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Windows Server 2008 R2 (clustered active/passive) - SQL Server 2008 Enterprise - Dell MD3200i PowerVault SAN

8 x 450GB 15k SAS drives (RAID 10)

What is the best stripe unit size for this configuration (for optimum SQL performance)?

I am reading conflicting reports of 64k, 128k or 256k.

Please help! Thank you!

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This might be better on serverfault than here maybe. – Anonymous May 27 '11 at 13:44
okay, I'll try that as well. thank you for the advice. – Anonymous May 27 '11 at 13:52
possible duplicate of SAN device storage config for SQL 2008 cluster – squillman May 27 '11 at 14:16
@Zack I have the same storage, did you Install the Dell MD Storage Manager already? I had problems after the installation, the shortcuts did not appear properly, and the Storage Manager utility .exe didn't have any names on the program files folder. – Gabriel Guimarães May 27 '11 at 14:17
Yes, the Dell management software installed fine for me. – EkoostikMartin May 27 '11 at 14:42
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Have you read this Microsoft article? Due to the nature of each vendors san they will also be a valuable resource for stripe size, as them for their test results. I recieved an extensive white paper from Dell when I install one of their sans.

After formatting the san and prior to installing SQL you should run SQLIO and test the performance. The formatting could be repeated with a different allocation size and the testing repeated. Although repeated formatting and testing will take some time you will only have ONE chance in getting this correct unless you want to bring down your production site to reformat your disk subsystem.

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