Frequently Asked Questions about Exchange Server 2007

General Questions


Q. What is Exchange Server 2007?

A. Exchange Server 2007 is the next version of Exchange Server, the industry's leading server for e-mail, calendaring, and unified messaging. The release of Exchange Server 2007 is closely aligned with the Microsoft Office 2007 wave of products, which together deliver a best-in-class enterprise messaging and collaboration solution.

Q. What’s new in Exchange Server 2007?

A. Exchange Server 2007 provides built-in protection technologies to help keep the e-mail system up and running and insulated from outside threats while allowing employees to work virtually anywhere, using clients such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices. Exchange Server 2007 makes it easier for IT administrators to deliver these new capabilities to their organizations in a manageable and cost-effective manner. To learn more, read the product overview and explore the new features and enhancements.

Q. How does Exchange Server 2007 integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007?

A. Outlook 2007 provides the most complete e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks functionality available in an Exchange-compatible client. When used with Exchange Server 2007, Outlook 2007 users benefit from new features such as the Scheduling Assistant, which automates time-consuming meeting and resource scheduling, to Managed Folders, which serve to facilitate compliance with internal and regulatory policies. To learn more about how Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook 2007 work together, see Better Together: Do More with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. You can find more information about Outlook 2007 on the Office online site.

Q. What are the hardware and software pre-requisites for Exchange Server 2007?

A. For specific hardware and software requirements please see System Requirements.

Q. What languages is Exchange Server 2007 available in?

A. Exchange Server 2007 provides a localized experience in many languages. For details, review Supported Languages.

Q. Where can I find Unified Messaging language packs?

A. You can download Unified Messaging language packs on the Exchange Server TechCenter.

Q. Which PBX systems are supported with Exchange Server 2007 (and what gateways should be used)?

A. You can find detailed information on PBX support and Unified Messaging on the Exchange Server TechCenter.

Q. Can I try Exchange Server 2007?

A. Yes, the evaluation software is available now. To get the software and learn more about the evaluation program, see Exchange Server 2007 Evaluation Software.

Q. Will Exchange Server 2007 be part of Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS)?

A. Yes, Exchange Server 2007 will be an integral part of the "Longhorn" (code name for the next Windows release) version of Small Business Server (SBS). SBS is expected to be released six to twelve months following the release of the "Longhorn" version of Microsoft Windows Server.

Q. How can I acquire Exchange Server 2007?

A. Visit the How to Buy section for more information on pricing and licensing, including Frequently Asked Questions about licensing.

Q. What is the upgrade process to Exchange Server 2007? Where can I get more detailed technical information on upgrading?

A. When upgrading to Exchange Server 2007, you cannot perform an in-place server upgrade on an existing Exchange server. Instead, you must install a new Exchange Server 2007 system into the existing organization, and then move the required data to the new server. Exchange Server 2007 will also support mixed environments that include Exchange 2000 Server and/or Exchange Server 2003, allowing for an easier and more gradual transition. You can find more detailed information about upgrading in the product documentation on the Exchange Server TechCenter, including the upgrade path from Exchange Server 5.5.

Q. What is happening with Public Folders?

A. Public Folders are included and supported in Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft has communicated that future releases of Exchange Server may not include public folders. If you use Public Folders, read the Exchange Team Blog on the topic of public folders for more guidance.

64-bit

Q. Why did Microsoft make the decision to offer Exchange Server 2007 as a 64-bit application?

A. Exchange has been operating within the same 32-bit architecture for the past 10 years, since Exchange 4.0. The messaging environment has evolved over time into a mission-critical application for most businesses today, and demands placed on messaging systems will continue to grow. We witness this growth through the increase of e-mail traffic and larger attachments that now require larger mailboxes to store these messages. Users are also accessing their e-mail in more ways, such as with mobile devices, through Web browsers using Outlook Web Access, and other applications, including Microsoft Office Communicator, MSN desktop search, and Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications.

Trends indicate that demands on messaging systems will continue to grow and 64-bit servers provide the system architecture to meet these demands while reducing costs within organizations through server and disk storage consolidations. With a larger addressable space, the Exchange servers can utilize more memory thereby reducing the required input/output per user (IOPS), enabling the use of larger disks as well as low cost storage such as SATA2 drives. Testing at Microsoft has shown an IOPS decrease of approximately 70 percent with Exchange Server 2007 on 64-bit hardware. Early customer deployments have been able to directly translate this into an increased utilization of current drives in their storage area networks (SAN) as well as new direct attached storage (DAS) topologies, thus significantly reducing their storage costs, which make up roughly 80 percent of hardware capital costs today.

Q. Why isn't Microsoft also delivering a 32-bit version of Exchange Server 2007?

A. Exchange Server 2007 is designed to be a stable, reliable enterprise messaging platform that delivers the fundamentals of e-mail and calendaring while providing innovative new capabilities. These new capabilities make the messaging system more cost effective and scalable for your organization and at the same time more productive for users accessing the system. Simply put, given the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft could not guarantee a high-quality 32-bit version.

