Storage Design For Exchange Server 2003

The design of your storage system allows you to optimize the system and protect your data. An effective design strategy considers file location, protection level for the files, and the necessary hardware to support it. The table below identifies one way to structure the Exchange system to ensure optimization and fault tolerance.

Drive	Contents	Recommended Configuration
C:\	Operating System	RAID 1 or RAID 5
D:\	Pagefile	The pagefile should be on a different physical disk from the operating system. No special protection for the pagefile is required.
E:\	Transaction Logs	RAID 1 or if using a SAN system RAID 0+1
F:\	Exchange Store Databases	RAID 5

When designing data storage, keep in mind the following recommendations:

• Separate the transaction logs and databases on even the smallest of systems for fault tolerance and performance.


• When using default logging, you can optimize your system by storing the saved log files on a disk other than the one used to store the current (E00.log) file.




• Place the current file on a fast disk to improve performance.


• Place saved log files on a large disk.




• If you have multiple storage groups, each group should have their own RAID 5 set.


• Use SAN/NAS solutions to increase performance and storage capabilities. Verify with the hardware vendor that the system is designed to work with Exchange Server 2003.


• Use a separate disk for the SMTP queue for increased performance.


• RAID 0+1 is becoming more common because it delivers better I/O performance and eliminates the need for a write-back cache.

In addition to designing disk locations, you can improve manageability and availability by creating multiple stores and storage groups. The following table describes the recommendations for working with each.

Unit	Design Considerations
Stores	By creating multiple stores, you divide the Exchange database into multiple smaller databases. You might create multiple stores for the following reasons: To establish different store policies. For example, you can create different stores for groups who have different mail retention and deletion policies. To reduce the effects of a store failure or store maintenance on other users. If a store database is lost due to disk failure or corruption, having multiple stores minimizes the effect and allows users with mailboxes in other stores to continue working. Having multiple smaller databases also decreases the time it takes to restore a single store. To make e-mail communications more efficient. Your store organization could mimic the way e-mail communications are conducted in your organization. Identify groups of users who communicate most frequently with each other and create a store for each group. To make the database structure match your organizational structure. For example, you could create different stores for different departments or sites.
Storage Groups	With Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft recommends that you create a storage group for each store until you have reached the maximum number of allowable storage groups. Doing so: Improves virtual memory management. Ensures that fewer stores share the same transaction logs. For example, if you have a single storage