First off, my setup: ESX 4.0 3 host cluster connected to a Equallogic PS5xx series SAN. 1 test volume configured on the Equallogic and connected to the ESX cluster. This is a VMFS volume. 1 2008R2 VM is installed on the cluster using this test volume.
I have done some testing using the snapshot funtion directly on the SAN which included deleting the 2008R2 VM then mounting a snapshot volume, copying the VM to the production volume and bringing the copied VM up. Works just fine, although pretty clunky.
So now I am moving forward and want to test the ASM/ME plugin that Dell has, but I am a little confused on how to do so with my environment. I have installed the ASM/ME on the 2008R2 VM and I went throught the Remote Setup Wizard, added our PS Group name/IP and the CHAP account.
I am at a point where within the ASM console I have 1 HIT Host (the 2008R2 VM) and 1 iSCSI Connections, but now I'm thinking maybe I am getting ahead of myself.
My questions are:
1. Firstly, do I also need to install ASM/VE to make this work? If not what am I missing by not installing ASM/VE?
2.. How is ASM/ME typically used in a VMware environment like mine? Should it be installed on all VM's? or should I just have 1 VM with ASM installed dedicated as a "recovery" host
3.. Is there a benefit to using ASM/ME for use with file servers or other Windows servers other than Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL?
4.. How is recovery handled? Lets say I delete a file on my test 2008R2 VM that is running ASM. What then? It looks like I would need to add the SAN snapshot volume within the VM using the Microsoft ISCSI initiator and then browse the volume, is this correct?
