Brainlitter » Heads Up – Exchange 2007 cannot be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 (Note “R2”)

Heads Up – Exchange 2007 cannot be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 (Note “R2”)

This is ridiculous actually but it is important to note, for any upcoming installs. At this writing, with Windows Server 2008 R2 due out in the next couple of months (it RTM’d July 22, 2009), Exchange 2007 is not supported and there are no plans to support it (so Exchange 2007 needs to be installed on Windows Server 2008/2003, not 2008 R2).

 

Seems a very strange decision but apparently it is because the Exchange 2010 team is ‘too busy’ to fix support issues to make it work on R2.

 

I sure hope Exchange 2010 brings all the functionality and ease of use we lost by going to 2007 (I understand the scalability needs/additions in 2007 but besides that, what a letdown 2007 was, particularly for the Small Business).

 

Anyways, a heads up, when installing Exchange 2007 on new clients (not SBS 2008). Do not install Windows Server 2008 R2, make sure you get your paws on Windows Server 2008.

 

References:

Further to this, it appears the same concern exists for using older versions of WSS (WSS RTM or SP1), which also means an impact to MOSS. So, ensure you are installing SP2 for WSS/MOSS if you are installing on Windows Server 2008 R2. Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;962216. If you are planning to upgrade from Windows Server 2008 to R2, you’ll need to uninstall WSS.