I have (perhaps alone in the world) set up my Windows guests with their Page files on separate discs, that reside on a non-replicated (small) Datastore. The approach I adopted was to create a separate swap disc for each VM and copy it to a corresponding LUN on the Recovery site. Using vcb and snapshots it is possible to do this with the VM running. When creating a protection group it does mean that initially each VM has a Yellow Triangle to indicate hardware that could not be mapped. It is necessary to Configure Protection for each VM, and point the missing link to the copied Swap disk. We have to do this anyway to add a post-power on command to each VM, so this is not a big deal.
The reason for copying each swap file was that using a basic 'template' vmdk with a partition (as suggested in the manual) the Windows drive letter of the Paging drive was lost, as the VM did not recognise the disc, presumably because the signature was different.
One observation is that when VMs have a snapshot at the Protection SIte (as they do during backups as we use vRanger) then swap file writes are in the replicated LUN to the vmdk delta files, so this process is ineffective.
It is quite palava, and one that requires a consistent approach in VM creation to maintain the standard. It is a trade off between bandwidth and ease of administration and simplicity. It would be worth assessing your swap disc usage before committing to the approach of separate swap discs.
If you can afford a big enough pipe, then forget it!
Ax
