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From: chrisjc on 5 Aug 2010 09:04

Hi guys,

I've got an Proliant ML150 G6 running SBS 2003. It has an Intel Xeon
E5502 @ 1.87Ghz (dual proc) with 4GB of RAM. It currently has 2x250GB
SATA 7200RPM disks, one of which I was going to use as a software RAID1,
but I haven't set it up as I think the performance hit would be
unreasonable without a dedicated card. I'm currently having performance
problems with the server which I have narrowed down to be the disk. I'm
running a few smallish databases on the server, along with exchange,
hosting a very low traffic website and BES express. I want to upgrade it
all, and have a fast reliable system. At the moment, everything is about
130GB. I'm thinking, would it be best to buy a decent RAID card and
perhaps buy another 2 or 4 drives to run in a RAID0+1 setup, or would I
be better off buying a single SSD (or even perhaps 2 smaller SSDs and a
RAID card)? I think with an SSD, I would image the current drive on to
that for minimal downtime, and repurpose the existing 2 drives in RAID 1
to hold the user data and company drive. All the databases and exchange
etc would be left on the SSD. What other issues do I have to think
about, I currently have the built in backup doing a nightly on to an
external drive. I've set it to start at 2AM and currently it is still
going (12:30PM!) although it looks like its almost finished. I get the
idea that SSDs fail alot less frequently than spinning disks, is a RAID
1 important for them? I also have read that they have a limited number
of writes avaliable, in practical terms, how long would this be in a
low/middle use SBS 2003 doing everything? I'm sorry this all seems so
jumbled, I really hope someone can tell me what I need to know :)

Thanks in advance!

Chris Clancey


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From: Cris Hanna [SBS - MVP] on 5 Aug 2010 13:57
At this point, I wouldn't be spending any more money on an SBS server that is probably 6-7 years old and a newer version of the OS exists and the one after that is in beta

I suspect you would not see the performance on the SSD with a 2003 server that you would with a 2008 server.

--
Cris Hanna [SBS - MVP] (since 1997)
Co-Contributor, Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed
http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Small-Business-Server-Unleashed/dp/0672329573/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217269967&sr=8-1
Owner, CPU Services, Belleville, IL
A Microsoft Registered Partner
------------------------------------
MVPs do not work for Microsoft
Please do not submit questions directly to me.

"chrisjc" <chrisjc.4f8d5b(a)DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message news:chrisjc.4f8d5b(a)DoNotSpam.com...

Hi guys,

I've got an Proliant ML150 G6 running SBS 2003. It has an Intel Xeon
E5502 @ 1.87Ghz (dual proc) with 4GB of RAM. It currently has 2x250GB
SATA 7200RPM disks, one of which I was going to use as a software RAID1,
but I haven't set it up as I think the performance hit would be
unreasonable without a dedicated card. I'm currently having performance
problems with the server which I have narrowed down to be the disk. I'm
running a few smallish databases on the server, along with exchange,
hosting a very low traffic website and BES express. I want to upgrade it
all, and have a fast reliable system. At the moment, everything is about
130GB. I'm thinking, would it be best to buy a decent RAID card and
perhaps buy another 2 or 4 drives to run in a RAID0+1 setup, or would I
be better off buying a single SSD (or even perhaps 2 smaller SSDs and a
RAID card)? I think with an SSD, I would image the current drive on to
that for minimal downtime, and repurpose the existing 2 drives in RAID 1
to hold the user data and company drive. All the databases and exchange
etc would be left on the SSD. What other issues do I have to think
about, I currently have the built in backup doing a nightly on to an
external drive. I've set it to start at 2AM and currently it is still
going (12:30PM!) although it looks like its almost finished. I get the
idea that SSDs fail alot less frequently than spinning disks, is a RAID
1 important for them? I also have read that they have a limited number
of writes avaliable, in practical terms, how long would this be in a
low/middle use SBS 2003 doing everything? I'm sorry this all seems so
jumbled, I really hope someone can tell me what I need to know :)

Thanks in advance!

Chris Clancey


--
chrisjc
------------------------------------------------------------------------
chrisjc's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/253862.htm
View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/small-business-server/1356319.htm

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