Drive options for lab server

nikalis

Hey guys I have a dell poweredge 1950 II that I am trying to use for my lab server for msca/ce

What I have done to it
24GB ddr2 memory
2x X5355 Xeons

Which brings me to my question, I have a couple options for storage and I'm wondering which will be best

2 146GB sas 15k drives in raid 1
1 146gb sas 15k drive for OS, 64GB ssd for vms
or
ssd for os and sas for vms

which do you think will be my best option and just general suggestions would be great

thanks

bruun

Go for the SAS and SSD drives and create a tiered storage space. Use a cheap sata disk to boot from.

Why R2? Step-by-Step: Automated Tiered Storage with Windows Server 2012 R2 - KeithMayer.com - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

poolmanjim

The most important things to consider with a lab drive setup is how many VMs you want to run/store and how fast do you want the whole thing to be.

I would always recommend separating out the host os onto its own disk whenever possible. That way the IO for the day-to-day OS doesn't get in the way of the IO for your lab environment.

Looking at the configurations, I would personally go for the SAS for the OS and the SSD for the VMs. Just be aware that 64GB can fill up fast (Server 2012 R2 installed consumed about 8-10GB of space depending on the roles and features).

nikalis

very cool function there bruun. kind of like l2arc in ZFS.
Think I am going to use the ssd along with a 500gb seagate I have