How I assign storage to a VM

Someone asked how I typically assign storage to a VM. This is what I usually did - separate the data from the binaries to minimize the chance of corruption in the event of outage.

C: System OS drive. Typically assign ~60GB fixed sized VHD.

D: is application drive where I would install the application binary in VHD. Size varies on application requirements.

E: is the data or log drive where I would store the system & application data & logs. If syslog or ftp is the application, expect a big storage space. Typically, I would assign direct SAN LUN with RAID (e.g. iSCSI) to this volume. I would also redirect the host Firewall/IIS logs here for audit purposes.

In summary, C & D drives are typically assigned with VHDs that are stored on the host's direct or SAN storage while I would assign direct LUN with redundant RAID to E drive. The rationale is that the system & application binaries in C & D can be easily restored by installation but not the logs/data on E drive. Always remember to keep data and binaries separate.