Exchange 2013 on Hyper-V HD Setup Question

I'm in the process of re-purposing a server that is Running SBS 2008.  I am going to install 2012 as a Hyper-v with 2 guest OS's.  The First will be 2012 Essentials R2 as a domain controller and the second guest will be Server 2012 running Exchange 2013.  There will only be 10 mailboxes on the exchange server.
My hardware is a single processor Xeon Dell T310 server with a PERC6i disk controller with 4 1TB HD's Planning on using RAID 10.

I assume that the databases from exchange should be separate from its virtual drive.

What do you recommend for the drive configuration of this setup.
wrfdchiefAsked:
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Sushil SonawaneCommented:
If you keep your exchange database in same virtual drive there is no issue. If your machine fail still you can recover your exchange database.

Please refer below link to resolve your issue.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj619301(v=exchg.150).aspx

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/11/01/exchange-server.aspx

http://www.esg-global.com/lab-reports/microsoft-windows-server-2012-with-hyper-v-and-exchange-2013/
wrfdchiefAuthor Commented:
Thank You for your input and the links.  I guess I need to rephrase my question a little.  With my 4 disks in a RAID 10 I will configure them as 2 virtual drives.  As far as the Hyper-V host goes it will see virtual drives C and D.  My question is, if I create a virtual instance of my exchange server (assuming it is created on host drive C) then I need to create a second virtual drive for the Exchange server to store the database but it needs to be located in the HOST drive D.  This would allow the database to be stored on a separate spindle as Microsoft recommends.

Here is the excerpt from the first link you provided:
Storage used by Exchange should be hosted in disk spindles that are separate from the storage that's hosting the guest virtual machine's operating system.

Is my logic correct (especially about creating the exchange database drive on the host drive D) or is there a different way of looking at this that I have missed.
Simon Butler (Sembee)ConsultantCommented:
The way I would do this is to have two RAID 1 arrays.

Install the OS for Essentials on Disk 1
Install the OS for the Exchange server on disk 2.
Put the databases on Disk 1.

Within the Exchange VM, add an additional drive on disk 2 for the transaction and IIS logs. Does nothing for performance but if logs go mad and generate a large number in a short time, they will simply fill a disk, and not bring Windows down.

Simon.

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wrfdchiefAuthor Commented:
Thanks Simon,

Do you really think it would be better to use Raid 1 vs. Raid 10??  

One other consideration that I failed to mention.  One of the software applications that we use is based off of an older Foxpro model.  I need to store the data on a server share and a 'front end' is installed on each workstation.  Given the above setup would you think it best to install it on the essentials instance on disk 1 or install yet another server 2012 instance on the second drive and have the share there.  I know Foxpro is pretty disk intensive so not sure where the best would be.  With the 4- 1 Terabyte drives I should have plenty of space with either Raid 1 or Raid 10 wherever just not sure of the disk access issues with exchange.
I should note that my exchange usage is pretty light.  10 total users (most using active sync with their phones also) with no more than 4 logged into the system at a time.

Steve
Simon Butler (Sembee)ConsultantCommented:
It isn't space you are after.
Two RAID 1 arrays gives you two separate disk systems, so you have better performance.
For the FoxPro application, I can only suggest trying it on the Essentials system and see how it performs.

Simon.
wrfdchiefAuthor Commented:
Exactly the concise answer I needed!
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