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I am a new user of MS-Exchange Server and I have a couple of queries regarding MS-Exchange.

1) May I install 2 versions of MS-Exchange on one system? (Installing Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 on the same system, for example.)

2) May I use a single domain for multiple MS-Exchange servers? (For example, installing Exchange on 3 different machines, with 3 different versions of Exchange.)

HopelessN00b
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user3721246
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    The simple answer to second question is 'yes' but substantive answers to are too broad for this site. As for the first question, no. A server can only run one version of Exchange. – Rob Moir Jul 24 '14 at 08:00
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    A more direct answer is: learn exchange before even thinking of installing it. From all MS Software it is the most integrated and complex to set up thing. – TomTom Jul 24 '14 at 08:13
  • @TomTom, I actually think there are even more complex MS products to work with. Nevertheless, I fully agree with your "learn it before even thinking about installing it" comment. – Massimo Jul 24 '14 at 13:42
  • Complex yes (Sharepoint), but not integrated. Exchange is so integrated into AD and does so much under the hood that it is seriously hard to understand without some learning experience. – TomTom Jul 24 '14 at 13:52
  • Just have a look at Lync then... – Massimo Jul 24 '14 at 14:38

1 Answers1

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May I install 2 version of MS-Exchange on one system?

No, you cannot.

May I use only one domain for multiple MS-Exchange servers?

Yes, it is common to have multiple Exchange servers serving mail for a single domain. (It's also common to serve smaller domains from a single Exchange server - my last couple of environments have had >1,000 users, and were both single-server Exchange environments.)

In fact, there are multiple Exchange roles (five different roles in Exchange 2010), and these multiple roles are designed to work together and allow the Exchange architecture to be "scaled-out" onto multiple servers for improved performance, reliability and functionality (redundancy/high-availability being the most obvious benefit that scaling out allows).

That said, the topic is far too broad to really cover here - there are entire books written on Exchange architecture. I would advise that if you have to ask the question (and you did), an Exchange architecture with multiple servers is probably too complex for you to handle on your own. Hire an experienced consultant to implement your Exchange environment and/or deploy a single-server Exchange solution.

with 3 different versions of Exchange

Assuming I understand this bit right, you're asking about having an Exchange 2007 sever, an Exchange 2010 server and an Exchange 2013 server in the same domain.

While it's possible to have multiple Exchange versions/environments co-existing in the same domain, the only time this is generally done is during a migration/upgrade to a newer version. (Specifically, this would be a co-existence migration.) If you're creating a new Exchange environment, you wouldn't deploy three different versions of Exchange because... you get nothing out of having multiple versions, and it adds a lot of complexity to the environment. Where multiple versions of Exchange exist in a domain, it's a temporary condition, with the general idea being to "migrate" everything to the newer Exchange server, and get rid of the older ones.

HopelessN00b
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