Building a highly available server

After looking at various dedicated server deals for some time, ive taken the plunge and bought my own server which i will colo, to host web and email.

I have never confgiured a server before so i need some advice. The server was liquidation stock and came with 4x300gb scsi disks. Its a Dell 2850 and came with windows 2003 standard.

I've been told that to build a highly available server, i should get two more discs (it will take six).. set these two up as raid 1 and put only the OS on them. Then configure 3 of the 300gb disks as raid 5 for all data, and use the remaining 300gb disk as a hotspare.

Firstly, can this be done? how do i do it?

 

 

 

 

Top