You need to rephrase that statement ... Microsoft does not recommend or support Exchange 5.5 or 2K on any NAS.

We are in the process of upgrading our entire Exchange site. We currently run very old multi-processor servers and serve about 400 - 500 users on each machine.

I was tasked to recommend an upgrade path ... after hearing Microsoft's recommendations and taking into account that we are Microsoft Premier Support customer, I recommended a SAN solution. My recommendations were ignored and as the Exchange Admin, I am now being forced to implement a NAS solution.

I have nothing against the Filer or NetApp. The product is wonderful. I do however, realize that the Exchange database sucks and when you talk to it through the Windows "redirector" you are asking for trouble.

The decision should be based on how comfortable you are with Exchange and the Filer and also if you are willing to run Exchange in an unsupported mode (from Microsoft - NetApp has some arrangement with IBM Global for Exchange support if you need it after putting your system into an unsupported mode). I talked to several references and they all had nothing but good things to say. I'll have some personal stories to share in the next month or two.

In all the meetings and arguing that lead up to the decision there was one statement that just floored me. It was at a meeting where I am defending my position to use SAN technology and not NAS. Someone in the meeting turns to me and says "I can't believe you are going to let Microsoft dictate your hardware requirements". I was floored and replied "a.) As the author of the software in question, I figured they would have the best knowledge on where to run it and more importantly b.) we (as an organization) let Microsoft dictate the software that we run (we only run Microsoft products, we can only develop in Microsoft languages, etc) so I figured if we follow like lambs in one case ... why not the other??"

Remember, before you flame, I am in no way slamming the NetApp or the Filer in general ... I was just trying to keep the site "supportable".

Scott Waters US Army HQ Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (USAHQSBCCOM) scott.waters@sbccom.apgea.army.mil

-----Original Message----- From: Rafi Mimon [mailto:rmimon@vyyo.co.il] Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 9:12 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Exchange 5.5 on Filer

Hello all, I'm thinking of using the Filer with Exchange 5.5. I have one F740 with ONTAP 6.0.2R1. Microsoft does not recommend to use any NAS system for the exchange database files, so I would like to hear from you guys, did you encountered any problems? should I connect the Exchange server and the Filer Back to back or to the LANs backbone?

Rafi Mimon VYYO.LTD. E-mail :rmimon@vyyo.co.il

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