Support & guidance for Exchange resource forests

Question

We're currently utilising WebsitePanel in conjunction with a Server 2008 R2 forest w/ Exchange Server 2010 in Hosted Mode. We're looking to migrate to Exchange Server 2010 SP2 (Native Mode) in the near future, however, I was curious as to whether Microsoft provides any guidance or recommendations as to the usage of a resource forest type configuration for Exchange Server 2010, especially as relevant to a cloud deployment with multi-tenant capabilities.

Leading on from this, does WebsitePanel support management of such multi-forest deployments?

Apologies in advance if this is documented, but if so, I haven't been able to locate it.

Answer 1

The last page before Appendix in Multi-Tenancy_and_Hosting_Guidance_For_Exchange_Server_2010_SP2.docx, updated in July 2012:

Migration From Other Exchange Hosting Solutions

Microsoft has created documentation to assist in the migration from Exchange 2010 /Hosting mode or HMC to Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2.

Exchange 2010 /Hosting to Exchange 2010 SP2

This document is available at the following location:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=242017

HMC to Exchange Server 2010 SP2

This document is available at the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28714

Multi-Tenant Scale Guidance

This document is available at the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28565

---

-- Radek Dolezel

Answer 2

Thanks for your response. We are aware of these documents and will be consulting them closely during our planned migration but there doesn't appear to be any information in them pertinent to my question re: usage of resource forests in multi-tenant environments (e.g. best-practice) and WebSitePanel support.

Answer 3

Please note the following part:

"Microsoft does not support an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2010 /Hosting to Exchange Server 2010 SP2. The only supported scenario is to deploy Exchange Server 2010 SP2 into a new Active Directory forest, and then migrate user accounts, mailboxes, and other resources from the Exchange 2010 /Hosting forest to the new Exchange 2010 SP2 forest."

I am afraid nobody tried to use resource forests with WSP. It would make complicated things even more complicated. We are preparing migration from our HMC3.5 self-made control panel to WSP and I cannot imagine target Active Directory bigger then one domain forest.

---

-- Radek Dolezel