, so you're set there.

Logs on 80GB should be fine. You shouldn't need more than that if you're doing a full backup each day and flushing the logs.

As for the disaster recovery, I replied to your other thread.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt