Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments

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As you know Hardware Virtualization software enables you to run multiple, separate operating systems concurrently on a single physical machine. Please find the Microsoft support policies enclosed here for running currently supported versions of Microsoft Exchange Server in production in a hardware Virtualization environment & recommendations for running Exchange Server in production in a hardware Virtualization environment.

Apart from Microsoft based Hardware Virtualization, please find more details about the Microsoft support policy for third-party hardware virtualization software:

When i was reading this article from Virtualization team, i got more input some related information. S o, what's new... Thoughts on technical support..

As of today, you'll see that we're expanding tech support policy for (initial) 31 server applications for customers that run these apps on WS08 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server or any other validated hypervisor (type 1 or 2). The nut of it is ... customers will be able to get the same level of tech support for virtualized workloads that they get today with non-virtualized workloads.

The kicker here, and where many journos reported inaccurate information, is that 3rd-party vendors' hypervisors must first pass the validation test before customers can get cooperative support from Microsoft and that vendor. For example, it was reported that VMware signed an agreement to participate in the Server Virtualization Validation Program. That much is true. However, it doesn't mean that cooperative support is now in place. First, ESX Server must go through and pass the validation test. Once validated, they'll be added to KB article 944987, where we list "support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software." Today only Novell is listed, and that's due to the broader technical collaboration agreement in place between the companies.

The other thing to note is that the server application teams have posted configurations that will be supported running on validated hypervisors. For example, the Exchange team posted a blog about their policy, which can be summarized as: 

  • Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 is supported on Hyper-V and other validated hypervisors when deployed according to the guidelines published on TechNet.