Hello,   Thanks for the shout out!   re:1  If you are not using EQL snapshots in addition to Veeam then yes go ahead and set the reserve to 0%.    re: 2 You can manage the array via the iSCSI subnet w/o issue.  That was the normal for years until at customer request a dedicated Mgmt option was added.  There's no downside.   re: 3. You can either use a firewall/router to limit what can be routed or use something like "rinetd" which is a port forwarder service for Windows 2003.  It would allow connect to NTP/SMTP etc via a server that sits on both networks.  EQL Support has a PDF that explains how to install/configure rinetd.  However, if you end up adding replication you'll need to be able to route to your DR site.     re: 3a.  Alerts I believe the only one you would miss are EMHOME messages.  Those would actually create a support case via the Equallogic Website.   Alerts from SANHQ do not.   re: 4  Multiple volumes CAN increase your VMFS performance compared to a single volume.  At the SCSI level, each volume negotiates a queue called Command Tag Queue (CTQ)   Aka CTQ depth.   That's how many outstanding requests can be sent to the volume before it tells the host to stop and finish processing commands.  A typical value is 32.   So the 33rd I/O request will be held until one is freed up.   If you have two volumes, then each can have a CTQ of 32.  Add another and you get 32 more.  So smaller volumes, with fewer heavy I/O VMs is typically better.   Also RAID level is set at the MEMBER level.  You would have to another array to have a different RAID type.  A nice benefit is that you can seamlessly move volumes between members in the same group.   Or with 5.2.1 the array will balance I/O between members in the same pool based on latency.   If one gets busier it will swap out blocks with the less busy member to even things out.   Hope this answers your questions.   Regards, 
Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I must say that I'm very happy with the purchase of our EqualLogic PS4000 series SANs. I've been pouring over both EqualLogic and VMware's Best Practice Guides and I have a couple questions hanging out in my mind that I'm hoping someone can answer. I suspect it might help other folks who have searched for what I'm asking and come up short. I feel like I have quite a few of the pieces but I need some help putting them together. I hope you read this, Don! :emotion-10: I'm using my SAN solely to host VMware vSphere VMs. I'm using Veeam Backup & Restore 6 to back up these VMs to a NAS box. It's been working great! Veeam is running off a physical server connected to the SAN with dual gigabit NICs. I'm using the 'SAN Mode' backup (their name for an off-host backup) to snapshot the VMs and dump them on my NAS box. ...now for the EqualLogic questions!
Management Networks and SAN Snapshotting