Customers running Forefront Security for Exchange Server Service Pack 1 can now access a free tool from Microsoft designed to offer guidance on the factors capable of impacting their messaging servers. Adding security solutions to a server is a move that generally implies a tradeoff, as extra protection is, as a rule, synonymous with performance and throughput handicaps. The same is valid for Exchange Servers, but with the capacity planning tool, customers can take the necessary measures to compensate for the effects that the introduction of Forefront Security will have on their server infrastructure.

“The Forefront Security for Exchange Server capacity planning tool helps you understand what hardware, architecture, and configuration settings will produce recommended system performance and message throughput results for comprehensive protection of your Exchange Servers. The tool is an Excel spreadsheet with built-in workflow and can be used to help plan your Forefront Security for Exchange Server 10 SP1/SP2 deployment,” revealed Frank Trujillo, program manager, FSS.

Customers who are planning a deployment of Forefront Security for Exchange Server SP1 can turn to the capacity planning tool to fine tune the details of their implementation. But at the same time, the resource can be used to assess impact on existing deployments. According to Trujillo, a range of information is necessary in order to use the capacity planning tool, including server hardware and user load data for a specific Exchange Server environment.

“Once this information is entered into the workflow, the tool will make deployment recommendations that can be used to meet your specific objectives. You can also take the liberty to augment the results based on relative hardware performance – links are provided in the resource tab of the tool,” Trujillo added. “Please keep in mind, however, that the FSE tool is not a replacement for thorough Exchange capacity planning. The expectation is that the deployment architecture adheres to the Exchange 2007 capacity planning guidelines.”