Best hdd setup

[elvisdk]

Hey

Assembled the new esxi server and am wondering how best to setup the harddrive configuration.

Currently i have:
2 x Samsung HD204UI 2 TB SATA
2 x WD 3 TB SATA

2 x M1015 controllers

The server is gonna run 2 primary OS's; WHS 2011 and Server 2003. WHS for datasharing and S2003 for backup purpose (Veeam)

Once in a while i will be able to create a new virtual server running Server 2008 or similar for testing (work stuff).

For disc usage, i am planning on using one 2TB disc for WHS2011, S2003 & S2008 VMDK's and iso storage
The second 2TB i will be using for backup files (throught Veeam or VMWare Data Recovery)

One 3TB disc contains important data which must be backed up and one 3TB disc contains movies for which i dont need backup

Currently my backup plan is one of the following:
Veeam Backup & Replication (good for file restore, but requires a server)
VMWare Data Recovery (havent tested this one yet, runs as a virtual appliance)

Wouldn't the most reasonable thing be to use only one M1015 controller ? Or use 2 controllers and vt-d one of them into WHS2011 for the 2x3TB discs ?

Comments and suggestions are welcome

 

[Patrick]

Just wondering, if you are using all Windows clients, is there any reason to use ESXi specifically? Just thinking Hyper-V would let you pass individual drives through, and make it so you could actually just use onboard SATA ports.

 

[elvisdk]

Just wondering, if you are using all Windows clients, is there any reason to use ESXi specifically? Just thinking Hyper-V would let you pass individual drives through, and make it so you could actually just use onboard SATA ports.

The reason for ESXi is workrelated. I am able to test certain things at home before implementing it at work.

Best regards

 

[mobilenvidia]

As you have the M1015's

You only need 1 running in IR mode to:
Put your sensitive DATA in RAID1, you will need another drive to mirror it.
Run the other drives as passthrough, will keep them simple no matter what OS or Virtual system you run.

My 2c worth