Disk configuration

The number one recommendation for disk architecture to support an HCL Traveler deployment is to use solid state disks (SSDs) for the Traveler database volume. For a standalone environment, this is the volume used by the Traveler server. For HA environments, this is the volume used by the enterprise database server.

The Traveler database handles a high volume of small transactions, these transactions are random in nature and the seek time required for a spindle disk is such that the majority of the disk IO capacity will be wasted in seek instead of read/write. Even for small deployments, spindle disks often will not be able to handle the random nature of the Traveler database transactions. For HA environments, it is also recommended to use SSDs for the Traveler servers themselves to support the Traveler and Domino logging mechanisms. However, spindle disks in a striped RAID configuration generally can handle Traveler server logging as log files are written serially and not in random fashion.

For small and medium sized deployments, it is not necessary to use a RAID configuration if using SSDs unless data redundancy is desired. For larger deployments it is recommended to use a striped raid configuration for performance such as 0, 5, 6, 10 or 01. See the following table for best practice recommendations for disk configuration based on projected environment size. These are recommendations only; each environment is different and will have different performance requirements.
Table 1. Solid state disk (SSD) recommendations for Traveler servers
Number of devices1 Traveler standalone server Traveler HA server
Less than 500 1 SSD 1 SSD
500 - 4500 or more NA2 1 SSD

1To estimate number of devices, multiply 1.2 times the number of expected users.

2Running a Traveler standalone environment with more than 500 devices is not recommended.

3If using spindle disks, monitor the disk performance for the Domino data directory using the Platform.LogicalDisk stats. The average queue length average (ex: Platform.LogicalDisk.2.AvgQueLen.Avg) should be 0.2 or lower.

For a standalone server, the database volume is the volume the Traveler server is using. For an HA deployment, the database volume and log volume are utilized by the DBMS server. See your particular DBMS documentation for details on specifying the database and log volumes.
Table 2. Solid state disk (SSD) recommendations for database and database log volumes
Number of devices1 Database volume Database log volume
Less than 2000 1 SSD NA2
2000 - 5000 1 SSD 1 SSD
5000 - 10,000 2 or more SSDs RAID 0,5,6,10,01 1 SSD
10,000 - 18,000 or more 4 or more SSDs RAID 0,5,6,10,01 2 or more SSDs RAID 0,5,6,10,01

1To estimate number of devices, multiply 1.2 times the number of expected users.

2Separate database log volume is not required for deployments under 2000 devices.