Q. Which 64-bit processors will be supported by Exchange Server 2007?

A. Exchange Server 2007 will support servers with x64 processors. Most new servers today ship with processors from Intel and AMD that include this x64 support, called Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) by Intel and AMD64 by AMD. Exchange Server 2007 will not offer support for Itanium (IA-64) processors, which are intended for more processor-intensive database and business applications.

Q. Will I have to buy new hardware to run Exchange Server 2007 since it is a 64-bit application?

A. Exchange Server 2007 does require hardware and an operating system that are 64-bit. If you are running 64-bit hardware in your current messaging environment, you will not have to buy additional hardware. Note that Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 can be installed atop 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2000 or Windows Server 2003 on x64-based hardware, provided the hardware will work with 32-bit versions of Windows Server. For more information, read Exchange Server 2007 Processor and Memory Recommendations on the Exchange Server TechCenter.

Q. Will I need Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 to run Exchange Server 2007?

A. Yes, to deploy Exchange Server 2007, you will need an x64 edition of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2. Volume-licensing customers are free to exchange their 32-bit version of Windows for the 64-bit version at any time, using their media kits.

Q. Will Exchange Server 2007 require 64-bit clients?

A. Exchange Server 2007 will not require 64-bit clients; 32-bit clients (such as Outlook) will be able to connect without issue to Exchange Server 2007 servers.

Q. Are there any known issues with migrating third-party 32-bit applications to 64-bit?

A. Most third-party 32-bit applications that work with Exchange Server 2003 will continue to function with Exchange Server 2007. Exceptions include applications that rely on 32-bit drivers that are not compatible with x64 systems and applications that call application programming interfaces (APIs) that are not included in Exchange Server 2007.

Frequently Asked Questions about Exchange Server 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2007/evaluate/topquestions.mspx

How to Recover a Lost Exchange Server

This topic explains how to recover from a server loss using the /m:RecoverServer switch on the setup command. Almost all the settings for a computer running

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 are stored in the Active Directory directory service. The /m:RecoverServer switch rebuilds an Exchange server with the same name and settings, using the information in Active Directory.

If Setup /m:RecoverServer encounters an error during a server recovery and setup fails, it is possible that running /m:RecoverServer again may also fail. If running Setup /m:RecoverServer again is unsuccessful, you may encounter the following situations:

- Not all server roles are fully recovered.
- Setup fails to recover the remaining roles because the server contains configured roles.
- Uninstalling the remaining roles fails because they failed during disaster recovery efforts, and no other action may be attempted until disaster recovery succeeds.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123496.aspx

Update: Exchange 2007 Help files

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help

The Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 SP1 features, tasks, and administration procedures.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Shell Help

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Management Shell Help file helps you use cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to perform day-to-day administration of Exchange 2007. You can view help in the Exchange Management Shell by using the Get-Help cmdlet. This Help file applies to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) version of Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 VHD

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 VHD

Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 as a pre-configured VHD and start evaluating Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 today!Overview The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd. This download enables you to evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is designed to reduce the growing cost and complexity of managing a corporate messaging system by providing more control for IT administrators, more value and expanded inbox access for end users, and increased security and compliance for the organization as a whole. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 provides built-in protection technologies to help keep the e-mail system up and running and better protected from outside threats while allowing employees to work from wherever they are using a variety of clients including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 makes it easier for IT to deliver these new capabilities to their organizations by making the messaging environment easier to manage and more cost efficient. This fully functional pre-configured VHD provides you with a trial software that will automatically expire after 30 days. This is a preconfigured virtual machine contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. A virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XPA virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines. Please refer to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 System requirements page here.In addition to the System Requirements for the virtualization product, you will need additional disk and memory resources for running the virtual machine. This VHD is pre-configured to use approximately 10GB of hard disk space and approximately 1024MB of memory.
Instructions In order to use this evaluation package you will need to have Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on a physical machine. If you do not have Virtual Server installed you can get this product free of charge from www.microsoft.com/virtualserver. Details of how to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 are included in the download and documentation that accompanies the product.You will also find a readme document as a part of the download. Please refer to this for additional details on how to extract and use the VHD as a part of the download.

Exchange 2007 Server Sizing Resources

Exchange 2007 Server Sizing Resources

Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server Role Storage Requirements Calculator spreadsheet
Exchange Server 2007: Platforms, Editions, and Versions
Exchange 2007 system requirements
Planning processor configurations for Exchange Server 2007
Planning memory configurations for Exchange Server 2007
Planning storage configurations for Exchange Server 2007 and storage validation
Planning Server Role Ratios for Exchange Server 2007
Determining the Number of Users an Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging Server Can Support
Planning for a Simple Exchange Organization
Planning for a Standard Exchange Organization
Planning for a Large Exchange Organization

Planning for a Complex Exchange Organization
Configuring, validating and monitoring your Exchange 2007 storage
TechNet Webcast: Storage Sizing and Testing for Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Dell Exchange 2007 Advisor Tool