Want to run Exchange Server 2007 SP2 on Windows Server 2008 R2? Forget it

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Sometimes little things just pop out of the page, and hit you round the head. This official Microsoft TechNet forum, for example.

On there, “Zhengwen Zhu MSFT” stated: “There is NO support for any Exchange Server 2007 SP2 components (any roles, including admin tools) installed on Windows Server 2008 R2.

“Exchange Server 2007 SP2 will not even install on it – the pre-req check will fail during installation.”

Not even for admin tools? Something is clearly seriously amiss. I checked this with Microsoft UK, who said that it’s something to do with Server 2008 R2 having a new version of IIS (7.5) and PowerShell (v2).

I have asked for further clarification – clearly this is a barking mad set of dependencies if it has broken Exchange Server, arguably Microsoft’s premier server platform.

It could be that Microsoft simply hasn’t had enough time to test Exchange Server 2007 SP2 on Windows Server 2008 R2, and has decided to skip it – after all, Exchange Server 2010 is apparantly just around the corner.

However, you should be aware of this limitation. And factor it into your deployment plans. I confess I am somewhat shocked at this news, given that deploying R2 of Server is a fairly straightforward decision but moving from Exchange Server 2007 to 2010 will require real planning and consideration.