more of a hard ware question

[cptkirkh]

i would like other opinions on this. when setting up a server with raid where is the best place to plase the system files? say i have a file server with raid 5 and 3 36 gb hard drives. do i install an extra hd off the raid for the system files or do i partition on of the 36 gb and install it on there? thanks for your help!!

 

[MarcS1]

My preference would be two have a seperate raid disk for your System, Raid 1 (Mirroring) gives you good performance and redudancy. Use the Raid 5 partition for all your data etc, also think about using larger numbers of smaller disk's. ie 5 x 18gb disks instead of 3 x 36gb. You loose less disk space and your performance increases.

 

[SimonDavis]

Of course if you place the O/S outside of the raid array, you don't have any fault tolerance for the O/S - not the end of the world, but would take longer to restore.

 

[cptkirkh]

so simon you are saying place the system files on the raid 5 setup?

 

[Gabby75]

Hi

Ideal configuration would be:

(All using Hardware RAID)
Mirrored Pair (Raid 1) 2 Disks
System partition, maybe second partition for pagefile/
application code e.g backup software etc.
Raid 5 Array 3 disks
User data.
(Needs 5 disks however)

If you have only 3 disks, suggest Raid-5 for resilience, 2 patritions C: system, d: pagefile/applications.