Essential Business Server System Requirements

Recently I’ve had a couple people ask me about the system requirements for EBS.   As part of the Reviewers Guide we wrote up the specs below.  Caveat: These are only current for the RC0 release.

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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 https://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/hwrequirements.mspx.

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 40 GB of free disk space;

· Application Data Drive Partition – Minimum of 20 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 figure 1 for a sample hard disk drive configuration.

Recommended Hard Disk Configuration for Management and Messaging Servers

o Eight hard disk drive bays (provides for in-server storage expansion);

o Operating system stored on RAID 1 volumes - application data stored on RAID 5 volumes.

Recommended Hard Disk Configuration for Security Server

o Two or more hard disk drive bays;

o Operating System and Application Data stored on a single RAID 1 volume

Figure 1 – Sample Hard Disk Drive 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 15K RPM or greater.

· One or more additional network adapters per server at 100Mbps or greater.

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