You work as the database administrator at Domain.com. The Domain.com network consists of a single Active Directory domain named Domain.com. All servers on the Domain.com network run Windows Server2003. You install SQL Server 2005 on a server named Certkiller -DB01 that runs on a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. Certkiller -DB01 will contain a database named CK_Sales that will be used to store Internet sales transactions from the company’s e-commerce Web site.
Certkiller -DB01 has seven 120 GB hard disk drives. Two of the hard disks are configured as a mirrored volume and contains the operating system and SQL Server 2005 is installation. Another two disks are configured as a RAID-1 volume and the rest are configured as a RAID-5 volume.
You to need to plan the placement of the database and the transaction logs. You want to implement fault tolerance and best performance for the CK_Sales database.
What should you do?
A.
Place the database on the RAID-5 array and the transaction log on the RAID-1 array.
B.
Place the database and the transaction log on the RAID-5 array.
C.
Place the database on the mirrored volume and the transaction log on the RAID-5 array.
D.
Place the database on the RAID-1 array and the transaction log on the RAID-5 array.
Explanation:
The RAID-5 array provides striping with parity. Striping improves read/write operations across multiple disks while parity provides fault tolerance. Placing the database on the RAID-5 array would thus provide best performance and fault tolerance. Performance can be improved by placing the transaction logs on a separate hard disk. The RAID-1 array provides striping which improves read/write operations across multiple disks.
Incorrect Answers:
B: RAID-5 array provides striping with parity. Striping improves read/write operations across multiple disks while parity provides fault tolerance. Performance can be improved even further by placing the transaction logs on a separate hard disk.
C: Mirrored volumes write the same data to two physical disks. This provides fault tolerance but does not provide improved performance. Fault tolerance and improved performance can be gained by placing the database on the RAID-5 volume.
D: The RAID-1 array provides striping which improves read/write operations across multiple disks but it does not provide fault tolerance.