Unfortunately this is a big ol' "it depends". Complicated further by your having so many applications, probably with wildly different IO profiles, sharing the same instance/server and arrays.
Usually you would want to isolate data and log files as the IO profiles are polar opposite. Typically weighted toward random read for data files and sequential write for logs. The log element is somewhat different in your case as you have multiple log files.
I'd start by getting an understanding of the IO the databases are consuming relative to each other.
SELECT
DB_NAME(fs.database_id) AS [Database Name]
, mf.physical_name
, io_stall_read_ms
, num_of_reads
, CAST(io_stall_read_ms / (1.0 + num_of_reads) AS NUMERIC(10, 1)) AS [avg_read_stall_ms]
, io_stall_write_ms
, num_of_writes
, CAST(io_stall_write_ms / (1.0 + num_of_writes) AS NUMERIC(10, 1)) AS [avg_write_stall_ms]
, io_stall_read_ms + io_stall_write_ms AS [io_stalls]
, num_of_reads + num_of_writes AS [total_io]
, CAST((io_stall_read_ms + io_stall_write_ms)
/ (1.0 + num_of_reads + num_of_writes) AS NUMERIC(10,1)) AS [avg_io_stall_ms]
FROM
sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) AS fs
INNER JOIN sys.master_files AS mf
ON fs.database_id = mf.database_id
AND fs.[file_id] = mf.[file_id]
ORDER BY
DatabaseName ASC, mf.physical_name
-- num_of_reads DESC
-- num_of_writes DESC
OPTION (RECOMPILE) ;
If you can format the output of this into a readable form and add to your question, someone can make a more educated guess at the best use of your 18 disks.
If I was doing this blind, I'd probably start off allocating:
- 6 RAID10 for the busiest database's data files
- 6 RAID10 for the other database's data files
- 4 RAID10 shared Logs
- 2 RAID1 Tempdb (your single disk configuration is a risky single point of failure)
Assuming that:
- the SAN hosts other arrays and therefore hot spares are available from a pool
- snapshot isolation isn't in use or isn't placing heavy demands on tempdb
Edit: Following update to question regarding queue lengths:
Queue length counters are oft misunderstood when evaluating SQL Server performance. One of the best analogies I've come across is from a Simon Sabin blog post, Disk Queue Length - a bit like buying Guiness.
In your case, they are so low that you might get by with half the spindles. Would still be interesting to see the other stats from the above query though.
Best Answer
1) You can attach the database files to another instance if you have the mdf' and ldfs ( even with mdf you will be able to attach )
System database master contains the user info, and msdb contains the jobs and other info; if you couldn't recover these files, you need to add them manually
ssms -> rightclick database -> attach ; choose the files and attach
OR
You may have to run a 'DBCC CHECKDB()' statement against the newly attached database
2) You can copy the .mdf and .ldf files to a different server and just Attach them. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190209.aspx
You will lose any server-wide logins created at the instance level but you will retain your database users.