Description of the capacity planning and topology tools for Exchange 2000

This article describes the supported tools that you can use to help correctly sizing a Microsoft Exchange Server installation The Exchange 2000 Capacity Planning and Topology Calculator tool is no longer available as of April 12, 2005. This article replaces Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 326239. Microsoft Knowledge Base article 326239 described the original Exchange 2000 Capacity Planning and Topology Calculator tool.

Although there is no direct replacement for the Exchange 2000 Capacity Planning and Topology Calculator tool, we recommend that you view the following supported tools for help with correctly sizing an Exchange Server installation.

The Exchange Server Load Simulator 2003 (LoadSim) tool

This benchmarking tool simulates the performance load of MAPI clients. You can use this simulation to test how a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 responds to e-mail loads. For more information about how to acquire and use the Loadsim tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

The Exchange Server 2003 Jetstress Tool

This tool simulates disk I/O load on a test server that is running Exchange Server to verify the performance and the stability of your disk subsystem before putting the server into a production environment. This tool is for both Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. For more information about how to acquire and use the Jetstress tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

The Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor tool

This tool enables system administrators to gather real-time data to better understand current client usage patterns, and to plan for future work. This tool is for both Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server. For more information about how to acquire and use the Jetstress tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:To better understand how to optimize your storage system for Exchange Server 2003, test an enterprise Exchange Server 2003 environment in a non-production test lab.

To obtain more information about basic concepts in disk sizing, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

• Optimizing Storage for Exchange Server 2003 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=34649)
• Using Exchange Server 2003 Stress Tools in a Test Lab (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=45783)
• Blog posting about disk sizing and I/O analysis (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39538)