SBS installation guidelines

[maya14]

I kindly need your opinion on the following items:

1.) What RAID setup is mostly recommended and what utility do I use for RAID configuration. Lots are saying RAID 5 with mirroring using 3 disks. How do you do this?
2.) Should SQL databases be placed separately from log files on a different drive (non system drive)
3.) Should Exchange log files be placed separately from IS under MDBdata on a different drive (non system drive)
4.) Must circular logging be enabled. Using SBS backup.

 

[58sniper]

1. Various RAID levels depend on what you're trying to do, and the number of spindles available.
2. Yes - on a mirrored volume if possible.
3. Yes - logs on a mirrored volume, databases on RAID 1+0 volume. Nothing else on either volume.
4. Never.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Some of what 58sniper said is not incorrect but is usually impractical and unnecessary for small installations (like those running SBS). RAID should be considered ALWAYS necessary, but a 5 disk system with a Mirror and a RAID 5 will typically be just fine - even a two or four disk system (one or two mirrors) will work as well. RAID should be Hardware RAID, but software is better than none at all.

ALL DATA should be moved off the C: drive. I use partitions as hard quotas for some things - DO NOT think that partitions will improve performance (for example, don't setup your RAID 5, then put the exchange logs on partition 2 and the exchange database on partition 3, with the OS on partition 1 - this will do no good for performance - it will only segregate each item so they can't directly cause the others to run out of disk space.

 

[ShackDaddy]

I agree with LWComputing. I usually use four to six disks for an SBS server, depending on the sort of work they'll be doing: two or three separate mirrors. The benefit of RAID 5 on three drives isn't high enough when storage on SATA is so cheap, and this allows you to have distinct spindle sets. The exception is when I have a client who has a lot of users accessing large data files (or SQL queries) a lot, like an architect, in which case setting up a 5+disk RAID 5 just for all that data is a good call.

Too many people fall into the trap of setting up a large RAID 5 and then putting the data on multiple partitions therein, thinking that they've optimized through separation.

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[santan4]

what i practice is Raid1 the C:. Raid 5 the data. Swap out a drive from the Raid1 C: from time to time. So you have an extra backup of your server to deploy at a moments notice.

 

[maya14]

I'm not that familiar with RAID technology.How do i do the RAID configuration during setup.Is it part of the BIOS or special software that comes with a server.
I have 3 x 150 GB drives in our HP server and i need to re-install SBS 2003 on server box.
I previously installed OS on one 150 Gb drive and the data and users files on other two 150 GB drives.
The OS and some other files only used 13 Gb of the 150 Gb of my C drive so i'm wasting disk space, therefore the need to re-install.
I need to do it right second time around.

 

[etherbadger]

first a warning: anything you change in the raid setup utility is likely to result in the destruction of any data on the disk, when you create arrays they are usually formatted in the process.

you usually set up raid when the pc boots, it will either be in the bios or one of those a "press ctrl-a to configure," or "press ctrl-r to configure" messages after the computer posts. You could also try booting off of your hp smartstart cd and follow the setup guide there.

for sbs, it seems like everybody agrees 5 physical drives is the sweet spot:
2 in raid 1 for the os and other server programs like exchange
3 in raid 5 for user data and the exchange mdb/stm files

ideally you could get 2 additional drives, 73gb or more and raid 1 them, ghost your existing os drive parition onto that, back up all your user data and create a raid 5 with your 3 150gb drives.

If new drives aren't an option, you could raid 5 all 3 drives in order to get redundancy for the os drive but like ShackDaddy and LW said, you are sacrificing performance.