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Can you help me with my capacity planning?

I've been asked to put together hardware requirements for an Microsoft Exchange 2010 installation for 400 users. Can someone point me in the direction of resources that could help me size the servers?

I'll need the OWA portion to be on its own server so that it can be put into the DMZ and was thinking that we should have two servers for the exchange cluster backend, but I don't know where to start on the hardware requirements for these servers.

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lokelo
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  • What makes/models do you currently buy and what's your budget, both in terms of space/power/heats and £$€. – Chopper3 Mar 04 '12 at 19:43
  • Remember to size disc accordingly. OWA in DMZ wont work - OWA needs integrated security, be part of the domain. But you can put a reverse proxy into the DMZ. – TomTom Mar 04 '12 at 19:45

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Start here with Microsoft's baseline recommendations: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx

I usually virtualize my Exchange installations.. But they're often 150 users or less. If you do use dedicated hardware, start with one or two midrange 4 or 6-core CPUs (e.g. Intel E5620 or greater). You'll also need 16GB or more of RAM (following the 4GB + 30MB/mailbox rule), or follow Microsoft's RAM guidelines. A lot of this will depend on how your users interact with the mail system. Also the profiles of the various types of users matter.

The type and amount of storage are a function of your specific environment. If using direct-attached storage, Enterprise or midline/nearline SAS disks are good. Avoid SATA if you can.

Be sure to plan for an appropriate backup solution, as well as journaling/archiving if needed.

ewwhite
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