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MapleLifeFlag for United States of America

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hyper-v setup

I'm in the process of setting up a hyper-v server that will host 2 machines. One will be a exchange 2007 box for a 30 user workgroup and the other will be an active directory box. I have a dell poweredge r710 that has 5 x 73 gb hdd's and 3 146 gb hdd's.

I've never set up an actual virtualized box before so I want to make sure I have my stuff straight before I proceed. I plan on using server 2008 r2 with the latest version of hyper-v as the base OS. Will hyper-v allow me to install a VM onto a specified raid array? I'd like to have 2 73 gb drives for the base OS, 3 73 gb drives for the ad box, and the 3 146 gb drives for exchange.

Or am I completely off base here?
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PowerEdgeTech
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You can choose where to store the VM's and VHD's when configuring them in Hyper-V, but I'm not sure of the exact performance difference there would be in having them on different arrays.  I can only think it would be advantageous to do so.
MapleLife,

VM's use Virtual Harddrives VHD's - (folders)

set up Raid 1 for Host OS and a raid 10 set for Host Data - put your vhd's on the data drive.

I know this doesn't fit the drives you have but this is the best way to set up a host.  it gives you the most flexibility managing vhd's

Making host data a raid 10 set will provide plenty of IO for VHD's.

Create OS VHD and DATA VHD for each VM - make sure these are fixed vhd's as databases don't do well on dynamically expanding VHD's.  OS vhd drives are emulated ide.

Hyper v does have a passthrough feature to give a vm direct access to drives on the host.  this is for hi-performance demanding database and file server applications.  if you are doing a small office you shouldn't need to do this.  Passthrough disks will make your VM more like a physical server. restricting the sizes of physical drives leads to wasted drive space too.
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Greg,

Will my hdd set up even allow a raid 10 config? Doesn't raid 10 need 4 or 5 disks of the same type? I suppose i could use the 5 73's but that would restrict my space. I'd rather have 5 146's.
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PowerEdgeTech
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I spoke with my manager and he said he could probably work a 146 in there and give me 4 73's and 4 146's. I'd use the 146's for the data partition and 2 73's for the OS. Not sure what I'll do with the other 2 73's. I lobbied for 6 overall 146's but he doesn't think he can get the cost approved since we spent so much on the server.
well have fun!  i've heard of some r710's holding 15 servers.