To get rid of that unwanted driver, device, or service:
1) Open the “Start” menu and choose “Run…”
2) Type in “cmd” (without the quotes) and click “ok”.
3) At the cmd prompt, type in “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1″ (without the quotes) and press enter. (Note that nothing seems to happen–this is ok. We are actually setting an environment variable which is going to help us to see hidden devices)
4) On the next cmd prompt line, type in “devmgmt.msc” (without the quotes) and press enter. This will launch the Windows Device Manager Console.
5) In the Device Manager Console, from the “View” menu, select “Show Hidden Devices”.

Microsoft’s View on Virtual Software they do not own.
Microsoft and VMware

My View:
Microsoft Tech Support will not like it, but they will help. 3 cases in the last year and no issues too much. Unless your Exchange Server(s) are huge, Exchange will not have any issues running in VMware.

I run Exchange servers with Mail Stores that range from 25GB to 180GB. I would use a iSCSI/SANs if your databases are over 50GB. However, if the environment is generic (no third party applications running with Exchange) you can run up to 150GB local (No SANS/iSCSI).

Documents I used:

PDF:

VMware Symantec PDF

Symantec VMware PDF

Overview: (From VMware Tech Support)

VMware Tech Support PDF

Note:

This solution (work around) is for small business. In my opinion I would not do this method, but it can be done.

Restore Using NTBackup VI3 Images.pdf

Daemons:
Samba has to be installed
NFS has to be installed.

Some pictures are distorted and or whited out text to cover names of servers.

Diskpart

This was taken from the Microsoft website.  A customer asked how this command would work in VMWare.  I tried it and it worked just like usual.

Overview Summary of Extending RAID Arrays in Dell MD1000

MD1000 Extend RAID Array

If anyone sees errors in my testing please contact me.
support@it-manage.com

VIM 2.0  (yes I skip the upgrade to 2.1)
Server that was running 2.0 remain at VIM 2.0.  I created another server for VIM 2.5.  Then as I upgraded ESX 3.02 to ESX 3.5 I moved them over to the VIM 2.5.  (No Real no choice, the VIM 2.0 will not allow ESX 3.5 to connect.)

My notes:

VIM 2.5 and ESX 3.5 Migrations

Clean up from the command line (CLI)

Clean up for the CLI may show a difference between real storage.

After deleting old images from the MD 1000.  I went to the VI3 VC and it showed this much drive space.

The “Linux Console” showed

after 15 mins the VI3 VC corrected itself showing the same as the CLI.

df -h works but does not show the vmfs file system.  Use vdf -h to show the file system.

ESX Command Line

PDF of ESX.

Helps if no VMC to server.

Test Equipment:
2 Dell 1950 8GB of RAM
1 Dell MD 1000 1.2TB RAID 5
1 Dell MD 1000 850GB RAID 0  (same box as RAID 5 but split down the middle) 

Images:
RAID 5
2 Server 2003 Standard SQL 2005 and IIS6(WEB) (Snapshots enabled)
1 Server 2000 File Server (Independent Disk)

RAID 0
Fedora 4 Linux Mail and web server (apache) (Independent Disk)
1 Server 2003 (Snapshots enabled)

Test Performed: Power failure

Results:
All RAID 0 had to be reverted back to snapshot or fsck /dev/xxx/xxx -y for Fedora 4All RAID 5 Started with no issues.  No matter if the disk was snapshot enabled or independant disk.