[THIN] Re: OT - MSCS quorum disks on a SAN

  • From: "Rowlandson, John" <John.Rowlandson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 12:25:27 +1000

Mallesons Stephen Jaques
www.mallesons.com

Confidential communication



3 years of 11 active active win2k clusters on a HP XP512 storage array

all raid 5 and then luns of 13gb except a bunch of 1gb we made for the quorums

doing the same thing on 2  new EMC disk array also.

not a single issue yet with the config. although this time for exchange, sql 
and oracle logs disks we have maid some raid 1+0 luns for better performance.

Roly

John Rowlandson
Technical Support Specialist
Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Sydney
T +61 2 9296 3653
F +61 2 9296 3676
john.rowlandson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: Lee, David (CITY TREASURY) [mailto:David.Lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, 27 June 2003 11:46 PM
To: Thin client listserve (E-mail)
Subject: [THIN] OT - MSCS quorum disks on a SAN


Judging by recent posts there are obviously quite a few people with a lot of
MSCS and SAN experience on the list.....can anyone help with a question
about dividing up disks in this environment?

We currently have a project underway to implement some major new SQL
applications, upgrade Exchange and replace multiple old Novell file servers,
hence have been talking to various SAN suppliers and have got to the stage
where we are receiving quotes and specifications.  It has been determined
that at least three Windows 2000 MSCS clusters will be required to support
these services, with a possible later expansion for other applications.  The
leading supplier has quoted for a SAN with around 2Tb 'raw' storage, but
obviously a chunk of this will not be useable due to meeting the
requirements of RAID, hot spares etc.  

I have been told that standard practice is to assign most of the SAN disks
to a RAID 5 array, which would be divided up into LUNs which will be
assigned to the respective servers.  However, I have also been told that
Microsoft recommend the quorum drive of a cluster sit on a dedicated
mirrored pair of disks, rather than assigning a LUN from this main RAID 5
array.  Obviously, with three clusters this would knock a further six disks
off the usable storage space.  However, the supplier has suggested to reduce
cost that a single mirrored pair of disks could be partitioned to hold the
quorums for all three clusters, which seems to me like too many eggs in one
basket, mirrored or not!  

Sorry for the long winded explanation, I guess I can summarise by saying I'm
really just trying to establish what is standard practice out there for
implementing multiple MSCS cluster quorum disks on a SAN - any thoughts or
ideas appreciated.

Thanks in advance

David Lee


Systems Engineer
City Treasury
Plymouth City Council
Civic Centre
PL1 2AA

Tel: (01752) - 304218

DISCLAIMER
"The views expressed in this message are personal and must not be considered
to be the official views of Plymouth City Council."


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