Older Hp Server Raid - Terminal Services- advice please!

[ndunaz]

Researched here, other forums and books - looking for advice

HP lc 2000 PIII 600Mhz, 3 9 gig hot swap drives, 1si netraid controller -- 512ram (will be 896 when 512 comes to replace one of the 128)

This server will service about 10 Mac clients using the RD client for Macs into Terminal services Accounting program. It will get the roaming profiles from a share on DC (which also has the licensing server and a VERY small application and terminal application on it).

Is hardware raid(5) in this configuration going to have acceptable performance with all 3 drives in the raid set with the OS then created on a partition of like 8 gig leaving the remaining 10 or so for data?

Or is it better to use raid controller to just mirror the 2 drive to 3rd for data leaving the os without any protection? I can't use dynamic disks by the way because the tapeware version that comes with the tape on this system does not support it.

Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated as I need to roll this baby ASAP!

Nancy

 

[Seaspray0]

Without actually having it running and using performance monitor to see results, you can only guess. Here's my guess...

If you're using hardware raid, you don't have to worry about needing dynamic disks. As far as performance, you are on one controller and this is what makes the difference for me. Two controllers would be another story. In a raid 5, the data is striped so you will be retrieving the info across all 3 through the controller and not one disk. The disk itself is the slowest link; if your controller can retrieve data from two or more simultaneously, you have better speed. I don't see any major speed advantage of putting all 3 into two raid5 partitions. One raid5 partiion encompassing all the space gives you the same striping and ability to read through your 1 controller and gives you the flexibility of managing your space more efficiently... whatever space is left can be used for either OS or data. If you are required to have a second drive letter then two raid5 partitions it is. As for reading, if you are primarily reading data and not much for the OS, then having it striped across the 3 drives should be better. The same would be true if you are reading more for the OS than the data. Without actual operations, you just don't know what really will happen. Plus, a raid5 does give you the backup protection you should have on your OS. For that reason alone, I would sacrafice a little performance should the other way actually prove to be faster.

 

[ndunaz]

Thank you so much for your valuable post Seaspray. I think I will have to have 2nd partition but I am also thinking that using the raid 5 and controller is the best way to go on this older server. We are not expecting it to be LIGHTNING fast it is only single 600 mhz after all. We can always get this Accounting App up and working and then if we need to buy a better server for better performance we can then. (I guess) I guess all the warnings about Terminal services using Raid were for software raid as opposed to hardware raid.

I really appreciate your answer. Got the bios and firmware updated, a few more drivers from the HP website and guess I better get this thing rolling.
Thank you again.