We run a single server Exchange 2013 setup as a VM on Hyper-V. We have 3 mailbox DBs that all live on a single VHD. Two are 800gb and one is 300gb.
We are having disk IO issues on that DB volume. Disk queue length is routinely at 6-8 and spikes even higher sometimes.
CPU and RAM performance is fine on this server, so I think this is an I/O issue. CPU hovers around 35% and weare normally only using about 40% of RAM on the VM.
I don'tthink splitting the DBs more will help if I'm leaving them on the same server.
I want to add an additional Exchange 2013 server with only the mailbox role on it. But I had two questions:
1. Can you add an additional mailbox role without doing a DAG? (I'm 99% sure this is yes but want to confirm)
2. We run the Standard version of Exchange. I know you can only have 5 databases on Standard. Is this a per SERVER count...