Planning Partitions

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It’s a good idea to decide how you want your server storage to look before you start installing Windows Small Business Server. You’re not required to create partitions on your hard disks during the installation phase beyond the disk where Windows Small Business Server is installed, but you certainly can. And by creating all the partitions ahead of time, you have additional options for where some of the components of Small Business Server are placed. To create your initial storage during installation, follow these recommendations:

• Create a partition during the initial text installation screens for the operating system and log files that is at least 4 GB in size (8 GB is a more realistic minimum).

• Optionally, create the other partitions you’ll be using.

• If you’re using hardware-based RAID, you must create the volume for the operating system using the manufacturer’s tools before you start the installation of Windows Small Business Server. Also, it’s a good idea to create any other volumes you’ll be using, even if you don’t put partitions on them yet.

• If you’ll be using software RAID for some or all of your drives, create these after Setup completes processing.

Note 

For more detailed information about planning a storage solution, see Chapter 8, “Storage Management.”

Under the Hood

Dividing Storage

While you can have one, single, large partition and put everything on it, there are compelling reasons to divide hard-drive space into at least three different partitions, even if you are using hardware RAID. The three partitions are:

• The primary operating system partition.

• A partition for static storage, such as programs.

• A partition for data, logs, and other volatile information. This will be the most active partition and should have a storage technology optimized accordingly.

Dividing your storage space into logical partitions in this way makes backups and disaster recovery easier and allows you to focus your efforts on the critical data partition.

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