Memory consumption is shared through many of the applications. ISA Server was defaulted in using 10 percent of the memory available. SQL Server and Exchange will use memory available and release when it is done. You can specify how much RAM you can give SQL Server, although, in the results shown here, this was not done.
Depending upon the amount of SQL Server and Exchange used in the organisation, memory should be an important part of the consideration process.

Careful consideration should be used when specifying your hardware for Small Business Server. Some things to consider when purchasing memory include:

1. Do you plan for heavy use of Exchange Server?
2. Do you plan for heavy use of SQL Server due to a custom database or 3rd party line of business application?
3. Will you be caching several Internet sites with ISA Server?
4. Do you plan to use Terminal Services?

The two most processor-intensive applications in Small Business Server 2000 are the Exchange Server services and the SQL Server service. Using a single Pentium III 667MHz/133MHz processor and under the test load conditions it rarely spiked over 30 per cent even under extreme loads for 50 users.
The processor seemed to handle even the extreme tests with no performance issues. Rather than purchasing the most powerful processor, it is beneficial to purchase a better disk subsystem or extra RAM. Also, more, smaller disks will lead to better performance than less, larger disks as the total load can be spread across many disks.

For small businesses that plan to purchase and use additional client licenses of the Terminal Service in application mode on Small Business Server 2000, an additional processor may apply.

The Disk subsystem is the heaviest-hit component of the server in all three of the server performance tests. However, even the heavy usage tests very rarely did the hardware RAID reach bottleneck levels. Despite this heavy use, the server continued to deliver good performance levels for SQL Server, and Exchange.

A solid fault tolerant disk configuration could be the most important configuration setting that you make when setting up Small Business Server. It is recommended to always set up a RAID 1 (disk mirror) for the Windows 2000 Server operating system.
For the data partition, set up a RAID 5 partition (strip set with parity) and place the data stores for SQL Server and Exchange.
For further performance tuning, you can set up another RAID 1 or RAID 5 partition to place the page file and log files.
However, this will likely be excessive for a small business installation and lead to unnecessary costs.

These RAID configurations will lead to performance advantages but more importantly, minimise the risk of data loss and downtime. If any of the hard disks fail, you should not lose any data and your server should still run, although you will likely notice performance degradation. Your business can continue running and you can schedule time during the evening to replace the disk, reset the RAID partition, and be running by the following day.