Re: Storage Direct.  Yes, if you configure replication of those SQL volumes, only that changed data will be included.  That VM won't see the Datastore files at all.   However, you will still want to replicate your VMFS datastore, just not as often as SQL. Re: Optimze.  The KB article I included has the Registry setting you need.  It works for all NTFS formatted storage. Also, when you format the SQL data / log volumes, set the NTFS cluster size to 64K.   The default is typically 4 or 8K.  This will align all the writes and reads on the 64K stripe size in the EQL array.   This improves IO performance.  
Hi, I got a Dell PowerEdge server R420 connected to an EQL. Installed is ESXi 5.1 U1 (free version). There is only one data store. VM runs Windows 2008 R2 STD with MS SQL 2008 R2 STD. The change in database size per day is around 2 to 3 MB base on my daily full backups via MS SQL backup. However, when I initiate a replication session between my PROD EQL and DR EQL that delta size is ranging from 1 GB to 50 GB each time I executed a replication ? Interval is around 5 to 10 minutes. I tried 20 mins also the size to be replicated is erratic. Why is the replica so huge its more than 1000 MB per replication.     Hope someone can help me on this. Thanks, Paul 
Dell EQL PS4100xv problem with MS SQL replication