Server Disk Design (Windows)

[A5Ben]

So I am about to begin migrating my Netware servers to MS. I wanted to ask everyone if they would share their file server disk setups.

 

Each of my servers has 400GB total storage in a raid5 configuration. I plan to give the C partition 40Gb for the OS (Win Server 2008 Ent.). That leaves the rest of the logical disk to partition for users/students home directories, software distribution storage etc.

 

If anyone wants to share it would be greatly appreciated. I need some ideas.

 

 

B:bowl:en

[6Foot2]

Our servers each have 60 Gb allocated for the primary partition [server 2008 Standard] This leaves about 1.4 Tb for user home folders, shared network resources, etc [Raid 5]

 

I might have over specified a little but I think it is better to over spec than under spec and then be left with the problem of how to rectify the problem. Anyway I may have other plans for some of the currently unused space...

 

Not sure how we arrived at this arrangement exactly, just did not want the issue we had with one of our last servers where we were running out of disk space on C:\

[Diello]

40GB for Primary Partition C - OS files only (Srv 2008)

A varied size, usually about 1/3 of remaining space depending on server role, D drive - Software as required.

Rest of space E drive - Shared files.

 

RAID5

[DMcCoy]

So I am about to begin migrating my Netware servers to MS. I wanted to ask everyone if they would share their file server disk setups.

 

Each of my servers has 400GB total storage in a raid5 configuration. I plan to give the C partition 40Gb for the OS (Win Server 2008 Ent.). That leaves the rest of the logical disk to partition for users/students home directories, software distribution storage etc.

 

If anyone wants to share it would be greatly appreciated. I need some ideas.

 

 

B:bowl:en

 

Server 2008 will align the partitions correctly for raid, so other than deciding if you want one or more partitions beyond the OS one will be a personal preference.

 

I like to use three on our file servers, OS, User home folders, general shares / profiles. I keep the general/profiles one smaller so that should those areas ever have large quantities of data put on them (home folders have quotas) then it doesn't disrupt users saving file.

 

You can also consider just having OS/Data/Shadow copy partition. A separate shadow copy partition will help reduce the load on the server when it is creating the copy and allows a much easier maximum size (the whole partition), plus when using disk image products for backup it's easier to leave the shadow copy out.

[broc]

For Mission critical servers, I tend to use RAID1 for system drives and RAID5 with hot spare for data.

 

Most of our server C: drives are 72gb SCSI or SAS, with either 146gb SCSI or 146gb/300gb SAS drives for data.

 

We also have a small number of less critical servers that use SATA where I need capacity but without high performance or redundancy.

[A5Ben]

Thanks for the replies, keep em coming! Coming from Netware servers I find myself looking for the MS equivalent to NSS volumes. I guess I can just leave free space and expand the volumes should they begin to run out of space later.

 

 

So far I think I'll go with:

 

C: 60GB OS

S: 100GB Misc Shares and Software Distribution Point(DFS)

U: 250GB User/Student Shares with quotas

 

If these servers were new I would go with Raid1 for the OS but these are existing servers so I must make due.

 

Ben

[maniac]

Our brand new file server is in the following configuration.

 

2 x 74GB drives in RAID 1 exclusively for the OS

 

9 x 300GB SAS drives for the storage, which are setup in a RAID5 + 1 array, which gives the array a spare drive which will automatically step in in the event of a drive failure and the array automatically rebuilds which is dead handy. This is partitioned into 4 - students, staff, shared areas and a separate partition for shadow copies to use for its data. This is divided roughly 50% for students home areas, 25% for staff home areas and profiles, 15% for the shared areas and 10% for shadow copies to use.

 

I like to keep the students and staff on separate partitions so one can't use up the others space, and it also makes it easier to manage quotas, shadow copies and other such systems. I like to keep the shared areas on separate partition as I don't use shadow copies on the shared drives, and you can only specify this on a per drive basis.

 

Mike.

[legaleagle1]

We use 2x73GB HDD's in RAID 1 format, then a number of disks in RAID 5 for the data or D partition.

 

Works OK for us if you can afford to use 2x73's just on your C drive.

[mattstevenson2005]

All of our servers have 2x 146gb SAS 15k drives for C running server 2008 enterprise apart from our exchange 2007 server which has 2x 72gb SAS 15k for c and 5 146gb for mailboxes, all users general work is stored on our 2x 6tb fully real time replicated SANs. All the schools media work e.g video editing is stored on the 8tb xraid. all students have up to 2gb of personal storage on the general SANs and staff have up to 4gb of personal storage and this is only the starting point as we still have another 2tb to allocate