MANAGING DISK STORAGE

1. Chapter 12 MANAGING DISK STORAGE

2. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CHAPTER OVERVIEW • Understand disk-storage concepts and terminology • Distinguish between basic and dynamic storage • Identify the types of storage volumes supported on Windows Server 2003 managed disks • Identify the best RAID implementation given a particular storage requirement in terms of capacity utilization, fault tolerance, and performance • Add storage to a Windows Server 2003 computer • Manage disks using Check Disk, Disk Defragmenter, and disk quotas

3. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE UNDERSTANDING WINDOWS SERVER 2003 DISK STORAGE • Disk The physical device • Partition An area of the disk that functions as a physically separate unit of storage • Volume An area of a partition used for storing data

4. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE USING BASIC STORAGE • Supported by all versions of Windows and MS-DOS • The default storage type for Windows Server 2003 • Each disk is divided into partitions, which can be either primary or extended

5. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE USING DYNAMIC STORAGE • Supported by Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 • One disk, one partition • Volumes are created within the partition • Supports spanning, striping, and RAID implementations

6. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE BASIC VS. DYNAMIC DISKS • By default, all disks are basic. • Basic disks can be easily converted to dynamic disks. • Converting a disk from dynamic to basic causes all data to be lost.

7. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE USING DISK MANAGEMENT

8. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE ADDING STORAGE • Physically install the disk(s). • Initialize the disk. • On a basic disk, create partitions. On a dynamic disk, create volumes. • Format the volumes. • Assign drive letters to the volumes.

9. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE INSTALLING A DISK • Physically install the disk. • Windows Server 2003 should recognize the new device automatically. • If it does not, select Rescan Disks from the Action menu in Disk Management.

10. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE INITIALIZING THE DISK • All disks must be initialized before they can be used. • Initialization causes the MBR (basic disk) or GPT (dynamic disk) to be written. • The Initialize And Convert Disk Wizard should launch automatically after a new disk is installed.

11. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CREATING BASIC DISK PARTITIONS

12. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CONVERTING A BASIC DISK TO A DYNAMIC DISK • Make a backup before converting. • Partitions and logical drives are converted to simple volumes. • Existing Windows NT volume sets and stripe sets are converted to spanned volumes and striped volumes, respectively.

13. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CREATING DYNAMIC DISK VOLUMES

14. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CREATING SIMPLE VOLUMES • A simple volume can be created from free space on a single disk. • A simple volume can be extended using free space on the same disk, as long as it is not the system/boot volume. • To create a simple volume using the New Volume Wizard, in the Disk Management console, right-click unallocated space on a disk and select New Volume.

15. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CREATING OTHER VOLUME TYPES • Spanned Uses space from multiple disks appearing as single volume • Striped (RAID-0) Uses space from multiple disks appearing as single volume; data is written across all drives in the striped set at the same rate. • Mirrored (RAID-1) An identical copy of a volume is created on another physical disk, for fault tolerance. • RAID-5 Striped set with parity allows the system to continue running in the event of a single disk failure.

16. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE WORKING WITH MIRRORED VOLUMES • Data is written to both drives simultaneously. • Can be used to provide fault tolerance to the system/boot volume on a Windows Server 2003 system. • Does not degrade performance.

17. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CONVERTING A SIMPLE VOLUME TO A MIRRORED VOLUME • Only requirement is a drive with sufficient space to hold the mirrored data. • Data is copied to the new drive sector by sector. • Drive’s status in the Disk Management console shows as resynching while data is copied.

18. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE RECOVERING FROM MIRRORED DISK FAILURES

19. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE WORKING WITH RAID • Non-fault-tolerant RAID implementations • RAID-0: Disk striping without parity • Fault-tolerant RAID implementations • RAID-1: Disk mirroring • RAID-5: Disk striping with parity

20. M i r r o r e d V o l u m e s ( R A I D - 1 ) S t r i p e d V o l u m e s w i t h P a r i t y ( R A I D - 5 ) M i r r o r e d V o l u m e s ( R A I D - 1 ) S t r i p e d V o l u m e s w i t h P a r i t y ( R A I D - 5 ) Can protect system Cannot protect system or boot or boot partition partition Requires two hard disks Requires a minimum of three hard disks and allows a max i mum of 32 hard disks Has a higher cost per MB Has a lower cost per MB 50 percent redundancy 33 percent maximum redu n dancy Has good read and write Has excellent read and performance mode r ate write performance Uses less system memory Requires more system memory Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CHOOSING A RAID TECHNOLOGY

21. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE ASSIGNING DRIVE LETTERS

22. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE FORMATTING VOLUMES

23. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE EXTENDING DYNAMIC VOLUMES

24. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE MANAGING DISK STORAGE • Using Check Disk • Using Disk Defragmenter • Implementing disk quotas

25. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE USING CHECK DISK

26. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE USING DISK DEFRAGMENTER

27. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE IMPLEMENTING DISK QUOTAS

28. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE ENABLING QUOTAS • Quotas are enabled on a volume-by-volume basis • Exceptions to quotas can be configured on a per-user basis • Every file owned by a user counts toward her quota total

29. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CONFIGURING QUOTA DEFAULTS • Set warning levels to alert users when they approach their quota limit. • Set restrictions to prevent users from exceeding their quota limit. • Logging related to quota events can be enabled.

30. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE CREATING QUOTA ENTRIES

31. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE EXPORTING QUOTA ENTRIES • Allows quota settings to be applied to another volume. • Destination volume must be formatted with NTFS. • Only limits and configurations are exported, not the current quota usage.

32. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE MONITORING QUOTAS AND STORAGE • Quota limits and percentage used can be viewed through the Quota Entries dialog box. • The Quota Entries dialog box can be accessed by viewing a volume’s properties in Windows Explorer or Disk Management.

33. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE SUMMARY • Windows Server 2003 supports two types of storage, basic and dynamic, and three file systems, FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. • Basic disks and the FAT file system provide back-ward compatibility with older Windows operating systems but are limited in their capabilities. • Dynamic disks provide flexible and powerful options in configurations with more than one disk.

34. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE SUMMARY (continued) • Basic disks can be converted to dynamic disks with no data loss, but all data and volumes must be deleted to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk. • Dynamic disks support simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes, to provide storage according to capacity, performance, and fault tolerance requirements.

35. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE SUMMARY (continued) • Fault tolerance is provided by mirrored (RAID-1) volumes and striped-with-parity volumes (RAID-5). • Simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes (RAID-0), and all basic disk logical drives are not fault tolerant. • You use the Disk Management snap-in to create and manage basic and dynamic disks.

36. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE SUMMARY (continued) • Disk volumes can become corrupted or fragmented and often fill to capacity. You can manage existing volumes using tools such as Check Disk, Disk Defragmenter, and Quota Manager. • You can use disk quotas to set and monitor storage limits and deny write access to users who exceed those limits.