Raid 5 Disk Partition

[trbal]

Hi
I have configured Raid 5 with 3 HDD and a hot spare. Its running SBS 2003 R2 I have partioned the single drive with 3 drive letters using disk management is it right?
Attached is the ACU Diag report.
Thx

[KarloChacon]

it looks fine

but If you created a logical dive and want to create D: E: and so you need a third party software to do it

like

you can use a tool, such as Acronis disk director suite.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/partitionexpert/index.html

regards

[trbal]

Thx carlo

But i have already done the partition using 2003 os disk management. just wanted to confirm if my config is ok.Do u need any screenshot to confirm?

Regards

[KarloChacon]

yes upload a screenshot to check

regards

[trbal]

Hi

Thx for taking time to answer my questions. Find attached the screenshot.

Regards

[Mike Bollman_1 · Accepted solution]

I would not setup my server this way.

Ideally you would setup 1 mirrored set for just the OS (C:\) and then for a file server setup a 2nd array, say 3 drives in a RAID5, for a data partition. Then if you ever need to you can easily expand the 2nd partition.

However, if you are budget limited I would create no more than 2 partitions on this server as is. 1 for the OS and 1 for a data partition. You gain nothing by splitting it up into 3 partitions and you limit yourself later if E:\ (as configured) runs out of space.

[KarloChacon]

yes that is an ideal enviroment but involves 6 HDDs

but trbal yeah the configuration is properly set up(which you did)

regards

[trbal]

Thx both

As to your suggestion my deployment is very simple with just 25 clients. i run os on c SQL on D and e is just a redirection folder for clients. My old ML 350 runs 3 HHD raid 5 3 partitions and has been doing so for last 4 years so i dont see any expansion in the near future. Apart from this is there any other issue in my config.

Thx

[Mike Bollman_1]

karl where do you get 6 drives from?

2 for a mirror pair (OS)
3 for a raid 5 data partition
5 in total.

Unless you want an online spare than yes, you will need 6 drives.


trbal, your config (3 partitions on 1 RAID 5) will work yes.

I would personally never do that, but it will work. Personally I would much rather have 1 big C:\ drive (RAID 5) then split it up by OS partitioning, but that is just me.

If you insist on multiple partitions I would limit it to 2 and use folders w/ntfs permissions to separate SQL from user data.

Again though all the above will work for what you are doing.

[KarloChacon]

yes that what i'm talking about

hot spare

more secure uh?


regards

[Mike Bollman_1]

Karl, absolutely adding an online spare will help in the event that a failure does occur and it takes a while to replace the defective drive.

More secure?? not really in my opinion.

If you want better protection you could go RAID ADG on the data partition and that would protect your server more. However, you will need 4 drives for a total of 6.

[trbal]

Thx all

as my report says i have 3 partitions raid 5 with a online spare.Thanks for all the input let me go with this a si have a limitation of budget for some more additions now and also my network and total data size is small.
ok to my next question i read thru the manual for SBS data backup and restore does it also restore entire system state with AD and GPOs?

Thx in advance
regads