Description of the Microsoft support policy for Forefront Security for Exchange Server installations that are running with Exchange Server on a third-party cluster service

This article describes the Microsoft support policy for Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server installations that are running with Microsoft Exchange Server on a third-party cluster service.

Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) supports Forefront Security for Exchange Server together with Exchange Server clustering based on the failover clustering features of the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS). The MSCS is provided with applicable versions of Microsoft Windows operating system software. To be fully supported by CSS, an Exchange Server installation that is running on MSCS must be installed on hardware that has passed Windows Catalog testing as a cluster system.

Microsoft has invested significant engineering effort to make sure that the MSCS environment is a suitable installation environment that operates with high performance and that also has high failover capabilities Therefore, we recommend customers use the MSCS environment. By contrast, we have not performed and we do not intend to perform complete testing of Forefront Security for Exchange Server with any other cluster service or solution provided by other third-party vendors. Additionally, the Microsoft hardware or application certification program is not available for these solutions. Therefore, we cannot provide information about the actual performance or interaction of third-party clustering services and solutions that are running Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Exchange Server.

CSS will try to help a customer troubleshoot and it will provide support for a Forefront Security for Exchange Server-related issue when both Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Exchange Server are installed on a third-party clustering solution. CSS will try to help a customer who has such issues until it is reasonably believed that the cause of the issue is an incompatibility issue between the third-party clustering solution and Forefront Security for Exchange Server. To help make this determination, CSS may try to independently reproduce the issue on a supported Exchange Server clustering environment. If the issue cannot be reproduced in a fully supported Exchange Server clustering environment, such as an environment that uses MSCS clustering on a Windows Catalog certified cluster system, CSS may refer the affected customer to the vendor of the third-party clustering solution. Or, CSS may suggest removing the third-party solution to help resolve the issue.

Removal of the third-party clustering solution is not a precondition for receiving CSS support services. However, if less extreme troubleshooting efforts do not effectively resolve the issue and if there is a reasonable basis for CSS to believe that the third-party clustering solution may be the cause of the problem, CSS may have to request that the customer remove the third-party solution to continue troubleshooting. Otherwise, CSS may have to refer the customer to the vendor of the third-party clustering solution for additional troubleshooting support. The customer will be completely responsible for engaging a vendor's support organization.