ESXi 4, Exchange 2010, and Mailbox Resiliency

[legacyb4]

I'd like to hear from any folks that have succeeded in virtualizing Exchange 2010 and how you configure mailbox resiliency with a direct-attached storage array.

I was looking at splitting my MD1000 into 2 arrays (one in use for another server, one to be used for Exchange 2010); according to the MS documentation, rather than building a redudant array, you can simply run a JBOD array and have mailbox redundancy that way.

However, if Exchange 2010 is virtualized on the host server that the MD1000 is attached to, can the guest VM "see" the individual discs?

[AndreTheGiant]

The VM cannot see the individual disks.

With split mode you have two different group of disks attacched to two PERC/E adapter (one for each node).

You can build "LUN" on your PERC.

Then you can have local datastore and put your DAG on vmdk on those datastores.

Andre

[legacyb4]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling that was going to be the case. So in virtualizing Exchange 2010, I'm effectively presenting a virtual JBOD array to the VM (which ends up residing on a RAID array anyway)...

From what I've read, this will stil require a minimum of Exchange 2010 Standard running on MS Server 2008 Enterprise.