Hello, I have a question about disk layout for transaction logs on a SCC mailbox server for larger number of users. I am working on configuring a server for about 4000 users. It would be about 29 databases in same number of storage groups. I am not sure if it is better to have one transaction logs partition for each storage group or to put several or all transaction logs on one LUN. If they share the LUN they would, of course, have their own folders. I would prefer having them together on one partition so they can share free space, but I am not sure if there is any disadvantage of it. Exactly same physical array would be used on the SAN in both cases. Another question is about anchor partition for mounted drives: is it better to have it on local or shared storage. Thank you, Milomir

That first question is a subjective one. One could argue that since the data will live on the same SAN disks either way, that there isn't much performance benefit from breaking out each SG onto its own seperate LUN. In most cases like that I don't break out each SG because each LUN consumes more SAN resources by itself. However if you are going to backup your server with snapshot, then you need to back up each SG on that LUN simultaneously as it's the LUN that is backed up. I.E. if you have all 29 SGs on a LUN, you will need to back them all up at the same time. So if you want different backup times for each SG, then you will need a seperate LUN. Ultimately I don't think you will get any additional performance from breaking each SG out on to its own LUN versus a folder inside of the existing LUN. I haven't sat down and stress tested a server in this config to tell either way. As for mount points, I like to keep all of that in the same location, so either all SAN or al local disk. I have been known to create 1 gig root drive LUN just for the purposes of mounting additional LUNs to it as sub-folders. I put a gig in because i have seen Windows use random root drives as workspace for patches and the like. In either case, you need to test out your config before moving production users to it (this includes backups). Your backup software may dictate that to properly snapshot, it wants seperate LUNs for each SG. Please let us know what you end up doing. Good Luck!

Thanks very much. That is helpful. For backup I might use ntbackup to disk and then to tape or MS DPM. I'll let you know how this ends up. It might take some time.