October 6, 2006 at 1:41 pm
We are purchasing a new server for SQL Server 2000. It will have 8GB memory,
4 processors, and starts with a 1 TB HD. How would you recommend partitioning the hard drive, including raid configuration, for best performance?
October 6, 2006 at 2:19 pm
it really depends on what you're using it for. if you have a 1TB database, only (and this is bad!) raid 0 will do. also, how many disks make up the terrabyte of disk space?
not much choice if they're 5 200 GB disks, vs 10 100GB.
making a BIG set of assumptions here.
Say you have 300GB of PRODUCTION database space. First Assumption: this is a fully logged, high activity OLTP database. Typical rules for disk mean you have roughly 1/4 to 1/2 of that for tranlog (so worst case, 150GB), and depending on if you have compression backup software (assuming you don't here) 1.5 to 2 times database size for backups to disk (450 - 600). This is depending on frequency going to tape, recovery policies, etc. we typically only had 1.5 times max before switching to compressed backups.
so what we have is (worst case), nearly a terrabyte of needed space...
before raiding a single thing.
let's downscale this yet again.
100GB dataspace
50GB log
150GB Backup
300GB total space needed.
You typically want to seperate data and tranlogs onto seperate spindles.
and for absolute best performance (highly active OLTP system, remember), you want your raid 10 drives for the transaction log (and if you can afford it, the db too)
This is where my assumptions really break down, until we know more about your layout.
Hopefully this helps enough to get you started though.
Backups are critical, and your plans require you to know your business requirements, how long can you be down, recovery requirements, etc.
if you're able to use compression software, or agents (to go directly to tape, etc) you can cut down significantly on the required disk space for backups. Understand the tradeoffs of doing this however: pre 2k5 it was always nice to have space to do table recoveries in case something really went bad, recovery time, etc.
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