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Going forward I was thinking on adding the server 2012 as a virtual server. The older 2008 32bit server was not virtual, but I do not want to loose some good functionality down the road when needed in the future. Any thoughts on this idea? the 2012 server a dell R730 has 64gb ram 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2630 processors, and 8 Tb free space. This is more the capable of handling our load as a virtual or physical server. &nbsp;Our applications can run in a virtual mode with some homework on resource allocation, Exchange 2010 and Newforma our project server are our most critical application servers.
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Yes , of course with proper allocation of rescources you can have virtualized exchange servers. &nbsp;This is being done in full scale in alot of places the DCs, exchange servers, everything is virtualized.
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Thanks for the input I found several posts online that support my and your knowledge its not a good idea. I listed one post with info on why its not a good idea. Thanks again!
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information obtained assisted the resolution
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We are updating to a new 2012 server to be our domain controller. We are upgrading from a single 2008 32bit domain controller that will be demoted and retired. I have successfully checked domain functionality and it is currently at 2003, added the new 2012 server to the domain and added the roles AD DS and DNS. I have promoted the server to a DC and checked all and the AD appears to be populated correctly. We do have a separate exchange 2010 server in the domain that will remain for now. What do I need to do next? Transfer the FSMO roles from the 2008 32bit server to the New 2012 server? Is there any other tasks that would need to be accomplished for the exchange server?
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We are updating to a new 2012 server to be our domain controller. We are upgrading from a single 2008 32bit domain controller that will be demoted and retired. I have successfully checked domain functionality and it is currently at 2003, added the new 2012 server to the domain and added the roles AD DS and DNS. I have promoted the server to a DC and checked all and the AD appears to be populated correctly. We do have a separate exchange 2010 server in the domain that will remain for now. What do I need to do next? Transfer the FSMO roles from the 2008 32bit server to the New 2012 server? Is there any other tasks that would need to be accomplished for the exchange server?

Upgrading to New 2012 Server as Domain Controller

Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is the first version of Windows Server to have no support for Itanium-based computers since Windows NT 4.0. Windows Server 2012, now in its second release (Windows Server 2012 Release 2) includes Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, and does not support IA-32 or IA-64 processors.

Windows Server 2012

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.

Active Directory

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, globally distributed system responsible for associating the name of a computer, service or other resource into an IP address for connecting to the Internet or a private network. Most prominently, it translates domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of computer services and devices worldwide.

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, based on the Microsoft Vista codebase, is the last 32-bit server operating system released by Microsoft. It has a number of versions, including including Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, HPC Server, Itanium and Storage; new features included server core installation and Hyper-V.

Windows Server 2008

Exchange is the server side of a collaborative application product that is part of the Microsoft Server infrastructure. Exchange's major features include email, calendaring, contacts and tasks, support for mobile and web-based access to information, and support for data storage.