MANAGING DISK STORAGE

1
MANAGING DISK STORAGE

• Chapter 12

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

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

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

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

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.

7
USING DISK MANAGEMENT
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.

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.

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.

11
CREATING BASIC DISK PARTITIONS
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.

13
CREATING DYNAMIC DISK VOLUMES
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.

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.

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.

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.
• Drives status in the Disk Management console
  shows as resynching while data is copied.

18
RECOVERING FROM MIRRORED DISK FAILURES
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

20
CHOOSING A RAID TECHNOLOGY
21
ASSIGNING DRIVE LETTERS
22
FORMATTING VOLUMES
23
EXTENDING DYNAMIC VOLUMES
24
MANAGING DISK STORAGE

• Using Check Disk
• Using Disk Defragmenter
• Implementing disk quotas

25
USING CHECK DISK
26
USING DISK DEFRAGMENTER
27
IMPLEMENTING DISK QUOTAS
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

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.

30
CREATING QUOTA ENTRIES
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.

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 volumes properties in Windows Explorer
  or Disk Management.

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
  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
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
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
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.