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I've got 8X HP900GB 6G SAS 10K SFF on a HP ProLiant DL380p , i am trying to find best practice to partition it's disk space for a mail server which will expand , while i've got so much i/o processes like calDav & carDav , Cron Jobs , MySQL Transactions , etc

And if Memory size matters it's HP 64GB (8x8GB) PC3‐12800R (DDR3‐1600) cause i was reading some articles which pointed that Memory could change the whole scenario of web servers partitioning !?

Could u help me find out what is best practice or give me a hint where should i look ?

Thanks in advance

Synxmax
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    Put it all the drives in a RAID10. Put all the storage into LVM. Start with a single root LV, and leave free space. Create other LVs as needed. – Zoredache May 21 '13 at 19:20
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    In any case, there is no simple rule. It is extremely dependant on the environment. This question might give you some help. http://serverfault.com/questions/61284/sell-partitioning-to-me – Zoredache May 21 '13 at 19:26

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This is a big server... It's probably overkill for the application of just running mail.

We're missing so many details here that it's difficult to give a real answer. Consider:

  • What mail solution are you using?
  • How many users do you have to support?
  • How much data needs to be stored?
  • Are you migrating from another mail system? What does its data consumption and partitioning look like?
  • What version of Linux are you using? (CentOS version ?)

Are you the systems administrator responsible for the design of the solution. Will you be maintaining it long-term?

In terms of HP ProLiant-specific items, Linux LVM is redundant/unnecessary as the Smart Array controller can handle a lot of that functionality. This is beyond the scope of this question, though. My generic recommendation is:

  • Use your disks in a RAID 1+0 array.
  • Ensure that you have a flash-backed cache (FBWC) unit on your RAID controller.
ewwhite
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  • Thanks man , Since my question considered not real question :( i post those specifications here , dovecot , sendmail , over 1,200,000 users and 25,000 active users , migrating from an exchange server which was windows 2008 R2, i am the developer of web client and mobile client, they asked me to give my opinions on how they should configure the server specially partitioning , my developing environment was CentOS 6.3 ~ 6.4 – Synxmax May 22 '13 at 07:57
  • Thanks for your answer and if you can guide me i do appreciated it , like the flash-backed cache hint , Thanks anyway – Synxmax May 22 '13 at 07:59
  • @Synxmax a single Exchange server with 1.2 million mailboxes. Right. – pauska May 22 '13 at 11:35
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    @Synxmax Having the question closed as NARQ is not a reflection on you or your job or your project. It is a reflection of the fact that the question showed no background research nor any hint of how the server should be used, what software should run on it, what the load would be, etc. The answers to the list of questions that ewwhite posted should have been in the post to start with. – Jenny D May 22 '13 at 12:01
  • @Synxmax your numbers must be off. 25,000 active users would typically not be using a *single* server as the impact of a downtime would be too high. – the-wabbit May 22 '13 at 12:06