Exchange 2010 SP on Hyper-V with CSV
Thanks Gulab & Mark, My VHD will host only the exchange database(s) edb ... As mentioned by Microsoft in the best practice document: as long as the disk(s) are created as fixed size disks and the storage behind it is configured as block level (i.e. not NAS), so it would be supported and DAG also would be supported. Mark: I do not see why it would be not supported putting my EDBs on a VHD. suppose that it is a stand alone server that has an attached disk (regardless of what is on it); shouldn't Live Migration work here? CSV is a technology provided by the Hyper-V... I think it has nothing to do with whether the VHD is hosting exchange database or something else. Hyper-V is employing this feature to ease the live migration. Correct me if I am wrong. Bashar
August 10th, 2011 10:41am

Actually youre entirely right. The databases can now be in VHDs. That does restrict how you do backups though, but thats not what you asked so yeah, youre supported putting the EDBs in VHDs. Always pay very close attention to updates on that TechNet article though, it changes. One day theyre going to have to get away from their position and allow VMware houses to bring NFS into the mix and some successor to the current SMB. "bmatrook" wrote in message news:bda66a58-d33a-41ca-956d-593ff474afc6... Thanks Gulab & Mark, My VHD will host only the exchange database(s) edb ... As mentioned by Microsoft in the best practice document: as long as the disk(s) are created as fixed size disks and the storage behind it is configured as block level (i.e. not NAS), so it would be supported and DAG also would be supported. Mark: I do not see why it would be not supported putting my EDBs on a VHD. suppose that it is a stand alone server that has an attached disk (regardless of what is on it); shouldn't Live Migration work here? CSV is a technology provided by the Hyper-V... I think it has nothing to do with whether the VHD is hosting exchange database or something else. Hyper-V is employing this feature to ease the live migration. Correct me if I am wrong. Bashar Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.
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August 13th, 2011 8:57am

Hi, Yes, VHD will work. (Is that VHD has database only or something else as well) 1: I wouldn't do DAG in with VHD. 2: Yes, It will work, as long as the VHD has the database and it's from the Same ORG. Gulab | MCITP: Exchange 2010-2007 | Lync Server 2010 | Windows Server 2008 | Skype: Gulab.Mallah | Blog: www.ExchangeRanger.Blogspot.com
August 13th, 2011 11:10am

The virtualization section at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx was recently updated and has some items that people arent sure about. However, your Q1 is easy; DAG is fully supported (see article) Your Q2 is trickier and my interpretation is that you should not put your EDBs into VHDs and use Live Migration. That would be unsupported. Most (all?) SAN vendors wont support you anyway on that and if youre using DAS theres no point in using CSVs because, well, you wouldnt be live migrating anyway. Keep the EDBs on LUNs (local or SAN) and then you can use the snapshot capabilities that the vendors provide. Its the easiest method to support and troubleshoot. "bmatrook" wrote in message news:7a2b50da-4dd5-4674-b7cb-b06040ecd78f... Hi all, This is my first post (Question) and looking for an answer to my query... Scenario: (5) Five Hyper-V hosts are participants in a Hyper-V cluster that employs the CSV feature. There are 3x1 TB disks attached to the hosts and are forming the cluster disks. They are also the CSV disks. Exchange 2010 SP1 is installed on 4 guests where 2 of them are running exchange mailbox role. Can I attach a fixed size VHD to the exchange guest machine and store that VHD in the CSV disk? This VHD will be hosting the exchange mailbox database(s). This/these VHD disk(s) will be sitting on a disk which is a part of the CSV. Other questions may arise: Will DAG be supported? Will Live Migration works here? Before May 2011, enabling DAG while the hosts are clustered was not supported by Microsoft, but after May, 2011 Microsoft announced that it is supported: : http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2428 I went through the document, but havent seen anything explicitly mentioning it. Do you think the above scenario is supported? Thanks, Bashar Mark Arnold, Exchange MVP.
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August 13th, 2011 1:57pm

Support on a Fixed VHD on a CSV is an interesting case in itself. You do realise that CSV is SMB over the top and block out the bottom half of a filter driver, right? :-)
August 14th, 2011 12:50am

Thanks Gulab & Mark, My VHD will host only the exchange database(s) edb ... As mentioned by Microsoft in the best practice document: as long as the disk(s) are created as fixed size disks and the storage behind it is configured as block level (i.e. not NAS), so it would be supported and DAG also would be supported. Mark: I do not see why it would be not supported putting my EDBs on a VHD. suppose that it is a stand alone server that has an attached disk (regardless of what is on it); shouldn't Live Migration work here? CSV is a technology provided by the Hyper-V... I think it has nothing to do with whether the VHD is hosting exchange database or something else. Hyper-V is employing this feature to ease the live migration. Correct me if I am wrong. Bashar What are you trying to achieve?Gulab | MCITP: Exchange 2010-2007 | Lync Server 2010 | Windows Server 2008 | Skype: Exchange.Ranger | Blog: www.ExchangeRanger.Blogspot.com
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August 14th, 2011 5:22am

Hi all, This is my first post (Question) and looking for an answer to my query... Scenario: (5) Five Hyper-V hosts are participants in a Hyper-V cluster that employs the CSV feature. There are 3x1 TB disks attached to the hosts and are forming the cluster disks. They are also the CSV disks. Exchange 2010 SP1 is installed on 4 guests where 2 of them are running exchange mailbox role. Can I attach a fixed size VHD to the exchange guest machine and store that VHD in the CSV disk? This VHD will be hosting the exchange mailbox database(s). This/these VHD disk(s) will be sitting on a disk which is a part of the CSV. Other questions may arise: · Will DAG be supported? · Will Live Migration works here? Before May 2011, enabling DAG while the hosts are clustered was not supported by Microsoft, but after May, 2011 Microsoft announced that it is supported: : http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2428 I went through the document, but haven’t seen anything explicitly mentioning it. Do you think the above scenario is supported? Thanks, Bashar
August 14th, 2011 6:10am

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