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RAID Recommendation For Exchange Server

R

rosco

Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2000
Messages
722
I'm going to be setting up a Exchange server. It's for a small office with 10-15 people and will also be used as a light fileserver.

What I'd like to know is how to set up the drives. The budget is around $1500 (hardware only) and backup is already in place. So, would dual raid1, one for os and one for exchange and data work well enough? I was thinking of having a hot spare also. What's the best config for this?
 
Whats the capacity needed? Would 500GB be OK, or do you need more? Or less?

Say you need like 250GB total, 3ware 2-port SATA card ($150), plus two 250GB HDs ($160 each). Maybe buy a third disk and keep around just incase one breaks. So thats like $450 just for disk array. You could use smaller disks if needed, 160GB SATA disks are $100 each.

For 500GB, 3ware 4 port SATA card ($330), 4 200GB or 250GB SATA drives ($484 for 4x200, 600+ for 4x250GB), configured in RAID 10. So anywhere from $784 to $950.

If you need 600-750GB, configure the above system in RAID 5 instead of RAID 10. A little less redundant, since in RAID 5 you can have one drive fail and be OK, RAID 10 can have either 1 or 2 disks fail and be OK, it depends on which disks fail, see RAID 10, RAID 5.

Plus you'd still need a mobo, processors, case, etc.
 
not trying to argue, but i am just curious why ^^ recommended sata drives immidiatly

and for the parent: can you give a little more info; what size you need, how much you think you will spend exclusively on drives, and how redundant you want the system to be?
 
I'm guessing I could spend around $750 on the drives, controllers etc. As for redundancy, obviously more is better but I can't really spend much more than the $750. I was hoping that by having a global hot spare that even if one drive failed in any array that it could keep chugging along after copying the data to the hot spare.

For my 10-15 users, 100-150GB should be plenty for them. That's allowing for a lot of growth as their storage needs at this point are small.

I've always used scsi disks for things like this. However, I would also like to see the recommendations on what you guys recommend if sata ends up being the way to go. I realize that's a small budget for something like this so sata might be my best option here. I'm just used to the reliability of scsi drives and hope sata can come close if need be.
 
What I'm planning on doing is to buy a base model Dell Poweredge 1600sc and then install my own drives and controller. I'll either have to install the motherboard etc in a different case or use an external drive array.

So, your input on the best way to do this is welcome.
 
I would NOT run a raid 0 for any type of database, unless you're doing backups often, and losing information won't be that big a deal, too much to risk if you're using it for business critical info.
 
cloaked said:
not trying to argue, but i am just curious why ^^ recommended sata drives immidiatly
Click to expand...

Cheaper than SCSI, and the parent post seems to be on a tight budget. And he said light file serving, nothing intense.


And if you wanted to spend $750 on drives and the controller card AND only needing 150GB, you have lots of options.

A 2-port card ($150) and two 160GB drives ($100 ea) in RAID 1 can be done for $350, for 160GB of usable space. In fact, for $700 you can get two of those and have seperate arrays for the OS/software, and one for data. Or just have a ready backup for any part.

A 4-port card eats up a lot ($330), but coupled with 4 160GB Drives ($100 each) you can do the same thing as above on one card, have a lot more room with RAID 10 (320GB usable space). Or slide down to 120GB drives, for $90 each, and have 240GB of usable space.
 
Um, raid 0 is not even an option. I'm pretty much doing either 1 or 5 or maybe 10. I'd like to have a hot spare so I'm not sure when cards support this. I'd like to have a seperate array for OS and one for data. So, would I be best off using a seperate controller for each array? Does the 2 port card you mention support a hot spare?
 
If you're going to be cannabalizing a new poweredge 1600SC for parts - why not just scratch build the box?

In any case - my company has a Dell PE 2400 running exchange for 90 people. (total information store size around 10GB - 300MB limit for users, nag at 200)

It is dual P3, 2GB ram, and two SCSI disk arrays - RAID1 OS RAID5 data (5 disks total). That gives us a 33GB os drive and a 60GB Data drive (approximately).

If you've got a $750 storage budget - you can get a nice 2 channel SCSI card for around $350 and 3 36GB 10K SCSI drives for about $400. Set 2 up in a RAID 1 array and you should have plenty of storage for 10-15 users (just make sure you set limits - people will fill what you give them). Use the third for a hot spare.

If and when the time comes to get more space - or you need to separate the OS and database for performance reasons (shouldn't be an issue with 15 people) then you buy another 3 SCSI disks, and set them up as a RAID5 array on that same controller. Dismount your information store, copy your information store to the new drives - reattach it, and you're set. (Assuming exchange 2k3)

If you need more space right now - then I'd have to suggest IDE or SATA disks - but I don't particularly like low end IDE/SATA RAID controllers maturity for enterprise use.


What version of Exchange are you going to be deploying?
 
SCSI? yes. lasts longer. period.

ive never sent back a SCSI drive yet. heck , I have a 2GB scsi that STILL WORKS.

as for 2 channel cards? $350? where he heck are you buying? hypermicro? there are cheaper places. google, search, www.resellerratings.com.

i have spoken. :eek:
 
OverlordQ said:
$1500? Buy a PE 1600SC server from Dell. Works good. Period.
Click to expand...


