Microsoft Download Center Archive
 | Optimizing Storage for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 |
This guide will help you optimize your storage architecture for Exchange Server 2003.
- Are you planning to deploy Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003? Are you concerned about availability, fault tolerance and performance? If so, it is critical that you understand how to optimize your storage system for Exchange Server 2003, regardless of the size of your organization.
Disk subsystem bottlenecks cause more performance problems than server-side CPU or RAM deficiencies, and a poorly designed disk subsystem can leave your organization vulnerable to hardware malfunctions. Specifically, your disk subsystem is performing poorly if it is experiencing:- Average read and write latencies over 20 ms.
- Latency spikes over 50 ms that last for more than a few seconds.
High disk latency is synonymous with slow performance. To reduce costly disk latency issues, at a minimum, you should:- Invest in high performance disks and spindles.
- Consider performance before capacity.
- Align your disks by using DiskPar.
All of these topics are discussed in this guide. In general, to optimize your storage system and avoid high disk latency issues, you need to understand:- The causes of Exchange disk I/O.
- How to calculate your disk I/O requirements.
- How to optimize your specific storage architecture.
- How to verify the performance of your storage system.
Files
 | Status: LiveThis download is still available on microsoft.com. The downloads below will come directly from the Microsoft Download Center. |
| File | SHA1 Hash | Size |
|---|---|---|
 Server_Sizing.xls | c5ab5ab00d6bc99b9b91e23ff003e5b2e8956b8f | 5 KB |
 StoragePerformance.doc | 09fbb16d79895b610b172e36863ab3884c108665 | 71 KB |
File sizes and hashes are retrieved from the Wayback Machine’s indexes. They may not match the latest versions of files hosted on Microsoft servers.
System Requirements
Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Professional Edition, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows Server 2003
- The file is a Microsoft Word document. Users who do not have Microsoft Word can view this document through the downloadable Word 2003 Viewer.
Installation Instructions
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