Exchange 2000 storage question

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Ezechiel Darvas - 24 Feb 2005 16:59 GMT

Hello,

We would like to replace our Exchange 2000 hardware. We have an interesting
offer from DELL: 4 x 72 Gb disks. I am not sure which RAID level would be the
best.

- 10 Gb Exchange database
- Approximately 300 user

I don't know which of the following three solutions would be the best:

1) 2 x RAID1 : one volume for system and logs, one volume for the database
2) RAID 0 + 1 : with 3 partitions (system, transaction logs, database)
3) RAID 5 (3 disks raided + 1 spare disk) with 3 partitions (system,
transaction logs, database).

Any comment would be very much appreciated.

Ezechiel

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Scott - 26 Feb 2005 16:16 GMT

Ezecheil,

I have the same server, with what I think is the same
delima. So far, what I have been told is ideal:

Use the 2+4 configuration in the following manner:

Use the (2) Mirrored disks (Raid 1) for the System
partition and logs.
Then use the (4) RAID 5 disks for the databases (.edb
and .stm files.)

The RAID 1 design is beneficial for writes, which is
99.9% of what the transaction log does.
The RAID 5 design is beneficial for reads, which helps
the database files respectively.

The question I cannot seem to get answered is this:
should you partition the initial mirror and house the OS
and page file on one partition, and then use the second
partition for the log files. The downfall would be that
the OS is using the same controller and spindles as the
log files.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hello,
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>Ezechiel
>.

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