I am going to build an Exchange 2013 server strictly for the purpose of managing exchange objects in Office 365.  The server will not host any mailboxes.  I will be installing on a VM, what would be the minimum recommended cpu and memory requirements?

Google "Exchange 2013 requirements".  Microsoft's standard minimums will tell you.

Hi ford,

Thank you for your question.

CPU:

• x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture (formerly known as Intel EM64T)
• AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform
• Intel Itanium IA64 processors not supported

Memory:

Varies depending on Exchange roles that are installed

:

• Mailbox   8GB minimum
• Client Access   4GB minimum
• Mailbox and Client Access combined   8GB minimum
• Edge Transport   4GB minimum

The more details we could refer to the following link:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(v=exchg.150).aspx

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know.

Best Regard,

Jim

I guess I should have been a little more specific.  The cpu requirements are very generic.  What might be the recommended number of cpu's and cores for Exchange 2013 that is not hosting any databases, it is strictly going to manage Exchange objects in Office 365.  

Hi fordracer,

We suggest you use 8 core. The more detail could be referred by the following links:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/06/ask-the-perf-guy-sizing-exchange-2013-deployments.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/04/30/3495285.aspx

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know.

Best Regard,

Jim