I actually went and priced out a 1500SC at dell before I made my recommmendation. The RAID card alone is a $500 upgrade - add in the proc, disks, etc.... it doesn't work out....
I would suggest just going with a prebuilt for the ability to get 4 hour parts replacement and not have to worry about parts failing or having odd incompatibilities - but you'll pay for it.

As for getting a card for cheaper than $350 - a quality Adaptec SCSI raid card from a reputable vendor with HARDWARE RAID5 (that's key - the hardware RAID 5 support) will run you in the neighborhood of $300 - 350. Yes you can get one cheaper - just make sure it's from Adaptec, LSI, or 3ware, and will work with your components. (Especially if you'll be using any kind of a Tape drive - autoloaders are a bitch to get functioning)
 
I was going to get a 1600sc and then get a different case for it if necessary if there wasn't enough room for all the drives. I'd prefer not to build one myself as it's hard to beat the price from Dell and all the components are compatible etc.

I'd definately like to use scsi. That's all I've used for something like this in the past. I just have a awefully tight budget on this one. So, that led me to at least consider sata raid. I'm considering getting a last generation scsi raid controller off of ebay. I don't need extremely high throughput here. What would you guys suggest for that? A good U160 scsi controller with raid 5 and hot swap support.
 
I would recommend a Proliant ML server over the Dell any day.

A Xeon based ML330 should be configurable within your budget, this would give you the option of upgrading to dual processors if needed at a later date.

Or you could save a little and get a ML110 but those are single proc only.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/platforms/index-tc.html

Don't skimp on RAM, Exchange likes RAM. (though depeding on version and on OS it may not use any over 1GB)

also: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/55/maintain/edbwp.mspx

==>Lazn
 
I assume that you mean I can configure it like that if I use sata. I don't think I could configure it with scsi raid with a total of 5 disks for under $1500. I'd like to be shown wrong though. I'd really like to do scsi. I don't know if the hp is any cheaper than the dell.

I guess buying a bare bones 1600sc or ml330 and then upgrading it may allow me to make it under the $1500.
 
I know this is contrary to the [H] way, but I would DEFINITELY go with a "name-brand" server instead of trying to build one from parts...You'll begin to appreciate service plans once your first drive fails. HPs are my first choice (service is fantastic). I've had some minor experience with gateway servers, but my HP experience has been more positive...

Our company uses one main exchange server for about 200 users, about 75 of those being remote users who VPN into our network. Between the file server and the mail server (hundreds of thousands of emails + attachments, and thousands of files) I think we have like 150 gigs (arrays of 18gb 10k rpm scsi's)...I don't think you're going to need half a TB for 20 users unless you guys are archiving gigantic files. Make sure the drives are redundant (i can't stress this enough...we've had a drive fail twice this year) and also make sure that you have some kind of backup device (maybe a DVD-RW given your budget...tape drives are pricey - ours was like $4000).

good luck!
 
Using a DVD drive for backup isn't a horrible idea - but getting them to work under server 2K3 can be a bit of a pain.

Once again I second the idea of going purely pre-built, but I don't think that can happen on your budget. Irrespective - If you buy the 1600SC and then change out the case - you lose all the advantages of having a 1600SC - namely, having a Dell warranty (which is a pretty good thing to have).

The other problem you'll run into is that dell uses a lot of semi-proprietary or non-standard form factor stuff. Their power supplies are a big culprit, and I don't honestly know about their motherboards. One other strike against the 1600SC case swap is that a good server class case will negate almost, if not all, of any cost advantage a 1600SC might have. One final bit is that the 1600SC's don't have hot swap capability... (at least not with drive cages).

I think you'd be better off with using a PE700 as your baseline than a 1600SC if you go dell. Single proc - but supports more of what you want out of the box. A final cost saving option with the PE 700 might be to get it configured with RAID1 on 2 SATA drives from dell - then add in your own RAID5 controller and SCSI drives.
 
rosco said:
I assume that you mean I can configure it like that if I use sata. I don't think I could configure it with scsi raid with a total of 5 disks for under $1500. I'd like to be shown wrong though. I'd really like to do scsi. I don't know if the hp is any cheaper than the dell.

I guess buying a bare bones 1600sc or ml330 and then upgrading it may allow me to make it under the $1500.
Click to expand...

The very best is 5 disks (two mirrored, one RAID 5 array) but for your size of org, I would just mirror two 76GB drives, or 3 36GB drives in RAID 5 and use that. Then you can always upgrade later by adding more drives and moving the databases (not hard in E2k or 2k3)

==>Lazn
 
Lazn_Work said:
The very best is 5 disks (two mirrored, one RAID 5 array) but for your size of org, I would just mirror two 76GB drives, or 3 36GB drives in RAID 5 and use that. Then you can always upgrade later by adding more drives and moving the databases (not hard in E2k or 2k3)

==>Lazn
Click to expand...

I agree here with the hdd recomendation butremember to invest in ram... exchange likes ram
 
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