1 Chapter 12 MANAGING DISK STORAGE Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 2 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 Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 3 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 1
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 4 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 Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 5 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 Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 6 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. 2
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 7 USING DISK MANAGEMENT Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 8 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 9 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. 3
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 10 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 11 CREATING BASIC DISK PARTITIONS Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 12 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. 4
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 13 CREATING DYNAMIC DISK VOLUMES Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 14 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 15 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. 5
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 16 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 17 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 18 RECOVERING FROM MIRRORED DISK FAILURES 6
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 19 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 Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 20 CHOOSING A RAID TECHNOLOGY Mirrored Volumes (RAID-1) Can protect system or boot partition Requires two hard disks Has a higher cost per MB Striped Volumes with Parity (RAID-5) Cannot protect system or boot partition Requires a minimum of three hard disks and allows a maximum of 32 hard disks Has a lower cost per MB 50 percent redundancy 33 percent maximum redundancy Has good read and write performance Uses less system memory Has excellent read and moderate write performance Requires more system memory Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 21 ASSIGNING DRIVE LETTERS 7
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 22 FORMATTING VOLUMES Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 23 EXTENDING DYNAMIC VOLUMES Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 24 MANAGING DISK STORAGE Using Check Disk Using Disk Defragmenter Implementing disk quotas 8
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 25 USING CHECK DISK Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 26 USING DISK DEFRAGMENTER Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 27 IMPLEMENTING DISK QUOTAS 9
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 28 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 Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 29 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 30 CREATING QUOTA ENTRIES 10
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 31 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 32 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 33 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 backward 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. 11
Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 34 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 35 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. Chapter 12: MANAGING DISK STORAGE 36 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. 12