Hi! We have navision 2.60 on a windows nt 4.0 server with its own database running. Navisions Database is divided on this server to 16 disks. Every disk has 9 GB where 2 GB are for navisions base file. The whole navision database is 32 GB. Now my questions: we want in some weeks install navision attain 3.1 on a new server (windows 2000). Locally on this server we install windows 2000 and navision attain 3.10. This server has 2 diks (Raid1) We have also an external storage array with 12 disks. A external company said that for the navision database the best solution would be to stripe 6 disks and make a raid 1 array with the other 6 disks. And then make in navision attain 3.10 one large navision database on that disk stripe and not 16 navision base files. What is really the best solution in our case? Who has some idea or practice with that? What was the reason for this 16 base files for navision 2.5? Thanks
Hi, How i remember Navision proposed use for database FAT. FAT can manage files until 2 GB. So for speed these files must be on separate disks. Today everybody use NTFS, and there no problems with files more than 2 GB. Stripe 6 disk with 1 raid (1 raid recomended by Navision) i think is good solution.
Remeber not to use one lagre file, since Navision then only gets one commig cache (slave.exe). Divide the database into separate files on separate HDD:s (in RAID-1 with no write cache) Rgds //Lars
What Geda says is incorrect. The reason for multiple disks has absolutely nothing to do with FAT limitations. The same recommendation is for FAT or NTFS. Performance in NAvision is related to how fast you can read data from the the database, so more heads means more spead. In your case you have 16 heads, this means that in reality you system will be about 16 times faster than using a single large drive. Also do you have RAID 1. If not, what are you using as a fail safe? I recommend reading Navision’s manuals, despite the critisizm, they are very clear and detailed. Also read up on the white papers, especially the ones from Compaq and Siemens. Then of course don’t forget to search through the history of the NOLUG, you will easily find 100 threads on this topic, I am sure that I have replied at least that many times to this same question.