Planning for Exchange 2010

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

The topics in this section can help you plan the deployment of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 into your production environment. See "Establish a Test Environment" later in this topic about installing Exchange 2010 in a test environment prior to deploying into production.

Use the following links to access the information to help you make your planning decisions. After you have completed the planning phase and are ready to deploy, see Deploying Exchange 2010.

• Exchange 2010 System Requirements
  Before you install Exchange 2010, make sure that your organization meets the system requirements.

• Planning Active Directory
  Learn about Active Directory requirements and its interaction with your Exchange organization.

• Exchange 2010 Deployment Permissions Reference
  Consult this topic to learn about the permissions that are required to set up an Exchange 2010 organization.

• Understanding Disjoint Namespace Scenarios
  This topic discusses the supported scenarios for deploying Exchange 2010 in a domain that has a disjoint namespace.

• Planning Roadmap for New Deployments
  Read this topic to get an overview of the things you need to consider before you begin a new Exchange deployment.

• Exchange 2003 - Planning Roadmap for Upgrade and Coexistence
  This topic provides an overview of the things you need to consider before you deploy Exchange 2010 into an Exchange Server 2003 organization.

• Exchange 2007 - Planning Roadmap for Upgrade and Coexistence
  This topic provides an overview of the things you need to consider before you deploy Exchange 2010 into an Exchange 2007 organization.

• Mailbox Server Storage Design
  This group of topics discusses storage design, is a critical piece of a successful Exchange 2010 Mailbox server role deployment.

• Exchange Network Port Reference
  Use this topic to find information about ports, authentication, and encryption for all data paths used by Exchange 2010.

• Planning for Internal and Third-Party Applications
  This topic links to important information about Application Programming Interfaces that are available for applications that use Exchange 2010.

Establish a Test Environment

Before installing Exchange 2010 for the first time, we recommend that you install it in an isolated test environment. This approach reduces the risk of end-user downtime and negative ramifications to the production environment.

The test environment will act as your “proof of concept” for your new Exchange 2010 design and make it possible to move forward or roll back any implementations before deploying into your production environments. Having an exclusive test environment for validation and testing allows you to do pre-installation checks for your future production environments. By installing in a test environment first, we believe that your organization will have a better likelihood of success in a full production implementation.

For many organizations, the costs of building a test lab may be high because of the need to duplicate the production environment. To reduce the hardware costs associated with a prototype lab, we recommend the use of virtualization by using Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V technologies. Hyper-V enables server virtualization, allowing multiple virtual operating systems to run on a single physical machine.

For more detailed information about Hyper-V, see Virtualization with Hyper-V. For information about Microsoft support of Exchange 2010 in production on hardware virtualization software, see "Hardware Virtualization" in Exchange 2010 System Requirements.