Application-Specific Guidelines; E-Mail Servers - Dell PowerVault MD1120 Optimization Manual

A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION

Application-Specific Guidelines

E-Mail Servers

The storage requirements for e-mail servers can vary depending on the size, the amount, and the
type of users. While small departmental e-mail servers may work well with a small amount of
storage and limited features; large corporate e-mail servers normally require greater storage
capacity, very high availability, performance, and scalability. I/O profiles will vary depending on the
number of users and type of mail and attachments sent.
Table 8: Email Server General I/O profile
I/O Profile
(Read/Write)
60/40
Table 9: Email Server RAID Guidelines
Application
E-Mail
Recommended:
•
RAID 10 – Recommended for mission-critical e-mail servers where availability and
redundancy and/or performance are the highest priority and where reduced storage
capacity is acceptable.
•
RAID 5 – Recommended for e-mail servers that require maximum storage capacity and
moderate data protection and performance.
•
RAID 50 – Recommended for those solutions that require greater redundancy and data
protection and a balance between storage capacity and performance.
•
RAID 6 – Recommended for e-mail servers that require maximum storage capacity and
enhanced data protection and moderate performance.
•
RAID 60 – Recommended for those solutions that require greater redundancy and data
protection and a balance between storage capacity and performance.
Possible:
•
RAID 1 – Possible solution for small e-mail servers which do not require high storage
capacity.
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I/O Profile
(Sequential/Random)
Random
RAID Level
0
Recommended
I/O Latency
Bandwidth
Size Sensitivity
Heavy 4k High
1 10 5
Not Recommended
VER A02
Growth
Criticality
Rate
High High
6 60
50
Possible
6/16/2008