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We have two new servers running Server 2008 Standard:

  • Dual Xeon E5430 @ 2.66
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 6 Seagate 146GB 15,000 RPM 16MB Cache SAS on RAID 5 (4+1) with hot spare for total of 544 GB hard disk

We have this setup on our current Windows Server 2003 running SQL Server. We have one RAID 5 array with a 135 GB disk that is partitioned this way:

  • C: OS
  • D: SQL backups & other files. We do full DB backups twice a day. Drop off backups after 6 weeks.
  • F: Primary Database data & log files
  • T: For temp folders, pagefile, temp ie files location, whatever dirties up a partition

So with our new servers we will be running server 2008 standard with Hyper-v full details are HERE.

Do I resize my current partition which is a 544 GB into 3 partitions like this:

  • C: Core or Full Install of Host machine - Already there
  • D: Partition for all the 3 VHD images that we will be running: Webserver / Sql Server / DC & File Server
  • F: Leftover for whatever

What considerations should I take if any specifically with the disk system?

2 Answers 2

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You should consider using a quick raid configuration, especially for the SQL VM - Raid10 or 1E.

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  • I verified that we have a RAID-5 with hot spare (4x Data, 1x Parity, 1x Spare). The drives are Cheetah 15K.6 SAS 3-GB/s 146-GB Hard Drive ST3146356SS. I doubt our IT Admin is going to redo the array & reload the OS unless I come up with a good reason. What % difference in performance do you think I could expect leaving as is?
    – Breadtruck
    Aug 10, 2009 at 3:58
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    There are too many factors, but in general your raid5 is still faster than a standalone drive, and you might pull it off without reconfiguration. If you do experience a disk i/o bottleneck, I suggest you try to go for raid10
    – dyasny
    Aug 10, 2009 at 8:02
  • Should I do the partitioning scheme I have in my question? Otherwise the default install of all the VHD files will be under C:\program files\..
    – Breadtruck
    Aug 10, 2009 at 20:00
  • If you partition a logical disk (a raid array), the partitioning scheme will not affect io performance. so it's just a matter of convenience
    – dyasny
    Aug 11, 2009 at 6:34
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http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/9/4/d948f981-926e-40fa-a026-5bfcf076d9b9/SQL2008inHyperV2008.docx

above is the link for running sql in hyper-v best practices from Microsoft ;

Also, if you are to run SQL under Hyper-V, it may well be a good idea to assign a physical disk (pass through) for sql db. keep in mind the IO your servers hard drive would face by placing all three vhd's on the same partition or spread them out on different physical disks

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