Hi, I am in the process of replacing a system with a server upgrade. The upgrade will consist of new server hardware, Microsoft OS and non Microsoft Application (data historian application). I have calculated that the system will require 5TB of data but I also want to calculate the disk performance requirements. i.e. I do not want to buy 15k SAS disks if the disk IOPS does not require them. If I can calculate the current disk IO performance then I can make a recommendation on the most suitable disks required. Maybe I can recommend cheaper near line SAS disks. Are there any KB articles or other links to standard performance metrics I should gather on the current server to calculate the disk performance requirments for the replacement hardware?Microsoft Partner

Since you are upgrading you most likely have the 5TB of data...or at least a fraction thereof on current servers. Use the existing performance numbers (sum them if on various different servers) and try several different linear and non-linear progressions to plan for growth up to and past 5TB. Usually the storage vendor can do all of this for you....if you can provide them current numbers. They are best suited for this. Use this article to get started on determining the current IOPS of your current environment. http://networkadminkb.com/Shared%20Documents/Disk%20IO%20Tutorial%20Part%201.aspx Oh, 10+ years doing storage taught me one thing. Always buy as many of the smallest fastest drives you can for the first implementation...you can never go wrong with that.

Hi, By using build-in programs, we can only caculate disk I/O. To plan disk configuration and file server capacity, the following tool and link may help: File Server Capacity Tool - (32 bit) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0b212272-1884-4af1-972d-42ef1db9f977&displaylang=en This tool simulates a home folders file workload on a set of client computers and computes the maximum number of users a server can support based on the response time of simulated scenarios. The scenarios include common operations such as browsing a directory, copying files, and modifying Microsoft Office files. For a given number of users accessing data on a file server, FSCT will compute a throughput number corresponding to the average scenarios per second that the server is able to sustain. The tool also provides the ability to collect performance counters such as CPU, Memory, Network, and Disk subsystem utilization details to help identify bottlenecks. Planning for Storage http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739014(WS.10).aspxShaon Shan| TechNet Subscriber Support in forum| If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com