Wanted: Best practice on how to deploy workstation 9 on a laptop

Hello:

I have been goggling and looking around this forum. So far, I have not yet found a best practice for this topic

I have:

I want:

deploy WS9 so that up to four gust OS can be deployed at the same time
use this as a test bed for some training. Vmware, GNS for cisco and juniper simulations.
deploy Win7, Ubuntu and other guest OS
store ISO, OVE, OVF and other image formats
be able to activate multiple OS simultaneously

I would like to know the best means to configure, prepare and deploy WS9 on a laptop

I plan to deploy MS server 2k8 R2 as the host OS. What is the best way to minimize its load as the base host? What services can I safely run off, what must
still run?
Should I partition the SSD? My initial plan is a 95 GB partition for the host OS. And two 400GB partitions for the actual user data and VM requirements. Is there a best practice on partitioning before VM WS is installed?
once the OS is in , WS 9 is installed, what are the best practice so that WS9 can see the host OS file system.
What is the best practice for deploying a file system that WS 9 can use. Does it need to create a VMDF type system. If so where. Inside an NTFS FS or as its own partition?
How should the underling SSD files system be best setup so that the VM guests can access it

I hope that the people in this forum can shed some light
on this deployment.

As a new user of WS9 ,I would appreciate hearing of best
practice before I just dive in.

Cheers

Walter