Recommended Drive setup 1

[DBarnes]

What is the recommended drive setup for an exchange 2003 server? Should you put like 10 gigs on a c: and then the rest on d: or should it all just be one big c:?

Trying to find out what is recommended..

Thanks

 

[rbby2003]

I would give drive C: 18 to 20 GB if you have Windows server 2003 and Exchange server 2003 installed in drive C:
the rest space will go to D:. I have an case that drive C: have 12 GB, with Windows server 2003 and Exchange server 2003 installed in C:, and now I need to move exchange storage to drive D:. 2 drives, not 1 drive, are recommended.

 

[llevon]

Hello,

For best practices you should really ensure that the transaction logs are on seperate drives to the databases for recovery reasons.
e.g.
RAID1 System Files
RAID1 transaction logs
RAID5 databases

OR. The official extract:

Optimizing Database Access
For servers that support large information stores--stores that are 50 to 100 gigabytes (GB) in size--it is especially important to follow these guidelines. • Place transaction log files and database files on separate disks.
• Use a dedicated high-performance spindle for the transaction logs.
• Use a dedicated partition for the databases. As servers get bigger, the database partition starts to experience much more input/output (I/O) activity. This is especially true for RAID 5 partitions because of the added overhead. As a result, it is a good idea to put only database files on the database partition.
• Put the message transfer agent (MTA) database and tracking logs on the system disk (if you don't have a spare spindle), not on the database partition.
• Use the NTFS file system instead of a file allocation table (FAT) system for all Exchange Server database partitions, including partitions that contain the information store databases and transaction log files.
The following sample disk configuration is recommended for typical large servers: • Mirror set 1: System disk; includes binaries, the swap file, and the MTA database
• Mirror set 2: Transaction files only, RAID 5 partition, Exchange information store, and directory databases only


Regards,

llevon

 

[DBarnes]

Well I have four 72.8 GB Drives. So you are saying make the
Drive 1
c: about 20GB mirrored. For System files and exchange install
rest of drive part of the raid 5

Drive 2
d: Transaction logs (Not sure on size) Mirrored
Rest on the raid 5

Drive 3 and drive 4 raid 5 with databases..


Our current exchange 5.5 is all on c and uses a total of 40 GB. So I am just tring to look ahead and make sure this exchaange will be setup corectly with the best practices.

Thanks

 

[llevon]

Unfortunately with only four drives you cannot have a RAID1 and a RAID5.

RAID1 = 2 disks
RAID5 = 3 disks minimum

If you can accept losing the disk space then use two RAID1 mirrors.

Array0
RAID1
c: system
d: exchange logs

Array1
RAID1
e: exchange databases

Regards,

llevon

 

[DBarnes]

Well That is what I was thinking also.. I could always get that 5th drive then what would you recomend?

 

[llevon]

with a 5th drive:


Array0
RAID1
c: system (20GB approx)
d: exch logs (50GB approx)

Array1
RAID5
e: Exch databases (120GB approx)

 

[DBarnes]

Thanks.. Appreciate all the information