Drive allocation

dadubba

Any comments, please. I have a new server 5x160GB drives. It needs to run IIS for a web app and SQL Server 2005. One user database. I was thinking of dividing space as follows and wanted to get some thoughts from others.

2 drives = RAID 1 set, 160GB space, OS, IIS, SQL exe, tempDB, user database log file

3 drives = RAID 5 set, 320GB space, SQL data files, user database files

Thanks for looking...

Arnie Rowland

With just two virtual drives, it is a tough call.

I'd probably put the TempDb on the RAID 5 set -leaving only the Transaction Log on the Mirror set.

dadubba

Thanks. I did not know what to do with the tempdb. Also, is there any benefit to try and create multiple partitions on a single logical disk array So that one RAID 1 set has a partition for [C drive] and a partition for [L drive] to hold the transaction log Or should it just be a single partition for the C drive, and put everything on that same logical drive partition

Arnie Rowland

The only significant benefit is in 'housekeeping' -easier to backup all files in a partition, for example.

However, in this situation, it seems like a little extra overhead for no additional benefit.

Hopefully, on a operational server, hosting no other applications except SQL Server, there will be very little disk activity required except for the TRANSACTION Log file -so there should not be any fragmentation, and the heads will most often be in the optimal location.

dadubba

Thanks, your input has been helpful.