January 13, 2003 at 5:15 pm
--Posted this in General but realized it is probably better suited here....
I am in the process putting together a specification for a new server (Compaq). It will run SQL Server with a single 30GB database (log file can grow to 30 GB as well). I only have licences for Standard Edition SQL which means I am limited to how much RAM I can take advantage of. In light of this I am buying Xeon's with 2 MB's of cache.
I have about $50k to spend and I was wondering if there are any factors that I have not thought of. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to spec out the server to maximize performance and value?
January 14, 2003 at 7:36 am
I would go with a mid-range disk subsystem that will allow you to get as many disk drives as possible. Physical disk drives dictate performance not the size of the drives. Get enough drives so you can separate your log and data files. I would suggest going with RAID-10.
If you have an I/O profile, perhaps from a previous system, for how many and what kind of I/Os you'll be doing you can make a more educated guess at how many drives you'll be needing.
January 14, 2003 at 11:09 am
$50K is pretty good. How is this system used? Lots of transactions? More reads?
I'd go with RAID 10, try to separate out tempdb (if used) from other db and db log files, also if you can, standard should work with 2GB, so I'd go with 3 or 4 and let SQL have 2, give 2K 1GB.
Steve Jones
January 14, 2003 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for those suggestions.
As far as how the system is used, I am not sure I can do too much predicting there. It is about to experience exponential growth as it goes from test to production and the user base goes up by a factor of 30.
My original plan had been to install the system drives mirrored (RAID 1) and then a large RAID 5 for the data drives. It seems that is not recommended here.
Most people are saying RAID 10 for the data drives and to use multiple partitions (with separate physical discs) to ensure that the tempdb and log files are each on their own discs?
January 14, 2003 at 2:08 pm
What we do:
RAID 1 for OS
RAID 1 for db logs
RAID 5 for data on some servers, RAID 10 for data files on others
RAID 5 for backup files (if we can do it)
if we use tempdb a lot,
RAID 1 for tempdb log (separate from above, could be combined)
raid 1 or 5 for data.
the raid 1s become 10s when we need performance and can afford the drives.
From PASS, keep in mind that you want to try and keep the drives > 50% free so that the more data is written/read from each rotation. So having big drives is nice.
Steve Jones
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