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hd setup with existing hardware question

First off I will be running a shared SQL 2005 server with a dozen or more sql databases most of which are very small (10-50mb) a piece, and a couple getting closer to 1GB. None of them are Really that intense as far as usage to my knowledge. Believe it or not I’m currently been running all of this off 1 poweredge 1550 dual 1.2ghz with 2gb of ram and 1 3x 36gb 10k raid 5 array. I’d like to utilize a powervault s200 that I have with 8x 73gb 10k hds. It has the 160mb scsi cards in it. I can either split the backplane into to 4x hds connections using both of the scsi connectors or I can use just one for all 8 drives. I’m probably going to upgrade the server as well and get something like a poweredge 2850 with 2x xeon 3ghz processors and 5 or 6 internal 36gb hds. But I might also just get a poweredge 1950 with 4x sas hds with the 2x dual core 5150 processors. I would really apreciate anybodies expert opinions about how to best setup my drive configuration with the following scenarios: 1. 3x hds in the server and the s200 powervault w/ 8x hds
2. 4x hds in the server and the s200 powervault w/ 8x hds
3. 6x hds in the server and the s200 powervault w/ 8x hds Also, please let me know how much of a difference if any I could expect from the 3 different configurations. Thank you.
2-4 dedicated disks for the logs
the rest for data and temp (sharing same set of disks) distributed over multiple controllers
if this not a clustered system, then the OS drive can also be used for one of the above. the newer drives are better than your S200,
if possible, get the PE2900 and fill it with 8-10 SAS drives if you can.
under budget constraints, prioritize your money in the following sequence.
1. memory
2. # of disks (10K or 15K SAS)
3. processors the reason being processors today are so powerful, you really don’t need the expensive ones
Thank you for the response. I am on a pretty limited budget and are forced to use the s200. I could pick up a pe2650 with dual 2.4ghz and 6gb ram and 5x 36gb hds. If I did how would you recommend I split the hds for use? Should I do the following: 2x raid 1 internal drives for system
2x raid 1 internal drives for logs
1x internals for sql backups
8x s200 raid 5 for data across the two u160 channels or 4x raid 10 internal drives for system and logs
1x internal for sql backups
8x s200 raid 5 for data across the two u160 channels or am I just totally off here and you have a better suggestion. Should I split up the tempdb and put it on it’s own raid array?
the 1 drive is fine for the backups as I they are never used and are in case of emergency only. But if you see that drive being used better for something else let me know.
either will work
i suggest backing up to the unused space on the data partition, then transfer to tape
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