As long as your backend storage is good, I don't see you will have any problems, just make sure you follow the best practice guidelines that are out there.
Exchange 2007 is a great candidate for virtualisation especially as it need less IO than Exchange 2003. From experience we haven't seen any performance problems, either over Iscsi or NFS storage. Cheers Matt From: Jason Benway [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 29 April 2008 15:18 To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Exch2007 in ESX Here's a link from vmware with some information from a Dell tech about running a huge exchange environment on vmware. But these are all in controlled installs not production. http://www.savagenomads.net/2008/03/05/16000_exchange_mailboxes_1_server _-_vmware_vroom/ jb ________________________________ From: John Cook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:09 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Exch2007 in ESX E2K7 on a DC is not recommended but is supported http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx John W. Cook System Administrator Partnership For Strong Families 315 SE 2nd Ave Gainesville, Fl 32601 Office (352) 393-2741 x320 Cell (352) 215-6944 Fax (352) 393-2746 MCSE, MCTS, MCP+I,CompTIA A+, N+ From: David Lum [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:47 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Exch2007 in ESX So....if you virtualize Exchange 2007...what other systems would you run on the same ESX hosts, does it matter? My understanding Exchange 2K7 is recommended to sit on a GC designated domain controller (so it has quick access to the global catalog), but would it sit on the same box as say, an SMS, WSUS, or SQL server? Anything you WOULDN'T have it share a host with? Dave Lum - Systems Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] - (971)-222-1025 "When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands" From: Alex Fontana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:14 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Re: Exch2007 in ESX Yes, currently four mailbox servers and six CAS/HT servers, working towards a few thousand mailboxes to be migrated in the next few weeks. All running on ESX 3.5. You should get new Dell server guys if they can't quantify that statement. A properly configured VM running on a properly configured ESX server (can't speak for Hyper-V) and properly sized should see no noticeable performance hit. Just as in the physical world you gotta make sure you understand your current environment and size accordingly, with emphasize on storage and memory. There are at least a couple of whitepapers on Exchange 2007 performance on ESX; HP and maybe Dell. I would say take a look at those, test in your environment with your type of workload and use that data to make your decision. -alex On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 5:37 PM, Dennis Melahn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Anyone virtualized Exchange 2007? I'm getting mixed opinions. My Dell server guys are saying performance would suffer too much. I also have a local integrator who is a VMware and MS Gold Partner and says they virtualize everything and that because my information store is only about 25GB for approx 150 boxes I wouldn't have performance problems. Thoughts? Thanks, Dennis ~ Ninja Email Security with Cloudmark Spam Engine Gets Image Spam ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Ninja ~ _____________________________________________________________ This e-mail (including all attachments) is confidential and may be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the addressee only. If you are not the addressee, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please erase all copies of the message and its attachments and notify us immediately at [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Thank You. ~ Ninja Email Security with Cloudmark Spam Engine Gets Image Spam ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Ninja ~