We are about to (finally) start virtualizing our systems. One of those systems is a Exchange 2003 Standard server running on Windows 2003, using DAS, and serves approximately 600 mailboxes (though max concurrent users would be around 200 users). Current physical box has 3 drives, C, D, and E. C is for system, D is for application/log files, and E is for the Information Stores (only 2 - Public and Private).
After reading various articles and best practices I've come up with a plan. Could someone please let me know if this is a sound idea?
In a test environment first (with a DC running), seperate from production network:
Plan is to P2V the current physical Exchange box using the VMware Converter Standalone tool. Each physical drive would converted to a virtual disk. We will be implementing an iSCSI SAN for shared storage. Was thinking of creating seperate LUNs for the D and E drives, just not sure if that's necessary. All Exchange and anti-virus services will be shutdown during the P2V. I wanted to do a cold-clone, but not sure if I can due to the fact that we will not have a VMware Enterprise license.
Once P2V is complete, power up the new VM. Remove any vendor specific apps (HP Insight) and drivers. Then, start up Exchange services and test.
If successul, document process, retest, and then run on production system. Once final, production VM is created, shutdown physcial and power up new VM.