ESX, SAS, 15k HDD, HW cont. .which RAID-10 or 5 is sufficient for 30 users?

[rocker77]

Hello, I would need help with RAID configuration. I will use ESX server on Dell PE 2900, 4GB RAM, Xeon quad core, HW RAID controller. On ESX will run three servers, Windows 2003 SBS (Exchange, file server, print server), Windows 2003 with SQL based aplication and Linux VPN/antispam server. I read the threads, and everybody say RAID 10 is the best. I agree, but I think that for my situation is RAID 5 sufficient. Do you agree with me, or suggest pay for RAID 10. Thank you for your help!!

[admin]

I agree with you, from the way you describe the usage it definitely sounds like RAID5 will be sufficient. I think RAID10 is probably overkill for you.

[esiebert7625]

RAID5 should be just fine for your server, 15K drives also add a performance boost. I use RAID5 on all my servers and have no disk io issues, having a RAID controller with a large cache and more spindles in your RAID group are also helpful.

[VirtualNoitall · Accepted solution]

Hello,

RAID 5 should be good. Be sure to investigate in a large battery backed write cache though. It made a huge difference for us in our early ESX testing on local RAID 5 arrays.