Re: Using SAN for database storage

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Greg Zook (gregzooknospam_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 05/25/04

  • Next message: Anthony Little: "Re: Exchange 2003 design question" 
    Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 07:51:20 -0700

    "Al Mulnick" <amulnick_No_SPAM@ncDOTrr.com> wrote in message
    news:uuhO0weQEHA.1276@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
    > I always think it's so cute the way that a manger tries to think in
    > technical terms even though they have someone next to them they pay for
    that
    > </rant and frustration>
    >
    > Exchange runs fine on a SAN. There are a few things to be aware of when
    > doing this:
    >

    Great suggestions to get me started. Thanks.

    > 1) Exchange is I/O intensive under normal operating conditions
    > 2) Exchange requires that you use HCL approved hardware (that now includes
    > iSCSI and direct attached disk even if NAS last I checked. Check before
    > implementing)
    > 3) Shared SAN infrastructure is not usually a good idea for an I/O
    intensive
    > application with random r/w characteristics (three types of I/O in
    > Exchange). Note that shared infrastructure is not the problem for smaller
    > implementations, but rather shared spindles can be.
    > 4) There are some tweaks you'll find as a recommendation to get better
    > performance. You may not need them, but... things like aligning the
    sectors
    > and formatting with Exchange-optimized disk blocks can be helpful.
    > 5) Check with your SAN vendor and the Microsoft document "Troubleshooting
    > Exchange 2003 performance" for more information. Your SAN vendor will
    have
    > some SAN-specific data (they're the storage experts right?) and Microsoft
    > will have some generic storage recommendations similar to above.
    >
    > Al
    >
    >
    > "Greg Zook" <gregzooknospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
    > news:2hf58oFce1mtU1@uni-berlin.de...
    > > Management has changed the design of our hardware to use our SAN for
    > > Exchange storage. I told them I thought it would work fine. I haven't
    > > deployed this yet so I don't see a problem with the design change. Is
    > there
    > > anything I should know? I haven't the experience on SAN storage for
    > > Exchange to determine how this should impact my design.
    > >
    > >
    >
    >

  • Next message: Anthony Little: "Re: Exchange 2003 design question"

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