Exchange Server 2007: Platforms, Editions, and Versions

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) are available in two server editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. For more information about these editions, including descriptions and comparisons, see the following Microsoft Office Web site: Exchange. According to this site, the primary version differences are:

• Only Enterprise Edition can scale to 50 databases per server. Standard Edition is limited to 5 databases per server.

• In a production environment, only Enterprise Edition is supported in a Microsoft Windows failover cluster. Standard Edition is not supported in a Windows failover cluster in production. Therefore, single copy clusters (SCCs) and cluster continuous replication (CCR) environments are only supported on Enterprise Edition. When you deploy Exchange 2007 in a failover cluster, an Enterprise Edition license is required for each node on which Exchange 2007 is installed.

Even though Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2007 SP1 are available in two edition offerings, these are licensing editions that are defined by a product key. There is a single set of binary files for each platform (one for x64 systems and one for x86 systems), and the same binary files are used for both editions. When you enter a valid license product key, the supported edition for the server is established. See the "Evaluations and Product Keys" section later in this topic for other important information about product keys.

Exchange 2007 is also available in two client access license (CAL) editions, which are also called Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. You can mix and match the server editions with the CAL editions. For example, you can use Enterprise Edition CALs against Standard Edition. Similarly, you can use Standard Edition CALs against Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition CAL is an additive CAL. This means that you buy the Standard Edition CAL, and then add an Enterprise Edition CAL on top of it. An Enterprise Edition CAL provides you with the features listed in the last column of the Exchange 2007 CAL Offerings table. Note that some of the listed features are not available as retail purchases, and can be purchased only through a volume license program. When you are ready to buy Exchange 2007, see the following Microsoft Office Web site: Exchange.

32-Bit vs. 64-Bit Version of Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 RTM and SP1 are available in two platform versions: the 64-bit version is for live production environments and the 32-bit version is for non-production environments (such as labs, training facilities, demos, and evaluation environments). Only the 64-bit version can be purchased because you cannot run 32-bit Exchange 2007 servers in production.

There are exceptions with respect to production and non-production use of the 32-bit platform because Microsoft does allow minimal supported use of the 32-bit version in production environments:

• You can use the 32-bit version in production to extend your Active Directory directory service schema. For detailed steps about how to prepare Active Directory for Exchange 2007, see How to Prepare Active Directory and Domains.

• You can use the 32-bit version of the release to manufacturing (RTM) management tools in production to administer Exchange 2007 servers from Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.

• You can use the 32-bit version of the Service Pack 1 (SP1) management tools on Windows Server 2008 or on Windows Vista. Support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is available only with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1. However, you cannot use the SP1 management tools (32-bit or 64-bit) on Windows Vista to remotely manage a clustered mailbox server in a failover cluster. This is because:

  • Windows Server does not support cross-operating system management of failover clusters. Thus, Windows Vista cannot be used to manage a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster, and neither Windows Server 2003 nor Windows XP can be used to remotely manage a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster.

  • Remote management of a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster requires the installation of the Failover Cluster Management tools, which currently do not exist for Windows Vista. Thus, Windows Vista cannot be used to remotely manage a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster.

For more information about managing mixed versions of clustered mailbox servers, see Upgrading Clustered Mailbox Servers to Exchange 2007 SP1 or later.

Although the 64-bit version can be Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition, the 32-bit version is only Standard Edition. SCC and CCR are only supported in production on the Enterprise Edition of Exchange 2007. However, Microsoft has made an exception in the 32-bit version code to allow SCC and CCR to be used for non-production use on the 32-bit version, even though the 32-bit version is Standard Edition. This means that you can set up a 32-bit test lab for evaluating or testing SCC and CCR. Because it is 32-bit, you can create the non-production environments in a Microsoft Virtual Server environment for your lab or demos. For a video demonstration of CCR that uses a virtual environment, see Video series - Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR). For a video demonstration of SCR that uses a virtual environment, see Video Series: Exchange 2007 SP1 Standby Continuous Replication (SCR).

What Is Missing from the 32-Bit Version

In addition to the missing Exchange Management Console interface for entering a product key as described in "Evaluations and Product Keys" later in this topic, two other features are not available in the 32-bit version of Exchange 2007:

• Automatic anti-spam updates from Microsoft Update. Only a licensed 64-bit version of Exchange 2007 can get automatic anti-spam updates from Microsoft Update.

• Large numbers of storage groups and databases. You can have a maximum of five databases per server in as many as five storage groups on the 32-bit version.

Exchange 2007 and Virtualization

Exchange 2007 SP1 is supported in production in a hardware virtualization environment, provided that specific criteria are met. To review these criteria, along with the Microsoft support policy for running Exchange 2007 SP1 in production in a hardware virtualization environment, see Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments.

Evaluations and Product Keys

When you install Exchange 2007, it is unlicensed and referred to as a Trial Edition. Unlicensed (Trial Edition) servers appear as Standard Edition, and they are not eligible for support from Microsoft Product Support Services. The Trial Edition expires 120 days after the date of installation. When you start the Exchange Management Console, if you have any unlicensed Exchange 2007 servers in your organization, Exchange displays a list of all unlicensed Exchange 2007 servers and the number of days that are remaining until the Trial Edition expires. If you have expired unlicensed Exchange 2007 servers, you also see a separate warning for each expired server. No loss of functionality will occur when the Trial Edition expires, so you can maintain lab, demo, training, and other non-production environments beyond 120 days without having to reinstall the Trial Edition of Exchange 2007. You can even upgrade an expired Trial Edition of Exchange 2007 RTM to SP1.

Product keys can be used for the same edition key swaps and upgrades only, and they cannot be used for downgrades. You can use a valid product key to go from the evaluation version (Trial Edition) to either Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition. You can also use a valid product key to go from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition. You can also license the server again using the same edition product key. For example, if you had two Standard Edition servers with two keys, but you accidentally used the same key on both servers, you can change the key for one of them to be the other key that you were issued. You can take these actions without having to reinstall or reconfigure anything. After you enter the product key, the edition corresponding to that product key will be reflected.

You cannot use product keys to downgrade from Enterprise Edition to Standard Edition, nor can you use them to revert to the Trial Edition. These types of downgrades can only be done by uninstalling Exchange 2007, reinstalling Exchange 2007, and entering the correct product key.

You can upgrade from the Trial Edition to the retail version by purchasing the appropriate licenses and by entering the product key that you get when you make the purchase. You can find the product key on the Exchange 2007 DVD case. It is a 25-character alphanumeric string, grouped in sets of five characters separated by hyphens. Step-by-step instructions for entering your product key can be found in How to Enter the Product Key. These steps include instructions for entering the key using either the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell. However, in the 32-bit version, there is no Exchange Management Console interface for this because you cannot purchase 32-bit licenses.

By using either the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell, you can see what edition you are running. By using the Exchange Management Shell, you can also see how many days, hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds are left on the 120-day trial period. Use the Get-ExchangeServer cmdlet and look for the Edition and RemainingTrialPeriod values.

Exchange 2007 versioning

For a list of Exchange 2007 service packs and Update Rollups, see Exchange Server Build Numbers and Release Dates.

For More Information

For more information about Exchange 2007 servicing, see Exchange 2007 Servicing.

For more information about Exchange Server 2010 , see Exchange 2010: Editions and Versions.

For more information about legacy Exchange Versions, see Exchange Server Build Numbers and Release Dates.

For more information about Exchange support, see Exchange Server Supportability Matrix.