Exchange 2000 Hardware Reqs with 100 users

[aarick161]

What would be an optimal hardware setup for a mail server running MS Exchange Enterprise with 100 users and a cumulative 80G of email to be stored. Currently I am looking at a dual xeon 2.8Ghz system with redundant power supplies (450W), 4 36G (ultra scsi)hard drives running RAID 5 with 2G of memory, a 50/130 tape back up, DVD-RW, and a CD-ROM with Windows 2000 Server SP3 as the OS. Is this overkill or can I safely get by with less. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gosemer]

Don't forget the spare hard drive so you can run raid 5 with a hotspare.

 

[ACraib]

I'd also recomend you have the log files on a seperate drive from the information store. this allows for the log file drive to fill up (if you have problems with backups). When the log drive fills up the info store will shutdown. If they are on the same drive then uncommited messages may be lost.

Ideally you should have the OS installed on a mirror. The log files on another mirror and the info store on a RAID 5. If you wanted to follow the MS doctrine to the letter then you should also have another mirror containing the Pageing file ... though I've never found this necessary. Also MS recomend that each storage group should have the logs on a seperate mirror and info store on a seperate RAID 5 ... though this isn't practicle in most cases.

I have a server with two mirros (OS and Logs) and a RAID 5 containg the info store. This server supports 150 users across 4 SG with no problem. It has 1Gb RAM and 2 x PIII 1GHz Processors.

Hope this helps.

 

[Davetoo]

We support 325 users on a PIII 500Mhz with 512MB RAM, RAID 5 350GB drives, no hot swap, but a spare sitting on the shelf above the server.

Never had a problem (knock on wood) for three years. IS and logs are all on one drive, no mirrors, etc.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.