Specifications

Best Practices for Virtualizing and Managing Exchange 2013

Virtual Machine Configuration

In addition to configuring and establishing the host server as a virtualization server with Hyper-V, it is

important to design detailed architecture and system specifications for building virtual machines for

expected workloads. It is also necessary to plan for needed resources for the virtual machines. The

number of virtual machines you can run on any individual server depends on the server’s hardware

configuration and the anticipated workloads.

General Supportability

Before you begin to virtualize Exchange 2013, it is important to understand the general supportability of

the products, as well as what combinations of products will ensure that if you encounter an issue,

Microsoft Customer Support Services will be able to support you through the process fully.

Best Practices and Recommendations

Hypervisor support for running Exchange 2013 in a virtual machine:

 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V | Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

 Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V | Hyper-V Server 2012

 Any third-party hypervisor certified under the Server Virtualization Validation Program

Exchange 2013 is not supported on:

 Virtual Machines running on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services

Guest operating system that is running Exchange 2013 roles must be either:

 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

 Windows Server 2012

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

Consolidating an application’s workloads can help to improve the efficiency and agility of that application.

It also can provide better control and flexibility over computing resources in terms of their placement,

sizing, and overall utilization. Consolidating Exchange workloads requires proper planning because every

element of a virtual Exchange Server deployment should comply with Exchange licensing requirements. It

is also important to account for other software products that are prerequisites for installing Exchange

Server, including Windows Server.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) toolkit can help organizations to properly plan their

Exchange 2013 virtualization, speed up migration to a virtual environment (Hyper-V), and start realizing

the benefits of virtualization. The MAP toolkit provides a complete software tracker that collects and