First, download the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and install it. Next, you’ll want to run this tool to see what issues Exchange might currently be experiencing and what changes need to be made to make your Exchange implementation perfect. You don’t want to upgrade a server without it being installed in a perfect manner.
After running this tool, I see that the server that I am upgrading has some issues:
- This server has 1 GB or more of physical memory and HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold has not been set to 262144
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998162(EXCHG.80).aspx - PageFile Size Larger Than Total Physical Memory
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738135(EXCHG.80).aspx
Also I know that this server has never been backed up. I started that process before beginning the Exchange analysis.
You can also export a report by using the ‘Export Report’ button. I can see that there are 18 issues that need to be resolved (four of them prior to upgrading to SP2.) Here are the details for the issues with this server: