This calculator is an essential part of the Exchange admin’s toolkit and I highly recommend staying up to date with new releases.

The update includes these improvements and new features:

• Added the ability to define a custom number of databases that you would like to implement in the solution.
• Added support for 2-node site resilient Database Availability Groups.
• Added 1 and 6 processor cores as selectable options.
• Improved breakdown of the activation scenarios in a site resilient solution.
• Improved breakout of the role requirements section.
• The Storage Design tab now indicates that when you select a custom RAID configuration that the calculator ignores RAID-5 and RAID-6 for 5.xK and 7.2K spindles due to performance concerns.
• Updated processor utilization results to show the processor utilization even if it is above the recommended threshold.
• Made conditional formatting improvements throughout the calculator to warn you when you have a configuration that will not work.
• Improved various cell comments.

Find out more on their blog post here or download the updated calculator here.

Related posts:

• Improved Database Integrity Checking in Exchange Server 2010 SP1
• Changing Default Mailbox Database Path in Exchange Server 2010
• Project Coconut: Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers
• SSL Certificate Trust Errors for New Thawte Certificates
• Exchange Server 2010 and the Benefits of Commercial SSL Certificates

This article Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Requirements Calculator Updated is © 2010 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

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This article Inside the Facebook data center is © 2009 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

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This article Macbook Air vs Lenovo X300 is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

• Project Coconut: Introduction
• Project Coconut: Part 1 – Getting the environment up to scratch
• Project Coconut: Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers
• Project Coconut: Part 3 – Deploying the first Exchange Server 2007 server
• Project Coconut: Part 4 – Configuring Standby Continuous Replication
• Project Coconut: Part 5 – Its mailbox migration time!
• Project Coconut: Part 6 – Finishing the job

Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 Servers

In this post in the Project Coconut series I’ll describe the process that was undertaken for sizing the hardware that will run the Exchange Server 2007 servers.

Microsoft provides extensive guidance on how to calculate your hardware requirements for Exchange Server 2007. If you are embarking on an Exchange Server 2007 project you should familiarise yourself with these resources.

• Planning processor configurations
• Planning memory configurations
• Planning storage configurations
• Mailbox Server role storage calculator

I certainly recommend you read the abovementioned resources, however here are some guidelines that I follow which outlining the bare minimum, recommended, and maximum configurations.

Note that CPU cores refer to modern, server class CPU cores (ie, not your 3 year old Pentium 4 desktop processor). Maximum figures represent the point at which you would consider adding more servers to continue scaling upwards. Although the maximum memory recommendations are below what 64-bit hardware and 64-bit Windows Server are capable of running, they represent the level at which adding more memory is not cost effective due to diminishing returns.

Client Access Server

Hub Transport Server

Mailbox Server

As there are no Unified Messaging or Edge Transport servers involved in this project I have excluded them from this post.

Multi-Role Server

Although the above guidelines are fairly straight-forward, sizing a multi-role Exchange Server 2007 server is a slightly different story. The “Typical” installation of Exchange Server 2007 installs the Client Access, Hub Transport, and Mailbox server roles.

Mailbox Server Memory Recommendations

In the tables above I mention “per-mailbox calculations” for servers that will hold the Mailbox Server role. What this means is that you plan for base amount of memory plus an amount of memory for each mailbox that will be hosted on the server.

The base amounts of memory are calculated using the Microsoft guidance here. Microsoft provides memory sizing guidance right up to the maximum (for Enterprise Edition) of 50 storage groups, but I will reproduce only the first few rows here.

Note that SP1 has some memory utilisation improvements as you scale to more storage groups compared to RTM.

In the case of Project Coconut we are planning for five storage groups, and using Exchange Server 2007 SP1, so the base memory amount is 4Gb.

To apply the per-mailbox memory sizing you use the following Microsoft guidance. Microsoft defines the different user types here.

For Project Coconut we have profiled the users as “Average”, and there are approximately 1000 of them. We also want to provide scalability up to around 1250 users. So, 1300 x 3.5Mb = 4550, divided by 1024 = 4.4Gb.

Base memory for a multi-roled server of 4Gb plus 4.4Gb for up to 1300 mailbox users and rounding it up to an even number brings us to a memory sizing of 9Gb. Both the production and standby servers will be provisioned with this amount of memory.

Storage Recommendations

The recommendations for most server roles are simple – separate the operating system from the application files, and on Hub Transport servers separate the Transport Queue from any other volumes if possible (this is more important in very large environments than it is in smaller environments).

For mailbox servers there is a lot more to consider, so have a read of my post on designing mailbox server storage.

In the next part of Project Coconut I’ll describe the process for introducing the first Exchange Server 2007 server into an existing organisation.

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This article Project Coconut: Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers is © 2008 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

After the Vista upgrade I activated the CPU/Memory utilisation gadget in the sidebar.  Over a few days I noticed that the CPU utilisation was often quite high, and would never drop below 50%.  I opened Task Manager and found that the process ZCfgSrv.exe was consuming 50% CPU at all times.

A little hunting around online and I found a notification on the Intel website that they are providing driver-only support for the 3945ABG adapter for Windows Vista at this time, and the Intel PRO/Wireless utility software is not compatible.

The solution I found was to remove the utility software but leave the driver installed.  You can do this by opening Control Panel in Vista and choosing Uninstall a Program.  Then highlight the Intel PROSet/Wireless entry in the list and choose Uninstall/Change

 When the installer loads choose Modify and then Next.  Unselect all installation options except for the Wireless LAN adapter driver (see screenshot), then click Modify.

This will remove the Intel PRO/Wireless utility software but leave the adapter driver intact.  You can then simply use the Vista networking options to manage your wireless networking.

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This article Windows Vista High CPU Utilisation By ZCfgSrv.exe is © 2007 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

The upgrade itself was fine, no errors or problems whatsoever.  After the upgrade I had to repeat the reinstallation of AVG Free 7.5 as with my earlier test upgrades.  Another application that needed updated was Daemon Tools.  Downloading the latest version (4.08 at the time of this writing) fixes the incompatibility.  I’d recommend removing or upgrading Daemon Tools first, as the installation of 4.08 after the Vista upgrade required a couple of reboots to remove the non-functioning earlier version and get the new one on.

After a few hours of poking around Vista I went to install Office 2007 and found my optical drive (NEC-6650A DVD+/-RW) didn’t work.  I tried a few reboots, tried uninstalling the device in Device Manager and letting it detect again, but still it wouldn’t work.  Eventually I found this KB article on the Microsoft website.  This solution worked perfectly first time, although only one of the two registry keys mentioned in the article were present on my laptop.

All systems go.

Related posts:

• Windows Vista High CPU Utilisation By ZCfgSrv.exe
• Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Requirements Calculator Updated
• Inside the Facebook data center
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• Project Coconut: Part 2 – Sizing the Exchange Server 2007 servers

This article Vista Upgrade and Optical Drives is © 2007 ExchangeServerPro.com

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com