2.5. Hardware Upgrades

Exactly when hardware upgrades are required depends on the results of your capacity planning. If you plan your capacity well, you will be able to predict when hardware upgrades are required, which is particularly important when there are long lead times on hardware. Failing to predict when new hardware will be required can lead to severe availability management problems, for example if a server running Exchange were to fail because you ran out of disk space.

It can be very beneficial to perform hardware upgrades on a regular basis, standardizing on new hardware each time. This allows you to keep your hardware consistent across each Exchange 2000 role and therefore reduce support costs for the new environment. Always ensure that you test Exchange and Windows 2000 thoroughly on the new hardware to ensure that there are no unforeseen anomalies.