How have you guys configured exchange 2003

[Hardmandez]

Just wanted to check how you guys had configured you disks

The deployment guide says you should have the follow partitions setup.

System Partition
Exchange Installation Partition
Log Partition
Database Partition

I was originally planning on Installing the System, Exchange App and the Logs on the c: partition(37Gb) and the Database on the d: partition(140Gb). I could rebuild the server with physical disks of 37gb for the system and exchange installation, 72gb for the logs and 72gb for the database. How have you guys configured your disks?

Thanks

 

[Delphinius]

This is how I configured the drives on our Exchange 2003 server.

Mirrored (on the RAID controller) 18 GB SCSI hard drives:
6 GB for main OS system drive (C: )
4 GB for main OS swap page file (P: )
6.5 GB for Active Directory NTDS drive (N: )

4, 72 GB SCSI hard drives setup in a RAID 5 config on RAID controller with hot spare:
128 GB for Exchange data drive (E: )
8 GB for Exchange logs drive (L: )

Hope this helps....

 

[pdtit]

Hi,

I always suggest the following configuration to my customers for a Windows (and Exchange) server (2K and 2K3)

1 RAID1 set (mirrored) of 2 disks (9Gb or 18Gb if possible)
1 RAID5 set (striped) of x disks (depending on number of data)

* RAID1-set is used for windows system and all applications.
* RAID5-set is used for all data, including exchange databases

Depending on the number of mailboxes and mailflow, I often place the logfiles on the mirrored diskset. Only if the server is a dedicated Exchange server for > 500 users, it's worthwhile to go for a separate logfile partition.

The dark-side of the logfiles : this is my opinion :
* configure your exchange server to use circular logging, which creates 5 logfiles of 5Mb and flushes them to the database. This leaves out your need for diskspace for logfiles.

Pdtit

 

[Hardmandez]

Cheers for the advice guys. In the end I went for the following configuration.

Disk0:Raid 1+0 - 2*36Gb. c: For OS, Exchange Apps.
Disk1:Raid 1+0 - 2*36gb. d: For all logs.
Disk2:Raid 1+0 - 2*72Gb. e: For database.

I try to avoid using Raid 5 wherever possible unless I need to get the most out of the disks available which isn't a problem this time round.

I also avoid splitting partitions into logical drives, for example turning Disk0 into say a C:, d: and E: of 10Gb. From my understanding doing something like this only gives you the impression(logical view)that it has been setup as required. Where as you get the best performance out of using seperate arrays for each partition.

But hey thats all in the ideal world which isn't always reality.

Thanks again.

 

[sabrinaduncan]

Make sure the "system state" and the "Exchange message store" are on different partitions.