Windows 2008r2 2TB Disk Limit on DL380g7

[rogerp_1]

Thanks

Hi Chaps,

Need advice.

We have the below new server that needs to become the company new Data Server.

HP DL380G7

12gb Ram

1 x On Board Smart Array p410i / 512mb Raid Controller

8 x HP 1TB SAS 2.5” Hot Plug Drives, 1 drive to become a Hot Spare.

1 x Raid 6 License

We must have 1 Windows share for Data at around 4TB in size; we do not wish to have many drive letter mappings.  Just 1 drive letter and then thousands of folders.  Nice and Simple.

From the server should be :

C: drive for Windows 2008r2 OS

D: drive for DATA

E: drive for dvd drive

Server has had all latest Firmware updates done.

So I booted with Smart Start and created 1 x Raid 6 Array using the license, then created 1 Logical Drive with a Host Spare.

Created a Windows Boot Partition of 110gb and installed Windows.

Once OS was installed I looked in Windows Disk Mgnt and noticed there were 2 x 2tb volumes and also my 110gb OS partition.

After some googling I have learnt that the DATA Drive needs to be GPT, as I only have 1 DISK this will not work so I need to rebuild the server and start again.  No Problem but this is where I get stuck.

Remember we did originally spec the server to be Raid 6.

Option 1 :

Two Arrays, with Two Logical Drives

Raid 1=OS (2 x 1TB) C Drive would be 1TB using Logical Drive 1

Raid 5-Data (5 x 1TB) D Drive would be 4TB using Logical Drive 2

Shared Spare (1 x 1TB)

Option 2 :

One Array, with Two Logical Drives

Raid 6=(7x1TB) Create a smaller 110gb Logical Drive for OS, then create on the same array another Logical drive with the remaining disk space ( around 4.5TB)

Option 3:

Is there one ?

So hopefully you can see what we are trying to do.

I already know that the boot partition cannot be GPT.

What I need help in is which option should I be choosing, pro’s and cons, any other options?

Our end goal is simple ?

C: drive for Windows 2008r2 OS : around 100gb

D: drive for DATA : around 4TB

Raid 5 or 6, would prefer 6 as its more redundancy.

1 hotspare drive

If it help the data will be mainly AutoCad.

Thanks and please feel free to comment anywhere?

[nhbilly]

RAID 10  with 2 hot spare.

6 x 1TB = 3TB

C: 1TB - OS

D: 1.5TB - Data

E: 500GB - disk swap/cache