RAID 1 or 1+0 for RDS

peter212693

peter212693

peter212693

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Hello all,

Looking at spec'ing a RDS Terminal Server which will be used by around 20 users. This will mainly be used for office applications and a bespoke DB program. The actual database is held on its own server so its only the user interface that it running on the TS under the user session. It will be a 2012 R2 server but trying to decide on RAID 1+0 or a simple RAID 1.

Obvious the performance boost going RAID 1+0 will help read and write speeds but would a RAID 1 array be that much of a bottle neck for 20 users? Cost of hard drives would double if RAID 1+0 was used but if 20 users is going to be pushing I/O limit with a RAID 1 its it might need to be done.

What would you guys recommend?
 
I wouldn't bother too much. Make sure the RAM is maxed out, and Windows will cache everything in RAM.
 
"Office Applications" Are you including Outlook? If so how big are users mailboxes, or their configuration of PST / OST? This can be a tricky one to balance performance, resiliency & capacity without some sort of SSD.
 
We've just replaced the disks in all our RDS servers with the latest samsung ssds (raid-1). They absolutely fly! :eek:

Dell sent them in the wrong caddies so, had to spend all afternoon swapping them over
 
We are looking at 64Gb of memory so should give us plenty. Outlook will be included and it's using a hosted exchange platform so will be set in cached mode so a good few ost files. To be honest these will take up the bulk of the capacity.

As for SSDs are the 'enterprise' drives much different to you likes of a Samsung pro?
 
You don't need flash for RDS. It's nice to have, but spend the money on RAM first. Especially for only 20 users.
 
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