Wise use of partitions?

[Shayne H]

I am setting up Win2k thats intended to host a SQL service.
Usually in the past have made another partition to host the data files for
the SQL service.
Now I have seen articles on MS knowledge base that explain how to do an
unattended setup that will install the IIS folder and Documents and Settings
folder on another drive (ie partition).
Seems a good idea for backup purposes, however anyone have anything to say
about it?
Is it a potential problem that windows registry files would then be on a
drive other than the system drive?

 

[Dave Patrick]

What article? AFAIK the registry is always in
%windir%\system32\config\

 

[Shayne H]

The article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;236621

It does not mention about the registry, but I honestly thought the
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER] part of the registry resided in the users profile
folder. Think I assumed this to be the Ntuser.dat file. Is that something
else entirely?

 

[Dave Patrick]

As long as the drive is always available, I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Salt_Peter]

First of all, you registry lives in memory. By default, it's dat files will
continue to be kept on the OS partition. Those settings ascociated with user
profiles will continue to load normally as long as that drive is available.
Even then, the local profile is master.

The idea behind placing IIS in a seperate partition is to permit the related
shares to exist on a seperate ntfs partition. This is relevent due to
security parent-to-child inheritence (ntfs). Also, not having to share
virtual directories on the same drive as OS admin shares is safer. Carefull
planning of the ntfs security of the log files ascociated with OS and IIS
should be considered. In my opinion, sharing IIS virtual directories on the
same drive as OS is downright dangerous.

Using IISLockdown + URLScan can help with what is otherwise a vulnerable
service (not to mention a decent firewall). It's not a question of whether
you'll be hacked, but "when" you'll be hacked (and it's nice to be able to
determine when the system has been compromised. Hence: log file protection
and appropriate auditing).

Altering the location of Documents and Settings is more a convenience of
location, often enough, it's a drive space issue, a raid issue, a
backup/restore issue or a performance issue.

SQL on a different partition can be helpfull, but i'ld suggest a different
drive controller and even raid if performance is an issue. You'll also want
to review the memory quantity installed on the server.

Your idea of seperate partitions for SQL and IIS should be a standard, not
just an option. It's the way to go.