Jun 13
TechEd: Exchange
Is Exchange supported as a Virtual Machine?
Well, not necessarily, and not just on any platform. But, this is good news! Microsoft’s initial testing of Exchange 2007 SP1 roles has been very positive. Of the roles tested, Client Access, Hub Transport and Edge Transport all tested within the supported range on Microsoft’s Hypervisor (Hyper-V). But hold on, it’s not supported yet. The Exchange team has committed to providing guidance to customers within 60 days of Hyper-V’s release.
Now, we know the software will run within a Virtualized environment, but the big question is, will we still get the same response from PSS? “It’s running on VM, this call will be best efforts only”. This scares clients; however, I can safely say that we have never let this roadblock end a virtualized deployment of Exchange.
Guidance:
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W2K8/Exchange 2007 SP1 only!
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No Dynamic VHDs
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Exchange storage should be on disk that does not contain guest OS VHDs
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Exchange storage must be fixed VHD, SCSI pass-through or iSCSI
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To do this, present the LUN to the parent, and present as pass-through disks.
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Use dedicated NIC, no Virtual Network switch when using iSCSI with Jumbo Frames
Supported Exchange Design:
Known Issues:
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Unified Messaging server role
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There are problems with real time voice (not likely to be supported)
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No NLB on Synthetic NIC’s
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KB Fix is in the works
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No Hardware VSS/VDS support
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2TB Limit on VM Disks
C/D/H specializes in VM and Exchange. We know what roles in every environment can be virtualized and have deployed fully virtualized environments (including the mailbox role); we know the appropriate VM configuration disk I/O issues can be resolved.