Designing a Standard File Server Configuration

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To maximize the reliability, availability, and performance of file servers, design one or more standard hardware and software configurations for file servers in your organization. Using a standard configuration for file servers provides a number of benefits:

• You experience less complexity managing and maintaining the hardware. Instead of learning to perform hardware tasks on multiple types of file servers, you need only to learn the task once.

• You reduce the amount of testing that must be done when updating drivers or applications on the file server. Instead of testing the fixes on multiple hardware configurations, you can test the updates on one file server and then deploy the updates to the other file servers.

• You can keep fewer spares on-site. For example, if you use the same type of hard disks in all file servers, you need fewer spare disks, reducing the cost and complexity of providing spares.

• You reduce the number of disk images or answer files you need to maintain, which is useful if you are using automated installation technologies, such as unattended installation or Remote Installation Services (RIS), to deploy your file servers.

Important

• If you have read "Planning File Server Availability" earlier in this chapter and you have decided to implement clustered file servers, review the chapter "Designing and Deploying Server Clusters" in this book for important guidelines on choosing and configuring cluster hardware and storage.

Figure 2.17 outlines the process for designing a standard file server configuration.

Figure 2.17   Designing a Standard File Server Configuration