Partitioning on a Windows 2003 server

[EatSpam]

I'm about to migrate my home Exchange server from a Virtual Machine to a real machine. The real machine will have a 36gb RAID 1 array.

In the past, I have always created one large C: partition for my Exchange servers. There really hasn't been any problem. I've seen servers configured with a C: OS partition and another data/app partition.

So I guess my question: What, if any, are the benefits of creating 2 partitions as opposed to just having one?

Thanks.

 

[nweaver]

We put our exchange mailstore on a fast drive, and leave it by itself. usually we like to use an HBA and a fibre array

 

[JRock]

I have always been told keep it on its own physical/logical disk.

 

[nweaver]

in my (limited) experience with exchange, this would make sense. It suffers from fragmentation, and heavy usage. A decent disk dedicated would be good imho

 

[Genx87]

There are documents on Microsofts site for how to setup disks and partitions.

I believe it goes like this.

Applications drive can be Raid 1.
Transaction logs are supposed to be their own array
Store on a raid 1 array.

They want you to keep the store and transaction logs on seperate physical disks in case of failure within the system. This way you can replay the logs and rebuild the store from the last backup.

If this is just for home use I wouldnt get this crazy.

 

[Thor86]

Exchange is very I/O intensive depending on number of mailboxes you plan on using.

This is why transaction logs and mail store dbs should be on seperate/own physical drives.

 

[GreyMittens]

In your particular case with your drive setup there will be no benefit to setting up another logical partition on the same physical disk. Might as well just make it one big partition and accept all the exchange defaults. If this is a 'home' exchange server I can't imagine you're going to have a sh!tload of mailboxes unless you've got a *very* large family

 

[EatSpam]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll just stay with one partition.

 

[JRock]

Originally posted by: EatSpam
Thanks for the info. I think I'll just stay with one partition.