Exchange Server

jodelvalle · Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 1

Hi,

I would like to start by making clear that I am not an Exchange guru. I work for a small but very busy company as one of the System Admins. I need some input on possible storage designs and hardware selection for Exchange 2007 migration. I am in the process of getting quotes from our server vendor and want to make sure I order the right stuff.

We are not into spending 20K on a server, but if we need to spend 12-15K to get the best performance, we'll be able to justify the amount.

We currently have about 50 employees and 120 mailboxes. Our average sent/received is 30/120. We currently have a quota of 3GB per mailbox and some member of management have 6GB. The average message size is 200KB but it can go up to 50MB or even more some times.

We are not planning on having an edge server or using the UM role, so the CAS, HUB and Mailbox roles are going to reside on the same box.

I have a few questions about the partition design and array sets:

I know is recommended to have the exchange logs, system partition and databases on their own separate disks.

Is a design like this a good design or can it be improved?

1 Raid 1 set for OS (2 x 146GB)
1 Raid 10 set for Logs ( 4 x 146)
1 Raid 10 set for DBs (6 x 146)

I am planning, and I am opened to other ideas, to create 2 storage groups and put a database on each SG that way I can place 60 users on one DB and 60 user on another DB.

Should I create two LUNs on the DB Raid 10 disk set, one for each SG?

The same question applies to the Logs. Should I create a LUN for each db logs?

or

Should I create 4 disk sets and isolate the DBs and Logs for each SG.

What about the TEMP folder? Should I create a LUN for it?

Also, am I going to need multiple Raid controller to be able to create multiple types of array sets?
Ex. Raid 1, 10, etc. on the same server.

Currently I'm looking at a Dell PowerEdge T710 with this specs as an option and would like to know your opinion about it.

-2 Intel® Xeon® E5630 2.53Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1066MHz Max Mem (Quad core)
-16GB of memory
-the chassis can hold up to 16 HDs.
-If I need to go with 16 146GB 15K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 6Gbps 2.5in my quote still under 14K which is OK if I have to.

Your help will be really appreciated.

J.D.

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