Physical storage and physical topology recommendations

Two very useful SharePoint Server articles have been published on TechNet that are directly applicable to a Project Server farm. As I mentioned yesterday a properly configured SQL server will help Improving Queue Performance.

• Physical storage recommendations

The disks and arrays you choose — and how you place data on those disks and arrays — can significantly affect system performance.

Sections include:

• Use appropriate disks and RAID arrays
• Separate and prioritize your data among disks
• Follow vendor configuration recommendations

• Physical topology recommendations

The topology of your system’s database tier, and your network, physical storage, and caching can significantly affect system performance. When you plan your hardware, remember that Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the last version of Office SharePoint Server that will run on 32-bit operating systems and databases.

Sections include:

• Start with a dedicated server running SQL Server 2005
• Consider scaling out in addition to adding resources
• Follow the SQL Server guidelines when choosing hardware
• CPU cache
• Bus bandwidth
• Disk and SAN interfaces
• Disk topology