NAs and Exchange....Maybe Not

摘要

I'll start out by saying that lots of people run Microsoft Exchange on network attached storage, and it works just fine. You may be one of them. If your environment works for you, great; the concept of hosting Exchange databases on easily scalable NAS device is attractive. But. If you're not running Exchange on NAS and are considering it, you should think again. Back from the wild and woolly days of Exchange 5.5, up to and including Exchange 2000, Microsoft keeps insisting that it does not and will not support its Exchange databases on network-attached storage appliances. Please note that "will not support" does not mean "doesn't work," but running Exchange without Microsoft's giant support presence is an iffy proposition. The news isn't all bad: Network Appliance, which sells a good bit to Exchange houses, does provide very good Exchange-on-NetApp support, But not every NAS appliance has NetApp's built-in data protection, and even NetApp's fil- ers suffer from network overhead and disadvantages of a non-channel connection.