asked on Windows Server 2012 -- how much space and single vs multi-servers?
I'm fairly tech savvy, but am very new to the server environment. I have an HP ML110 with WS 2012 R2 installed. I have 3 TB HDDs, with two of them in a RAID 1 (the third is just hooked up but no recognized because it hasn't been added to an array.) I'm not married to this configuration, it's just the way I did it when I started.
My end goal is to have a home server that runs AD DS, DNS and DHCP and also acts as a file server. I don't have any processor-intensive applications (SQL db, etc).
I wanted to know what is best practice regarding:
1. RAID configuration. Is it just best to take all my physical disks and create 1 large array?
2. 1.5TB at RAID 1 or 3TB at RAID 0?
3. Is it ok (for performance purposes) to have AD DS, DNS and DHCP on the same server?
4. Should I use Hyper-V and create multiple virtual servers to run the above services?
If there are any other broad rules of thumb that I should be aware of please let me know.
Thank you
My end goal is to have a home server that runs AD DS, DNS and DHCP and also acts as a file server. I don't have any processor-intensive applications (SQL db, etc).
I wanted to know what is best practice regarding:
1. RAID configuration. Is it just best to take all my physical disks and create 1 large array?
2. 1.5TB at RAID 1 or 3TB at RAID 0?
3. Is it ok (for performance purposes) to have AD DS, DNS and DHCP on the same server?
4. Should I use Hyper-V and create multiple virtual servers to run the above services?
If there are any other broad rules of thumb that I should be aware of please let me know.
Thank you
Windows Server 2012Server HardwareStorageDHCPNetwork Architecture
Last Comment
Michael
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I never said he couldn't do raid 1 with two drives. I said he won't get to 1.5TB with three 1TB drives as he proposed. My comment stands.
ASKER
Thank you for your responses. The workload will not be heavy. 3-4 users tops and none will be consistent 8hr/day users.
That solves #3 and #4!
For #1 & #2: I'd likely add another 1TB drive so I'd have 4TB total. I have an external 4 bay NAS (here) which I think would make sense to back up the server to. Of course, nowadays these SOHO NAS's seem to be meant for serving up the data on the NAS via different applications vs being just a 'back up'.
Given that I might use the NAS as the backup station, I think my preference is toward performance.
Or how about RAID5? If so, how many drives would I need and what would my effective space be?
That solves #3 and #4!
For #1 & #2: I'd likely add another 1TB drive so I'd have 4TB total. I have an external 4 bay NAS (here) which I think would make sense to back up the server to. Of course, nowadays these SOHO NAS's seem to be meant for serving up the data on the NAS via different applications vs being just a 'back up'.
Given that I might use the NAS as the backup station, I think my preference is toward performance.
Or how about RAID5? If so, how many drives would I need and what would my effective space be?
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With 4 1TB drives all in the array, you'd have 3TB. But performance is meddling. Unless you really need the space, RAID 10 would be better. But I'm still a fan of storage spaces if possible. Better resiliency and less prone to bit rot, which can be an issie with very large drives. Especially when run with ReFS.
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Caveat, with RAID 1 and 10, not just any two drives can fail. After a single failure, it becomes a matter of which second drive fails. You have a 1 in 3 chance that the mirror of the first fails and data loss would then occur.
Please state the make/model of the hard disks - just checking whether the manufacturer specifies max two disks in a chassis due to lack of vibration tolerance.
ASKER
Many thanks to everyone who's responded. You guys are very knowledgeable!!
The drive that came with the ML110 is an HPE 1TB drive, I then added two 1TB WD Caviar Blue's. Hopefully that isn't a bad thing that they are of different spec levels..
A few folks have mentioned using Storage Spaces--I assume this is just a logical approach to configuring the drives within the UEFI? What does Storage Spaces afford me?
The drive that came with the ML110 is an HPE 1TB drive, I then added two 1TB WD Caviar Blue's. Hopefully that isn't a bad thing that they are of different spec levels..
A few folks have mentioned using Storage Spaces--I assume this is just a logical approach to configuring the drives within the UEFI? What does Storage Spaces afford me?
But I'm still a fan of storage spaces if possible. Better resiliency and less prone to bit rot, which can be an issie with very large drives. Especially when run with ReFS.
I'd strongly consider storage spaces and a good backup for type system drove without raid.
What storage spaces brings to the table: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15198.storage-spaces-overview.aspx
No, storage spaces has nothing to with UEFI. It has been added to new Windows OS's along with a new File-System, ReFS, which is more modern than NTFS.
ASKER
Thanks everyone.