We are in process of virtualizing from scratch. We just purchased a Dell EqualLogic array and plan on a secondary DR site to replicate our data. In order to reduce the amount of replicated data I’m considering separating the Windows 2008 R2 Page file to a separate partition. We will have approximately 4 hosts running the latest vSphere 5. The EqualLogic will handle the replication between locations.
If we didn’t have 2 sites for replication then this wouldn’t be an issue. I’m trying to reduce the extra changes due to the Windows page files causing unnecessary replication. Overall our systems are pretty low volume. We are running Exchange 2010 for about 250 users. I expect annual growth of possibly 50 users for the next 5 years.
My thoughts are this:
- 1. Have a single data store for all of the VM C:\ partitions for all host. This would have its own replication policy to replicate weekly.
- 2. Have a data store (s) for all page file volumes. With no replication policy.
- 3. Have a separate datastore for each required data partition (exchange, sql, logs, user files, etc). Each DataStore may have a separate replication policy per datastore depending on required DR policy.
Does this make sense? Or would it be better to have a separate datastore for each OS partition of the VM?
I’ve been search for some best practices on this and I’m not seeing anything. Does this seem like an optimal configuration? I’m open to suggestions other than bringing in a consultant to do it.
