Re: SBS 2003 Program Files Partition
From: MCSEGURU (mcseguruhere_at_aol.com)
Date: 02/01/05
- Next message: Jerry zhao : "RE: POP3 Connector problems"
- Previous message: Steven Banks [SBS MVP]: "Re: VPN Setup Question"
- In reply to: MCSEGURU: "Re: SBS 2003 Program Files Partition"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 05:02:50 -0500
We concern ourselves with fragmentation possibilities for the purposes of
sustaining performance on a server for a long time. Fragmentation decreases
disk I/O performance. However, partitioning single disks (or RAID Sets)
does not increase I/O in terms of fragmentation. If anything, it will
increase the odds that you will encounter fragmentation sooner.
Fragmentation occurs when the disk is unable to find contiguous blocks of
free space to write large files. The larger the partition, the longer it
can manage to move information around on the disk before it has to fragment
files from inability to find a large enough unfragmented contiguous free
spot on the disk.
Why does this matter? In most cases with SBS it doesn't. But if you are
partitioning for performance reasons, and the partitions are going to be
made on a single RAID set (mirror) of two physical IDE (SATA) disks, your
solution isn't properly addressing your concerns.
As for controllers, they have cache on them and dual channel controllers
usually shares that cache between their channels. In some cases (very
intensive operation enterprise class servers) that cache memory is vital to
operation, and controller separation increases performance significantly.
This does/will not effect you.
Your original concern was how to move Program Files. My response remains to
not partition and to ensure the "DATA" files for your programs are in Data
folders on the disk, and not in Program Files, and let the Program Files go
to the default location.
If you are using Program Files folder separation to move and distinguish
where the data for certain programs is being stored, in the event that it
grows out of control, you aren't addressing the real issue. Your Program
Data, shoudn't reside in Program Files. You should research how to move
these data files to specific user-configured locations. This includes SBS
specific data files such as exchange and sharepoint.
Remember, you are implementing a server for 3 years. The hope is that it
will remain low maintenance, and self sufficient for those three years. And
in reality, with it being an SBS server, if you set it up well as it appears
you are intending to do, it will get milked for up to 5 years. So with that
being said, why would you want to partition, and created disk space lines
that you don't have to, and create a problem you can't easily fix later. If
in 2 years the OS partition is 20GB and has 10GB free and all the other
partitions are out of space, how do you intend to reclamate some space off
the OS drive. MS isn't going to support anything other than a format,
re-install and restore.
My thoughts,
Jeff
"MCSEGURU" <mcseguruhere@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1EvLd.581$bF4.406@trnddc04...
>I think I would advise against this. I don't know that you can
>successfully get all Program Files to install to D:\ without editing the
>%ProgramFiles% environment variable before the integrated SBS setup begins
>(and I don't know how negatively this will effect other operations on the
>server)
>
> If you are creating these volumes (C:, D:, E:, etc...) by partitioning
> physical disks, then I don't think you are really gaining anything. Disk
> utilization and Disk I/O is the main reason I can think of to separate
> files onto different disks. Since partitioning a disk doesn't really
> effect it's performance characteristics with respect to I/O you are merely
> drawing lines in your sandbox, that in the future you may want to move.
>
> If money wasn't an object, I would recommend creating a Mirror Set for the
> OS and Programs and a separate mirror set or RAID set for Data Files (user
> shares etc...) on one controller and partitioning these disks with one
> partition using the entire disk.
>
> In SBS, exchange doesn't usually grow large enough to warrant separate
> space for itself, and additionally doesn't consume enough I/O to
> negatively effect much, even on a slower processor server with minimal
> memory. However on a large enterprise Exchange Server I would install
> another Mirror Set for your Exchange Database and another Mirror Set or
> RAID Set for your Exchange database logs on a completely separate
> controller with only one partition for each disk.
>
> So with all that said, OS on one disk, and Data (including exchange) on
> another with only single partitions on each is really all you need.
>
> There are some articles on how to get the data files that by default are
> written to %ProgramFiles% and move them to your Data disk.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2003/maintain/movedata.mspx
>
> - jeff
>
>
>
>
>
> "Markus Fuchs" <m.fuchs@nospam.fplusp.com> wrote in message
> news:eP16Ni6BFHA.2624@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> Hey,
>>
>> I'll have to set up a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Ed.
>> soon
>> and wondered how to place the "Program Files" folder on another partition
>> than the system. Will the SBS Setup ask me where to place it or do I have
>> to
>> make an unattended installation file/disk like on Windows 2000/XP?
>> What other parts or folders do you separate by using different
>> partitions?
>> Can you give me some advice?
>>
>> I thought of sth. like this:
>> C: System (Windows SBS 2003)
>> D: Program Files
>> E: Data ("File Server")
>> F: Shadow Copies (Shadow Copies from E: files)
>> G: Repositories (Subversion Repositories)
>>
>> This will be my first experience with a MS server product. I already read
>> most of Charlie Russell's Administrator's Companion and I must admit that
>> I'm overwhelmed by all the features SBS 2003 provides and therefore I
>> appreciate any help.
>>
>> Markus
>>
>>
>
>
- Next message: Jerry zhao : "RE: POP3 Connector problems"
- Previous message: Steven Banks [SBS MVP]: "Re: VPN Setup Question"
- In reply to: MCSEGURU: "Re: SBS 2003 Program Files Partition"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
