Server OS: put it on a separate drive? Yes, no, or depends on the situation?

Posted by captainentropy on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by captainentropy
Published on 2010-03-18T22:20:49Z Indexed on 2010/03/18 22:21 UTC
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Hi, I would like opinions, or facts, both preferably, on whether it's ok to install a server's OS on the RAID array or not.

I would predict installation on separate drives is the best but I'm interested in the performance. The server in question will have 8 cores (2.4GHz ea.), 24GB RAM, and ~16TB of usable space of server-class drives in RAID10. There is also a subsytem of an ~equivalent size for backup. I will be running CPU/memory intesive applications on this server in addition to it being file storage for my work (research lab).

IF I install the OS (haven't decided which one, probably Ubuntu or Fedora or some other good linux distro) on separate drives will there be any performance problems if they aren't configured in RAID10?

IF it is better to have the OS on separate drives should I go for 150GB velociraptors in RAID1 or smallish SSD drives in RAID1? Money is unfortunately a factor as I think I'm close to maxing my budget as it is.

Thanks!

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