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Single Server Installation? 1

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jmank91

jmank91

MIS
Feb 22, 2005
45
US
I apologize if this question has been posed already but I could not find any thread addressing this.
Can Exchange 07 be installed effectively on a single server? Due to major budgetary constraints I was only able to procure a single new server this past year. It is an HP DL380 w/ 12Gigs of Ram and Dual Quad Core Intel 2.6ghz Processors. It has 1.5 TB of Disk space in a Raid5. Windows 2003 R2 x64 is installed on system.

My current setup is a single Exchange 03 box. I was hoping to get another server for ISA to make this more secure and running the Edge transport roles but was unable to get funding. Should I try to upgrade to Exchange 07 with a single server? Or should I just stick with 03, move it to the new box, and wait until I get another server before upgrading to Exchange 07.

 
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Alright,
after more browsing I have found some instances for single server installation. I'm going to go ahead and try.
 
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How many users? How many disks in the array? Why dual quad core processors? Why 12GB of RAM?
 
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I have 500 Users
There are 7x250GB sata in raid 5 amounting to 1.5TB
The reason for the server size is that I am prohibited from restricting mailbox size of certain users and currently I have some users using over 13 GBs of space in the Information Store. I have 4 Information stores all approximately 30-40 GBs in size. I am only allowed to restrict mailbox size to our Part-Time Faculty.

I also will have to move our 400GB file server to reside on some of the extra space available on the array as the old file server is about 75% full on disk space. My intention after all was done with that was to use my old server to create a front-end server (i know exchange 03 term). But that will have to wait until i have everything set up. I can't use the old Exchange 03 server b/c it is the only other machine powerful to process my FSMO roles for AD. Most of my servers are about 5-7 years old.
 
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FSMO holders could be P2 boxes.

What internal drives will you have in addition to the RAID?

Are the 500 users all heavy?

I'd say RAID1 the OS and apps internally. RAID1 the transaction logs internally. More RAID1 if you have space inside.

Then you are restricted on the store placements with that many disks. I'd do 3 x 250GB RAID1 and leave it at 3 stores (2007 can be bigger than 2003).

Once you get the other server out, I'd use that as a CAS/HT and have this new one initially as CAS/HT/MB with a view to going to MB only downstream. Though with 500 users, a one box solution is more than possible.
 
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Using a single array is RARELY recommended. You should have your OS & paging files on their own mirrored drives. Databases on their own RAID 10 array (RAID 10 is much better than RAID 5 - search these forums for more info), and the transaction logs on their own RAID 10 array. Otherwise, you have single points of failure, and the potential for crappy performance.

Some rough math comes up with 3 DB LUNs of 134GB each, 3 TL LUNS of 18GB each, and an RSG LUN of 146GB. That's based on the info you provided.

Now pile your AV on there. And hope you don't have any Blackberry units that will hamper performance even more.

I'd use the old Exchange server as your file server before I'd make it a CAS/HT server.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.
 
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I'd read that the file server was going to take the other half of the RAID array but you may well be right.
 
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If it is something like a PowerVault then the two halves work entirely separately.

Single array for databases could be ok but single array for OS and TLs too, I agree - I just didn't read it as that.
 
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Thanks guys,
After reading your responses I will shutdown the server, and possibly reconfigure my Raid as follows
7 Disks of 250 GB each
RAID 1 2x250 Drives for OS (250 GBs for OS and Applications)
RAID 10 4x250 Drives for DB and TLs (500 GB should provide adequate space for store DB and TLs)
Make 7th Drive a Global HotSpare
**If the array is not capable of RAID 10 I will do 2 more RAID 1's similar to OS/Application setup and split the larget information store to a dedicated array, and have the smaller two stores with the TLs on the third array.

The single box will include all CAS/HT/MB roles.
Take my old exchange 03 box and make it the File Server, this box currently has a 500GB RAID10 that can be reconfigured to allow more space since Exchange will no longer be running on it, and the RAID 10 was done then for the same reasons you guys are telling me to do it now. It seems as though I forget my own reasoning quickly.

Sound good?
 
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One more quick question. I had originally decided to run the box with Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 b/c I'm always leary of using new software. However, I do have a volume license copy of Server08. Should I be using 08 or stick with what I know to be stable in 03Ent?
 
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08 is great and integrates really well with Ex07.

However, you're saying that you want to do a single RAID10 for the DBs and TLs together? I would advise against that. Is this an internal array or external?
 
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It is an internal array. I counted wrong I have 8x250GB
I read your post before doing my raid config
Logical Array 0: 2x250GB Raid 10 (OS and App)
Logical Array 1: 4x250GB Raid 10 (DB Stores)
Logical Array 2: 2x250GB Raid 10 (TLs)

Windows 08 Enterprise Installation
 
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Logical Array 0: 2x250GB Raid 1 (OS and App)
Logical Array 1: 4x250GB Raid 10 (DB Stores)
Logical Array 2: 2x250GB Raid 1 (TLs)

in fact...

Is this a single bus? If so, you'll get a bottleneck there running everything over a single bus. Preferably go for a dual bus system to minimise problems. More RAM would also help!

Why Windows Enterprise?
 
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I have always used the Enterprise versions in the past in order to use more than 4GB of Ram. I hadn't thought that since this is x64 I would be able to use it anyway. Since my media has Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter on it I guess I can install standard
 
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Thanks so much for the guidance with this. I have finished the server and had it working perfectly until I screwed something up on my 03 box. I am starting a new thread to address this problem.
 
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You didn't screw anything up - it is a "gotcha" that I think I'm familiar with.
 
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