Datasheet

6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING EXCHANGE SERVER 2010
Certainly this is true for hardware that has been in production for more than three or four
years. Add to this the fact that there is no ‘‘in-place’’ upgrade from Exchange 2000, 2003, or
2007 to Exchange Server 2010.
The good news is that most se rver-class hardware that has been purchased since the end of
2005 or later probably already includes the x64 processor extensions that Windows 2008 x64
requires. If you have existing hardware you w ant to use with Exchange 2010, confirm with
your vendor that it will run Windows 2008 x64.
Is the decision to move to the x64 memory architecture a bold move? Is the Exchange team
forging the way to more robust applications? Well, to a certain degree, yes, but the move
to the 64-bit architecture is more out of need than the desire to forge a bold, modern path.
Anyone who has supported an older version of Exchange Server with a large number of
mailboxes knows that Exchange is constrained by the amount of RAM that it can access and
that Exchange significantly taxes the disk I/O system. Further, as Exchange Server scaled t o
support more connections, limitations in the x86 operating system kernel also began t o surface.
The number one reason that the x64 processor extensions are required is to provide
Exchange Server with access to more than just a few gigabytes of RAM. With more RAM
available, Exchange caching is more efficient and thus reduces the I/O requirements that
are placed on the disk subsystem. More RAM also helps provide the improved scalability
and features that organizations require, such as improved high availability, larger mailboxes,
messaging records management features, improved message content security, transport rules,
unified messaging integration, and improved journaling. The bottom line: the x64 instruction
set for processors means more RAM for applications.
If you are not sure whether your existing hardware supports the x64 extensions, you can
check in a number of ways. One approach is to check with the hardware vendor regarding
x64 for your server hardware. Another way, if the computer is already running Windows, is
to get a handy little program called CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com. Figure 1.1 shows the CPU-Z
program.
Figure 1.1
Using CPU-Z to identify
the CPU type