Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Microsoft maintains a list of minimum hardware requirements to install Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft recommends the following minimum hardware requirements for Exchange Server 2007:

Processor:

• Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T). or
• AMD Opteron or AMD Athlon 64 processor, which supports AMD64 platform.

Memory:

• 2GB of RAM per server plus 5MB per user minimum.
  

Disk space:

• At least 1.2GB on the hard disk where Exchange Server 2007 will be installed.
• 200MB on the system drive
  

Paging file size:

• Page File Size should be equal to the amount of RAM in the Server plus 10 MB.
  

Note:

• That Inter Itanium IA64 Processors are NOT SUPPORTED.
• These hardware requirements from Microsoft are the bare minimum and should not be used in best-practice scenarios. In addition, hardware requirements can change because of features and functionality required by the company, for example, the implementation of Unified Messaging voice mail services or clustering on an Exchange 2007 server can require more memory

Infrastructure Requirements for Exchange Server 2007

Exchange Server 2007 has the following infrastructure requirements:

• The Schema Master Domain Controller must have Windows Server 2003 SP 1 or Windows Server 2003 R2 Installed.
• Global Catalog Server used by Exchange Server 2007 must be running Windows Server 2003 SP 1 or Windows Server 2003 R2 Installed.
• Active Directory Domain Functional Level must be Windows 2000 Native or higher for all domains in the Active Directory Forest where you will install Exchange Server 2007 or have mailbox-enabled users.
• Forest Functional Level must be Windows Server 2003 Functional Level.
• No Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Servers should be in the Exchange Organization and the Exchange Organization must be in Native Mode.
• Domain Name System (DNS) is configured correctly in the Active Directory Forest.
• Active Directory is prepared for the Exchange Server 2007.
• WINS is not required anymore for Exchange Server 2007 Installation, operation and management.
  

Exchange Server 2007 System Requirements

Exchange 2007 has the following requirements for Installation:

• Windows Server 2003 – 64-Bit (or Windows Server 2003 R2 – 64-Bit) as Operating System.
• .Net Framework 2.0
• Microsoft Management Console (MMC) v 3.0
• Microsoft PowerShell v 1.0.
• Windows Security Updates.
  

For each and every Exchange Server 2007 which will be deployed under the Production network, all the above software and updates must be installed prior to install Exchange Server 2007. You will not be able to proceed with Exchange Server 2007 Installation on any server if one of the system requirements was not installed on the server.