New to VMware and Exchange 2010

[owblueiii]

Hello,

I am new to VMware and have a few questions regarding setup. We just purchased a HP DL380 G7 server and Exchange 2010. I would like to virtualize this server along with a BES. I'm trying to figure out the best way to proceed. We also have a Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN (PS4000). Would it be best for me to boot from SAN and have ESxi installed on the SAN? Or would it be best to have ESxi installed on the server and have my VM's hosted/installed on the SAN? Thanks for the assistance.

[piaroa]

IMO it's always best to have local boot media on the ESXi hosts, be it a local RAID1 or USB stick. You can just wipe and install again if something goes wrong.

Keep your VMs in your SAN and boot from locally installed media.

If this post has been helpful/solved your issue, please mark the thread and award points as you see fit. Thanks!

[dragooner]

The ways you are going to chose both good.But When you chose one,you must know what you really want to.Boot from san or boot form local disk is not important,the most important thing is what you really need.

In common time,boot from local disk is a good way for using.When the ESXi hypervisor has problems,you can reinstalls it.VMs should be storaged in the san disk array, this way can avoid much host problem,even disaster.

[Ace007 · Accepted solution]

Hello owblueiii,

i have almose same infrastructure like yours, when i was started the virtualization process was confused in this place, finally we kept the boot on local,VMs oniSCSI SAN.

advantages : 1. because if you have any issues you can over come them,

2. and also a bit difficult to troubleshoot if you have boot partition on iscsi san.

3. you can save your time keeping vms on iscsi san if you want to fresh install ESX.

Hope it is helpful to your question.

[owblueiii]

Thanks guys.....this really helps. I appreciate all your assistance.