October 11, 2008 08:33pm pdt

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	[x] Attachment Details

What is the best hard drive configuration for Exchange with my limited drive options?

[x]

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7.7

Zones: Exchange Email Server, Computer Hard Drives, Storage Technology

Tags: Microsoft, Exchange, 2003, HP, DL360 G5

OS: Server 2003 std. SP2
Applicaion: Exchange Server 2003 std

I find myself in the position of setting up a new Exchange server without the optimum hardware. I have inherited an Exchange server that was not built in the best way but it is functioning. It has one RAID 5 array split into two partitions and everything on those two. I've read many articles which lead me to believe the best way to set up hard disks is to separate the
A - OS, Exchange Binaries
B - Pagefile
C - SMTP and MTA queues
D - Log files
E - DB

Unfortunately, I only have 6 hard disks (72GB 10k ea) to work with and that's the most this server can handle. Getting larger hard drives or more space is not an option at this point. I need to make the best decision for what I currently have. My requirements:
1 - Redundancy (sustain a hard drive failure and recover)
2 - Support a current DB that is 42GB and will obviously grow
3 - Have the necessary (110%?) free space on the DB partition
4 - Use the hardware currently available

What I've come up with so far is to have the A and B on a RAID 1 array (two disks). The remaining 4 disks are in a RAID 1+0 configuration giving me about 136GB usable space. Function E must go on this partition as it's the only one with enough space. I've read that the worst thing to do is place the logs on the same partition as the DB so would I place the logs on the first array making it hold A,B,D? Or ignore that and place it on the same array as the DB? If I do place it on the same array as the DB would it help at all to create a second partition on that array for the logs or does it not matter as it's still the same array? Finally, can I place the queues on the first partition as well or would they be better on the second?

I'm sorry if there are so many rambling questions but the main question is what is the best performance setup I can achieve with this admittedly limited hard drive scenario?

	#	Title
	1	Exchange IS is growing and won't st…
	2	Exchange MTA queus growing
	3	Installing Exchange 2007 - Single P…
	4	Why does my Exchange database kee…
	5	MTA Queue
	6	database limit is exceeding