I've just been given a bunch of old parts to build an Exchange box running NT 4 Exchange 5.5. Basically I got a Compaq Proliant 2500 with an array controller and 5 drives to use (3 x 4.3 GB and 2 x 9 GB - and this box has 5 drive bays total). I have only these old drives to work with so what I got is what I got. I know there are various ways to set this controller up (i.e. I could raid 5 across all 5 drives and set up the extra space on the 9GB drives as another partition) but no-one seems to really dig the idea of partitioning drives, and from what I've read on this list, I get the feeling that mirroring the O/S, mirroring the logs, and raid5 on the data (IS, etc) is the way to go. Is this mostly to optimize performance? Anyway, I was thinking of using the mirroring on the 2 larger 9GB drives for O/S and logs, and using the raid-5 across the 3 smaller 4.3 GB drives for data.
I put on my server config hat once or twice a year so I have to get my head around what works best for Exchange with these parts. With the pieces I have, what do you fine folks recommend as the optimal config for placement of the various drives/files/data? many thanks (as usual) randy List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
