Tools and Resources for Designing an Exchange 2003 System

Microsoft and hardware vendors such as HP provide sizing tools to help you estimate the size of an Exchange Server 2003 environment and load-simulation tools to test that environment. A commonly used tool is the HP ProLiant Server Sizer for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, which provides sizing guidelines for Exchange 2003 systems. Another commonly used tool is Exchange Server Load Simulator (LoadSim) 2003, which helps you perform what-if assessments on hardware to determine optimum server configuration. Each tool requires you to provide input about mail-system usage. For example, the HP ProLiant Server Sizer asks for information such as

LoadSim 2003 asks for data such as

By no means have I covered all the inputs that these tools need. I'm merely trying to provide you with a feel for the type of information needed. For more information about these tools, assessing your needs, and designing your Exchange 2003 system, check out the following resources: