Re: First Exchange Server- HW advice

Thanks for your note. The user's outlook.pst file is currently stored on a
shared network drive for backup purposes.
It sounds like you think I should partition the other 108G into two
partitions with no other use than Exchange, which is fine with me, that's
what I had planned, but didn't know if that was a good plan or not, hence my
request for advice. I will also post to the SBS group.
If you any other advice, please let me know.

Mike


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

Mike wrote:
Hi all,
I have been tasked

Verbing weirds language.

with setting up our first Exchange Server. We are
a small non-profit organization with this infrastructure. I have SBS
2003 (and yes, it has Exchange installed, but we aren't using it
currently - our e-mail is hosted by our ISP ). The SBS server is a
3.2Ghz Zeon, 2G Ram and has two logical drives (a 30G OS partition
with 15 Gig free and 108Gb unused partition on a single raid 5 with a
hot spare). Will this configuration work for Exchange 2003 on SBS?

Don't see why not - you really don't have that many users.


I have 35 users, will want to use for e-mail, shared calendaring, OWA
at least to start. If this config is OK, how would you partition the
108Gb for Exchange?

Hard to say. Where is all your users' data currently being stored? You'll
have Exchange itself installed on your system partition - but I would put
the Exchange databases & logs in a partition with no other function on the
network. You don't want someone's photos/iTunes folder to fill up all the
available space where your Exchange stores live. User/shared data should be
somewhere else...on another partition entirely, if not another drive/array.

Since E2k3 SP2 came out, Exchange Std. stores will be allowed to grow up to
75GB each (the sums of the priv*.edb and priv*.stm for the private/mailbox
store, and the pub*.edb and pub*stm for the public folders store), although
at first they'll have an 18GB limit each unless you fiddle in the registry.
.. You want to make sure you've allowed enough room for them, and set up your
mailbox quotas appropriately (defaults set at the store level) to make sure
mailboxes can't run amok. Finally, you need room for deleted item retention
(as many days as you set - I generally like at least 15). Also consider your
backups - how much can you back up onto your current media/hardware?

You will just need to figure out how much room you are likely to need based
on current & expected use. Most companies don't use the public store
anywhere near as much as the private store, note...take a look at your
current PST file sizes. You may not want to bring all that old data into
Exchange. Note that when you do cut everyone over, do not use "import" in
Outlook. Instead, create new Outlook profiles that use the Exchange mailbox
only - then open the PST file using file | open | outlook data file, and
then select items from there & copy to the relevant folders in the mailbox.
[Or use exmerge to import them centrally--but that has other requirements &
limitations.]


If this config does not seem reasonable, I would considering
purchasing a new server strictly for Exchange, but would like advice
on what to purchase specifically for Exchange, and would I go
straight to Exchange 2007 or 2003?

I don't know about integrating E2007 into an SBS2003 environment, but I
can't see why you'd need to, frankly, and it'd be quite expensive for a
nonprofit. Your existing CALs wouldn't cover it.

I suggest you post future questions in microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs -
SBS does things its own way and you need to make sure you follow its myriad
wizards.

Thanks for any advice!

Mike




.

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