More storage for exchange 2003 1

[viperman]

Hello,

We have an exchange 2003 server with 9 GB free. The server is a ibm e-server(1u) that's 1.5 years old and both hard drive slots full(mirror). I was thinking about adding a high capacity usb2 drive for the mail store. Does anyone have any objections to that idea or other ideas??

Thanks.

 

[58sniper]

Yeah - that USB isn't RAID. I'd add an external drive array with at least three drives in a RAID config.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[Fatboy0341]

Hands down - external enclosure/array for some drives.

Bare minimum you should be mirroring any discs that are storing Exchange IS data.

JB



"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."

 

[crobin1]

There's also the speed issue. With USB 2.0 at theoretical best you can get about 60 Megabytes/sec. With Ultra320 SCSI your theoretical max is 320 Megabytes/sec.

As pure anecdote, I inherited a server with an external USB drive attached. Had severe performance issues. After eliminating everything else we removed the USB drive and the server's been fine ever since.

 

[Fatboy0341]

Ditto what crobin said about speed - that's an excellent point.

All the storage in the world doesn't help much if your Exchange server crawls along at the pace of a snail.

Not that there's anything wrong with snails...

JB



"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."

 

[lebisol]

internal drives are cheep these days...more work to re-do your server but well worth it. U can always (if the server can take it) add another raid config to existing one and then move your storage dbs.
All the best!

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All around in my home town,
They tryin' to track me down...