Re: Install SS 2005 - log files best practice

Hi Kelly -

Thanks for your response. The following is a direct quote from Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 Implementation and Maintenance (MCTS Exam 70-431) Self-Paced
Training Kit:

"To configure data and log files for best performance, follow these best
practices:

* To avoid disk contention, do not put data files on the same drive that
contains the operating system files.
* Put transaction log files on a separate drive from data files. This split
gives you the best performance by reducing disk contention between data and
transaction log files.
* Put the tempdb on a separate drive if possible, preferably on a RAID 10 or
RAID 5 system. In environments in which there is intensive use of tempdb
databases, you can get better performance by putting tempdb on a separate
drive, which lets SQL Server perform tempdb operations in parallel with
database operations."

Are they talking about logical drives?

Would you have any links to articles that support putting everything on a
single partition?
--
Sandy


"Andrew J. Kelly" wrote:

Installing the log files on a logical drive that is on the same physical
array as the data files gives you little to no advantage. It certainly does
not give you any performance benefits and it can give false hopes of such if
people don't realize it is not two separate physical drives. Hopefully you
are not looking to do lots of transactions or you may not be happy with this
setup. In a case like this I prefer to just make a single large partition
and place everything on that in separate folders. That way you don't have to
worry later on down the road if you made one partition too small or another
too large. As for placing the log file on another server that just isn't
supported.

--
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP

"Sandy" <Sandy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7268310D-3A65-4396-B41B-0C57F3A20BB1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello -

I am a programmer, not a DBA, and have to install Sql Server 2005. We
have
a network guy who is going to be part of the Sql Server 2005 installation
project.

We just had Win 2003 Server installed on a box to be used for Sql Server.
The contractors did not partition it. We have RAID 5.

The network guy thinks it's okay to just install everything on the C
drive,
his reason being: because we have RAID 5.

From everything I've read or done, best practice is to install the log
files
on another drive, and it's my understanding that the preference is another
physical disk, i.e., another computer and if that isn't possible, install
the
logs to another logical drive on the same computer.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for articles that support my
position, and that give tangible reasons for doing same?

Also, he did suggest if we really needed another physical disk, installing
the log files on our application server -- God, I wish I was a DBA --
would
that make sense?

Any light anyone can shed on this will be more than appreciated!

--
Sandy



.

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