The recommended disk setup for hyper-v on Windows Server 2008

hyper-vpartitionraidwindows-server-2008

We have two new servers running Server 2008 Standard:

  • Dual Xeon E5430 @ 2.66
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 6 Seagate 146GB 15,000 RPM 16MB Cache SAS on RAID 5 (4+1) with hot spare for total of 544 GB hard disk

We have this setup on our current Windows Server 2003 running SQL Server. We have one RAID 5 array with a 135 GB disk that is partitioned this way:

  • C: OS
  • D: SQL backups & other files. We do full DB backups twice a day. Drop off backups after 6 weeks.
  • F: Primary Database data & log files
  • T: For temp folders, pagefile, temp ie files location, whatever dirties up a partition

So with our new servers we will be running server 2008 standard with Hyper-v
full details are HERE.

Do I resize my current partition which is a 544 GB into 3 partitions like this:

  • C: Core or Full Install of Host machine – Already there
  • D: Partition for all the 3 VHD images that we will be running: Webserver / Sql Server / DC & File Server
  • F: Leftover for whatever

What considerations should I take if any specifically with the disk system?

Best Answer

You should consider using a quick raid configuration, especially for the SQL VM - Raid10 or 1E.

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