Kyle Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 I have an 64k server that i am going to be setting up from scratch and install Exchange 2007. I was wondering what would be the best raid set up for this? The server is a PowerEdge 2950 and below is the spec... 2 x Xeon 5050 3.0Ghz/2x2mb 667FSB 4GB 533 Ram( 4 x 1GB DIMMs ) 4 x 160GB SATA HDD ( Originally configured into a Raid 10 ) DVD-Rom Perc 5i Card The server was purchased by an ex NM and was never set up correctly before he left. I am going to set it up from scratch and wanted so good practice/advice.
Diello Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 64k server? Wish I had that sort of budget With 4 disks I'd go for RAID-5 personally... 480GB of space, decent performance & redundancy.
Norphy Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 If you can, I'd see about putting another pair of drives in there. Have two for the OS in RAID1 and put the other four into a RAID 5 array for the database and log files.
Geoff Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Agree with both of the above comments. RAID5 the existing disks and if possible add two more disks and RAID1 them for the OS.
Kyle Posted January 7, 2008 Author Posted January 7, 2008 Unfortunatley I dont have the finances to add another two drives?
skunk Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Yep, can assure you that one drive with the OS on is bad news. A quote from earlier today: "where is the web-site? why can't I ping the web server? why does the server sound like a sherman tank? f^&* socks! it's the OS disk!"
GlennT Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Agree with Norphy & Geoff...definately try to use 2 disks for the OS - Raid 1 and Raid 5 the others. I know it will be an added expense but well worth it! You can always go for slightly smaller drives if the 160's are too expensive.
zag Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 Don't use raid on your OS drive! that's not a good idea at all. Use a single drive for the OS and put the exchange store on a raid5 partition. If the power goes down raid can have problems with OS partitions and often results in a corrupted system. When it comes to disaster recovery of the OS drive simply back up the OS drive's systate or ghost it. Very easy to do on a non raid drive.
Geoff Posted January 7, 2008 Posted January 7, 2008 If the power goes down raid can have problems with OS partitions and often results in a corrupted system Which is why you have an online UPS between your server and the powergrid and buy raid cards that have a battery backup.
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