I am responsible for setting up a new dual pentium server with Windows NT 4.0 and its primary function will be an Exchange Server (version 5.5). I am using a mirrored RAID configuration for the boot and system files and a RAID 5 configuration of four disks for exchange (all using ultr2 LVDS SCSI disks).
My question relates to setting up the stripe sizes. I can set a stripe size on the hardware RAID of 2-128KB. I know that if the applications perform mostly sequential reads, a larger stripe size provides better performance. Whereas a smaller stripe size performs better if the applications perform random read requests more often.
I am not sure what type of processing to expect from Exchange server (sequential or random). Secondly, I am not sure if it will even make a difference at all on the size of the stripe on the hardware side. When I load NT 4.0 server and initially create and format the partition on the RAID 5 drive, what is the relationship between the hardware stripe size and how the drive is formated? Secondly, if the hardware stripe size is a factor in performance in this situation, can you tell me what the optimal stripe size should be for the RAID 5 array and is there an optimal or recommended size for the NT 4.0 NOS on a mirrored set? Thanks for any help you can give.
leo.kreifels@nelinc.ang.af.mil
