chapter06 managing disks and data storage

Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Chapter 6: Managing Disks and Data

Storage

2

Objectives

• Understand concepts related to disk management• Manage partitions and volumes on a Windows

Server 2003 system• Understand the purpose of mounted drives and

how to implement them• Understand the fault tolerant disk strategies

natively supported in Windows Server 2003

3

Objectives (continued)

• Determine disk and volume status information and import foreign disks

• Maintain disks on a Windows Server 2003 system using a variety of native utilities

4

Disk Management Concepts

• Windows Server 2003 supports two data storage types:• Basic disks

• Uses traditional disk management techniques• Has primary partitions, extended partitions, logical

drives• Dynamic disks

• Does not use traditional disk partitioning• No restriction on number of volumes implemented

on one disk

5

Basic Disks

• Maximum of four primary partitions or three primary and one extended partition on a disk

• Each primary partition:• Can use FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file system

• Has a drive letter

• Boot partition• Operating system files reside on boot partition

• Can be located on a primary partition or logical drive

6

Primary Partitions

• A basic drive must contain at least one and no more than four primary partitions

• One partition is the system (or active) partition • Contains files to start operating system

• Usually drive C on Windows

• Can also be used for traditional data storage

7

Extended Partitions and Logical Drives

• An extended partition:• Is created from free hard disk space that is not

partitioned, formatted, or assigned a drive letter

• Allows you to extend the four-partition limit

• Can be divided into logical drives

• Each drive is then formatted and assigned a drive letter

8

Volume Sets and Stripe Sets

• Only on Windows NT Server 4.0• Volume set

• Two or more partitions combined to look like one volume with a single drive letter

• Stripe set• Two or more disks striped for RAID level 0 or 5

• Windows Server 2003 and 2000 provide backward compatibility• Can use but not create

9

Dynamic Disks

• Can set up a large number of volumes per disk• Volumes are similar to partitions but with additional

capabilities

• Reasons to implement dynamic disks include• Can extend NTFS volumes

• Can configure RAID volumes for fault tolerance and performance

• Can reactivate missing or offline disks

• Can change disk settings with restarting computer

10

Simple Volume and Spanned Volume

• A simple volume:• Dedicated, formatted portion of space on a dynamic

disk

• NTFS volumes can be extended (not system or boot)

• A spanned volume:• Space in 2 to 32 dynamic disks

• Treated as a single volume

• Allows you to maximize use of scattered space across several disks

11

Striped Volume

• Referred to as RAID level 0• Implemented for performance enhancement,

particularly for storage of large files• Not fault tolerant• Requires from 2 to 32 disks• Data is written in 64 KB blocks across rows in the

volume

12

Striped Volume (continued)

13

Managing Partitions and Volumes

• Primary tool is Disk Management• Central facility for

• Viewing information

• Creating partitions and volumes

• Deleting partitions and volumes

• Converting basic disks to dynamic disks

14

Managing Partitions and Volumes (continued)

15

Managing Disk Properties

• Disk Management:• Can be added to a custom MMC

• Most commonly accessed via Storage section of Computer Management

• Used for the creation, deletion, and management of disks, partitions, and volumes

• Shares some property sheets with Windows Explorer, Device Manager

16

Managing Disk Properties (continued)

17

Activity 6-1: Viewing and Managing Disk Properties with

Disk Management• