Veeam is happy to provide a free NFR license (for 1 year, up to 10 users). This license allows for the non‑production use of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 in your home lab without any feature limitations.
Course Of The Month
Become a Premium Member and unlock a new, free course in leading technologies each month.
Solved
Design consideration for Exchange
Posted on 2012-12-26
Just a question for the other experts out there..
On a virtual server with a 10k SAS Array and a 7.2k SAS Array, where would you put the Exchange databases?
-It's an organisation of 20x SBS2011 users
-Space on the 10K array is limited to 300GB (we need to use it sparingly), 1TB on the 7.2k array
-All Exchange users will be using cached Exchange mode
-There are other LOB programs/databases which will be taking up a lot of the 10k Array, do we really need Exchange be on the faster array?
We normally put the OS and databases requiring fast access on the faster array and all data on the slower one including Exchange databases. Bearing in mind most of our clients are < 25 SBS users, are there any disadvantages to designing this way?
On a virtual server with a 10k SAS Array and a 7.2k SAS Array, where would you put the Exchange databases?
-It's an organisation of 20x SBS2011 users
-Space on the 10K array is limited to 300GB (we need to use it sparingly), 1TB on the 7.2k array
-All Exchange users will be using cached Exchange mode
-There are other LOB programs/databases which will be taking up a lot of the 10k Array, do we really need Exchange be on the faster array?
We normally put the OS and databases requiring fast access on the faster array and all data on the slower one including Exchange databases. Bearing in mind most of our clients are < 25 SBS users, are there any disadvantages to designing this way?
[X]
Welcome to Experts Exchange
Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.
- Help others & share knowledge
- Earn cash & points
- Learn & ask questions
2
2
- +1
6 Comments
Speed is more critical for logs than for database. Logs are cleared each backup, and should not be on the same physical drives as the database.
If the disks run a write cache, you will not notice much difference.
Make sure you have some form of RAID to cope with a drive failure. (mirror at minimum)
If the disks run a write cache, you will not notice much difference.
Make sure you have some form of RAID to cope with a drive failure. (mirror at minimum)
Active 1 day ago
Thanks for your reply, both arrays are in a RAID1 mirror with write cache enabled (controller is battery backed).
There wont be an unusual volume of emails and if all users are using cached exchange mode, a slight degradation in performance surely wont be noticed by the end users.
And we have the logs and databases on different logical partitions, but the same array of physical hard drives. For the scale we're dealing with separate disks would be overkill.
There wont be an unusual volume of emails and if all users are using cached exchange mode, a slight degradation in performance surely wont be noticed by the end users.
And we have the logs and databases on different logical partitions, but the same array of physical hard drives. For the scale we're dealing with separate disks would be overkill.
Active today
When you talk about an array on 10K disks and an array on 7.2k disks, that is not the be all and end all.
If your 10k array is on 3 physical disks and your 7.2k array is on 7 physical disks then your 7.2k array "Can" outperform the 10k array.
You need to be precise when asking this type of question.
That aside, I would agree with you that for the size of your installation, different virtual disks on the 7.2k is going to perform perfectly ok. As you are restricted to a 300GB limit on the 10K i wouldnt be looking at putting database logs on it anyway. If your backups fail and your not maintaining your logs you could fill whats left of those disks and end up with no exchange.
If your 10k array is on 3 physical disks and your 7.2k array is on 7 physical disks then your 7.2k array "Can" outperform the 10k array.
You need to be precise when asking this type of question.
That aside, I would agree with you that for the size of your installation, different virtual disks on the 7.2k is going to perform perfectly ok. As you are restricted to a 300GB limit on the 10K i wouldnt be looking at putting database logs on it anyway. If your backups fail and your not maintaining your logs you could fill whats left of those disks and end up with no exchange.
Active today
Bear in mind that articles like those posted above are for the design and implementation of Exchange 2010 in an exnterprise, taking things like DAG's into consideration.
You are talking about a 20-25 user SBS installation. Although they may make interesting bedtime reading, they have very little relevance to you or your question.
Whatever drives you put your exchange database and logs on, you are NOT going to stress the system or notice any real performance differences. Your idea to place 2 volumes on the 7.2k disk array is fine and you will have no issues.
Neilsr
You are talking about a 20-25 user SBS installation. Although they may make interesting bedtime reading, they have very little relevance to you or your question.
Whatever drives you put your exchange database and logs on, you are NOT going to stress the system or notice any real performance differences. Your idea to place 2 volumes on the 7.2k disk array is fine and you will have no issues.
Neilsr
Featured Post
Blockchain is a technology that underpins the success of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, but it has uses far beyond finance. Learn how blockchain works and why it is proving disruptive to other areas of IT.
Question has a verified solution.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question
Read this checklist to learn more about the 15 things you should never include in an email signature.
Check out this step-by-step guide for using the newly updated Experts Exchange mobile app—released on May 30.
In this video we show how to create a Contact in Exchange 2013. We show this process by using the Exchange Admin Center.
Log into Exchange Admin Center.: First we need to log into the Exchange Admin Center.
Navigate to the Recipients >> Contact ta…
how to add IIS SMTP to handle application/Scanner relays into office 365.
Suggested Courses
Earn Certification
HTML5 Specialist - Certification
Free withPremium
Course of the Month4 days, 11 hours left to enroll
Earn Certification
MTA Mobility Device Fundamentals (Exam 98-368)
$59.00$53.10
635 members asked questions and received personalized solutions in the past 7 days.
Join the community of 500,000 technology professionals and ask your questions.