Another exciting SBS 2008 hardware question...

bremen1874 · 11 Aug 2010 at 03:19

I’m trying to spec the hardware for a SBS 2008 server (thanks to all that responded to my query about memory requirements). I’m now looking at the drives…

The required capacity is pretty small (300GB would do), but it does need to be reasonably fast.

In the past when spec’ing servers I’ve tended to create a dedicated RAID1 array for the OS, and then additional arrays to suit the situation. At the time drives came in conveniently small capacities; a pair of 18GB or 36GB drives dedicated to the OS partition made sense. With the starting point for drives (15K SAS) now at 146GB+ a dedicated RAID1 array for the OS seems a bit wasteful.

I’m now considering a single RAID10 array (4 x 146GB 15K SAS) and just partitioning it down.

What’s currently considered best practice for small servers?

wij · 11 Aug 2010 at 11:52

I think MS still recommends the RAID1 pair for the OS and whatever is suitable for data storage for SBS deployments. That is certainly how I like to do mine anyway, though as you say these days its can leave you with a lot of unused space.

Maybe look at a pair of 40Gb SSD's for the OS

Rob7865 · 11 Aug 2010 at 12:37

HI

With SBS installs, we are now giving the OS at least 100GB of space. MS min is 60GB. Here is a nice Technet Wiki that might give you some help (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/small-business-server-2008-build-document.aspx

Rob

bremen1874 · 11 Aug 2010 at 13:49

Thanks for that.

I guess in a year or two a 146GB OS partition won't look so extravagant. At least there’s little chance of a partition that big filling up and causing problems.

On a related subject, does anyone know if the current generation of RAID adapters from Dell and/or HP have audible alarms built in?