1) If I'm installing VCB and VRanger to take image backups on a seperate physical server should that be setup to connect to the SAN/ESX Server using the switch that handles the iSCSI SAN traffic or should this server be connected to the regular LAN?
Depends are you doing LAN backups or SAN (non-LAN) backups? It's better to do SAN backups, less stress on ESX host.
2) Does vRanger actually allow you to backup to tape or would I need to use VCB/Vranger to backup to the physical server that runs the software then use backup exec to backup the files on the server to tape?
You need a SEPARATE backup to move contents to tape, and then use backup exec if you want..
3) Is vRanger actually need or can you backup the VMs directly using backup exec?
Neither if you have vSphere / ESX 4.0 hosts it has built in backup. You can use either, but vRanger is specifically designed for VM's. Backup Exec will work, however its klunky... it runs a script to perform the backup (put the VM in snapshot, copy the file, zip, then take it out of snapshot).
