Server nomenclature help

[Jim Jensen]

It's time to shop for a new server (can't believe how long it's been already). Looking at Dell, naturally and seeing some choices that I'm not familiar with.

#1 choice of imbedded SATA on HD chassis or not. The little I found to read about sounds like this is a limiting choice, perhaps better avoided.

#2 OS partition size - they only offer choices on OS Partition Override, which SBS11 doesn't support. Any suggestions on partition size for SBS11? I'd like not to have an issue down the line of the OS partition getting filled and not being able to re-partition it, even if I have to reinstall SBS when it arrives.

#3 I know the difference, but wondering what thoughts are about mirrored drives (RAID 1) versus RAID 5 for small shop. Data is just as critical as  large shop, so I've stuck with RAID 5 so far.

[Jeff Zylstra]

It's time to shop for a new server (can't believe how long it's been already). Looking at Dell, naturally and seeing some choices that I'm not familiar with.

#1 choice of imbedded SATA on HD chassis or not. The little I found to read about sounds like this is a limiting choice, perhaps better avoided.

#2 OS partition size - they only offer choices on OS Partition Override, which SBS11 doesn't support. Any suggestions on partition size for SBS11? I'd like not to have an issue down the line of the OS partition getting filled and not being able to re-partition it, even if I have to reinstall SBS when it arrives.

#3 I know the difference, but wondering what thoughts are about mirrored drives (RAID 1) versus RAID 5 for small shop. Data is just as critical as  large shop, so I've stuck with RAID 5 so far.

Higher end servers may not have embedded SATA, but just about every other computer in the world has the SATA embedded on the motherboard now.  And almost all of them can be disabled if you want to use SCSI or some variant of it.  Some servers come with SATA RAID embedded on the MB now.  You can disable that too.

You can resize partitions with GParted, a free utility if you really need to, so I wouldn't be too concerned with partition sizing.  I would be more concerned with getting the right hard drive system, and getting enough speed and capacity.  The partition size can be changed later without losing data, so I wouldn't be as concerned with that.

I'll let the gurus battle it out on which is better.  Especially since I don't even remember which RAID configuration I have anymore!  I just know that I have a hot spare that will automatically kick in when I need it, and notify me to replace the dead drive.  A lot of this is a trade off between price performance, capacity, and $$.  You can get most or all of it, depending on how much $$ you want to spend.

[Bloody Jack Kidd]

#1 not heard that one - would avoid SATA for a server anyway.

#2 60-80GB is likely a good start, Server 2008 has made non-destructive resizing almost child's play, but if you are careful you might never run out of SYS volume space for the life of the server.

#3 RAID 5 has almost no benefit over RAID 1 -  they both only tolerate loss of a single disk. RAID 1 performance with a degraded array is likely better than RAID 5. Not certain about performance during rebuild. I like RAID levels 10 and 1. The downside is the cost as you essentially lose half your storage.

[Ric]

#1 not heard that one - would avoid SATA for a server anyway.

#2 60-80GB is likely a good start, Server 2008 has made non-destructive resizing almost child's play, but if you are careful you might never run out of SYS volume space for the life of the server.

#3 RAID 5 has almost no benefit over RAID 1 -  they both only tolerate loss of a single disk. RAID 1 performance with a degraded array is likely better than RAID 5. Not certain about performance during rebuild. I like RAID levels 10 and 1. The downside is the cost as you essentially lose half your storage.

BJK,

Isn't one of the benefits of RAID 5 the ability to hot swap a bad drive?

Just curious.

Thanx.

Ric

[Bloody Jack Kidd]

Hotswap only requires the support of the backplane and controller, the RAID level does not matter - well except for RAID 0...

RAID 5 kind of became the standard / favourite level, but I think the reason for that has more to do with costs than anything else.

I'm always a performance over costs kind of guy.

(that said, we have tons of RAID 5 arrays - my personal preferences don't always translate into company policy)

[Jeff Zylstra]

There is some kind of limitation to the partition resizing in Server 2008, but I can't remember what it was. I just remember that GParted allowed me to do what I needed to do.  That said, don't let resizing a partition scare you because there are tools available to handle it, even if it is a RAID partition.  Just do a backup before you start messing with it.