Comments on: How many servers needed for this Exchange 2007 setup?

By: jbsema

jbsema — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:59 +0000

Dear Derek, Thank you for your comment!

Normally i have Cisco ASA 5510 series as a firewall installed to my network, i don’t know if it can help me to in anyway and i have Windows server 2008 standard edition! I will have like 15 users to be connected to Ms exchange server 2007. If you suggest me to have another server which service your prefer to put into ? because i have another Desktop running Linux maybe which can help me! Any idea about that?

By: Derek Kuhr

Derek Kuhr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:03:39 +0000

As a quick add, ISA is now supported running virtually, and you could use it in single-leg mode if you want to use it just as a reverse proxy to control access to the server and not as a traditional firewall. With Windows Server 2008, you have Hyper-V capabilities for virtualization. If you have a standard edition of 2008, you would need another license for 2008 for the VM. If you have the enterprise edition of 2008, you can run up to 4 addtional VM’s on that box without additional OS licensing.

By: Derek Kuhr

Derek Kuhr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:00:52 +0000

I would wonder how many users are on the box, and how large the environment is. it is possible to do this all on one box and publish/NAT ports at the firewall to gain public access. I would highly suggest having some spam/AV filtering hosted elsewhere or on an appliance onsite to clean up the email before it touches the server. Also, I would recommend using Microsoft ISA to publish the URL paths and services that are public so that you can have a layer of authentication before allowing the traffic to enter the network. That also will prevent many command hacking methods. The alternative is to have a firewall that with integrated IPS/UTM such as a SonicWall to help block potential exploits.