Question : Problem: Server Array Configuration.  Have I been building these wrong for the past 10 years?

OK, I have a question to see if I have been building servers wrong for the past 10 years.

I would say about 99 percent of  the servers I have built have been Compaq/HP Proliants. Here is my question.

For a simple server that would require 2 partitions (one for the OS and one for Data), I would create an array using all disks and only one logical drive (usually RAID5 plus online spare, or more recently RAID 10) utitlizing ALL free space from the Array; during the installation of the OS I would specify to use only a portion  of the free space for the OS partition. After the OS was loaded, I would go to Disk Manager and Create a D: partition using the free space from DISK0. So essentially, from Windows standpoint there is only one disk (disk 0) and from that disk there are 2 partitions (C: and D:)

My collegue uses a differnt approach, he Creates the Array and then Creates 2 logical drives in the Array Configuration utility; then windows will see them as 2 separate drives (Disk 0 and Disk 1) from there he would Format Disk 1 as the Data drive.

My logic of creating one logical drive is that I felt that there would be less burden on the hardware on keeping track of 2 separate RAID Logical disks.


Have I been wrong all these years or is this just a matter of opinion?

thanks

Tom

Answer : Problem: Server Array Configuration.  Have I been building these wrong for the past 10 years?

Also, the way I see it the load is just being shifted from one place to another, if it's handled on the RAID controller then the load is there, if it's not on the RAID controller, then disc management (running on the servers CPU), handles it.