Hardware for 1000+ people

Looking to move from Ex2K to Ex2K3 on new hardware.

I currently have over 1000 mailboxes on Ex2K, database currently around 45GB
in one storage group, another 5GB in public folders. OS = RAID 1, DB + Logs
= RAID 5 (5 x 10Ks). Originally the 5 disks were setup as 2 for Logs and 3
for DB, but as the DB grew there was no choice but to increase the RAID 5 to
5 disks as funding wasn't available. I mention this as the server runs
poorly when our users decide to send 25MB+ emails around.

To improve performance and allow for growth I am proposing the following :-

Dell 2850 - 2 x 3G XEON, 4G RAM
OS = 2 x 36G 15K (RAID 1)
LOGS = 2 x 36G 15K (RAID 1) (Logs are currently only a few GB per day)

PowerVault
DB = 9 x 72G 15K (RAID 0+1) (9th disk as standby)

The MS documentation seems to steer away from RAID 5 due to write penalties
(eg below link)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/StoragePerformance/049faa66-321e-433f-8df8-083e52e7ae5e.mspx

I've also had a look at HPs sizing tool.

As part of the migration I intend to introduce at least a second storage
group keep each one below 30GB.

Interested in anyones views on the suitability of this new hardware. One
area I'm yet to finalise is the controllers and channels. I'm assuming that
I can use two channels on the internal controller on the 2850, one for OS
disks, two for Log disks), and I can install an additional PERC controller
for the RAID 0+1 array. For the 0+1 array should all the 9 disks be one one
channel, or should each side of the mirror be on its own channel ?

Thanks for your time.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Outlook on the SBS 2003 Server
    ... I was more specifically answering the question of RAID (asked by Duncan ... It has lots of controller drivers right on the CD, ... the server and restoring is a breeze. ... How does it work - re you put the image on different hardware, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Drive setup
    ... >leads you to believe that you would consider configuring ... >machine with software RAID, foresaking the hardware ... The original statement said it had hardware raid, ... Each channel is a seperate SCSI controller ...
    (microsoft.public.cert.exam.mcsa)
  • Re: IDE Raid mit 2x 300 GB Festplatten (Hardware oder Software RAID?)
    ... der Hardware kann man ganz gut Tendenzen in Bezug auf Leistungsfähigkeit ... Es gibt drei Arten Controller: ... Und schnelles RAID 5 bekommt man idR ... nächste Windows rauskommt, ...
    (de.comp.hardware.laufwerke.festplatten)
  • Re: Disk management
    ... you don't need to do a thing with the raid configuration. ... Hardware mirroring is done at the drive controller's hardware level. ... If your drive controller is not natively supported you'll want to boot the ... | controller) then wipe both drives then load the win2003 and add the mirror | back in? ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.setup_deployment)
  • Re: RAID array for home
    ... Essentially, the controller itself was not RAID-aware, and the ... Windows driver just talked to individual drives. ... Some, at least, of the on-board RAID chipsets claim to have hardware ... RAID levels greater than 1 -- which means that the chipsets may offer ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
Loading