Sql Server 2000 Installation

[gvillaran]

hi, im going to install a new server with Windows 2000 and Sql Server 2000, this new server have :

2 Xeon 3.06 Ghz Processor
2 Gb. of Memory (DDR)
4 Scsi Hot Swap Disks (36 Gb.)

I only want to know what RAID level do u recommend.

the application running here is a mixed (Oltp and Datawarehouse) but i saw that are more reads than writes, and runs with Power Builder 7.0

Thanks for any help

[MAK]

RAID 1 is better for read performance.
RAID 5 is better for write.

If I were you ....
If I am obsolutely sure that more reads are there when compared to writes,
I would go for RAID 1 (making sure that my backup strategy is strong and unbreakable)

Atleast I would collect one month data (Performance monitor) before thinking about RAID1.

[rmiao]

Raid 5 has better performance for reading. Put db log on raid 1 and db data on raid 5.

[skhanal]

RAID 5 is inefficient if you see more than 10% of IO is write. because for each write OS has to read the data block and parity block, recompute parity and write data and parity block.

But RAID 5 gives you more disk space compared to RAID 1 with data protection.

[gvillaran]

thanks for your answers...

now, i only have 4 Scsi Hot Swap Disks for use (36 GB. each one),

lets take for example that this server were yours, what RAID level u recommend?

all in RAID 5?
RAID 10?
all in RAID 1?
all in RAID 0? (this is not the choice i think)

There are 50 users aprox. using this database, and i think that 60% is reading and 40% writing (aprox.)

i have gonna have a transactional replicated server for backup.

thanks again

[rmiao]

How big those dbs will be? You never use raid 0 on production server.

[gvillaran]

the database is small, about 1 gigabyte

[rmiao]

In that case and you don't expect total db size grow to 30gb, you can build two raid 1 arrays.