Best way to add storage

[TheCandyman]

I have a client with a sbs2003 prem box with raid 5 drives. It came from dell with two partitions, one for the OS (12Gig), and one for other files(124Gig). It's a few years later and the OS has 300 megs of free space and the storage partition has 30 gigs. So i need more room. I have moved the $NTuninstall***** files from the c:\windows folder to the storage partition to try and free up some space. It now has 1.1Gig free for the OS, but still the end is coming.

What would be the best solution for additional space? A SANS? Or Windows Storage Server? Anyone has experience doing this?

 

[HalComps]

have you tried changing it to a SCSI array? you can add more storage space than the normal RAID.

here's a link that gives you some information about it

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SCSI.html

 

[TheCandyman]

I'm currently using scsi raid 5. Your link points to a page that explains what scsi is.... that's doesn't help.

have you personally expanded an array?

 

[HalComps]

try this link as its what your asking

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1350841&page=1

 

[58sniper]

Why not just hang an external array off the existing server? You can buy them fairly cheap.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[TheCandyman]

I'll probably add a SAN and move my data to that, so the server will just sit and do it's email, printers, AD, etc and the SAN will handle the file transfers.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

For DATA storage, I agree, just get an external storage device - I added 250 GB in a Mirror for a client using eSATA RAID for about $500 (total capacity of the box was 3 TB based on current hard drive sizes).

As for the C: drive, I think you need to look what's on it. 12 GB should be sufficient if it's managed properly. For example, are the Exchange databases on the C: drive? The MSDE Databases? The ClientApps folder? The Pagefile? These things can all be moved off C:.

 

[TheCandyman]

It is a sbs box, so yes exchange, AD and pretty much everything is running off of it. I did move any client apps install programs off, the page file is turned off for C. I was able to get 700Megs from moving the uninstall files off of C, currently at 1.2 Gig of free space which is good for me.

You went with eSATA? What model? I need to make sure it has a RAID option for redundancy. I like the SAN, but that mainly comes with Fiber connectors, so NAS may be a better option for me.

 

[58sniper]

I don't like SATA because it's too slow. But it might work for what you need. Can't say I'd put the Exchange databases or transaction logs on them.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP