System Requirements

The following items represent the minimum hardware requirements for the servers that will run the Windows Essential Business Server 2008 solution. To increase performance, availability, and redundancy for your Windows Essential Business Server 2008 servers, you should consider implementing the recommended hardware requirements. The minimum hardware requirements should be considered preliminary. All requirements are subject to change, dependent on Windows Essential Business Server 2008 quality assurance testing.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Note:
Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Standard Edition is only available as a 64-bit operating system; your server hardware must have a 64-bit processor to install and use Windows Essential Business Server 2008. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Premium Edition adds a fourth server running either 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the operating system.

All server hardware should meet the requirements established for the Windows Server 2008 Logo Program for Systems. You can learn more about these requirements by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/hwrequirements.mspx.

Component	Requirement
Processors	Systems with a Single Core CPU – x64 with a 2.5 GHz minimum clock speed Systems with a Multi Core CPU – x64 with a 1.5 GHz minimum clock speed Systems with Multiple Physical CPUs – x64 with a 1.5 GHz minimum clock speed
RAM	Management Server – 4 GB of RAM Security Server – 2 GB of RAM Messaging Server – 4 GB of RAM
Hard Disk Drives	Operating System Drive Partition – Minimum of 45 GB of free disk space Application Data Drive Partition – Minimum of 50 GB of free disk space When determining the appropriate disk space for your application data partition, you should consider all aspects of storage needs, including the Exchange Server 2007 databases, the redirection of a user’s Documents folders, and other application data. See the illustration below for a sample hard disk drive configuration. Recommended Hard Disk Configuration for Management and Messaging Servers * Eight hard disk drive bays (provides for in-server storage expansion) * Operating system stored on RAID 1 volumes - application data stored on RAID 5 volumes Recommended Hard Disk Configuration for Security Server (See Sample Hard Disk Drive Configuration below.) * Two or more hard disk drive bays * Operating system and application data stored on a single RAID 1 volume

Sample Hard Disk Configuration

Other Requirements

DVD-ROM – Must be bootable from the system BIOS or a peripheral connection such as a USB port.
Network Interface Card (NIC) – One network adapter that supports a 10 Mbps or greater link speed. Two network adapters are required for the Security Server.

Other Recommendations

Dedicated hot swap hard disk drive configured for RAID 1 or RAID 5 volume failover
Redundant power supply for each server
Hard disk speeds 10K RPM or greater
One or more additional network adapters per server at 10 Mbps or greater

Product Details

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FAQ
System Requirements

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