Managing Storage Groups

Exchange supports multiple databases contained within a storage group. A storage group includes one to five databases and one set of transaction log files for all databases in the storage group. You can create a maximum of four storage groups on one server. If each storage group contains the maximum of five databases, you can create a maximum of 20 databases on one server.

Important   A server can theoretically support up to 90 mailbox stores or public folder stores, but 36 are the recommended maximum for best performance on a normal server that is not clustered.

You can use storage groups to keep related stores together, naming them after departments or company divisions.

The log files for a storage group contain the database transactions for all mailbox stores or public folder stores in the group. For this reason, the storage group is the best unit for backup, because backups automatically include the transaction logs for all mailbox stores or public folder stores in the group.

To optimize performance, dedicate separate physical drives for the log files of your storage groups. When each set of log files has its own physical drive, server performance improves. To optimize fault tolerance, use hardware mirroring with redundant array of independent drives (RAID).

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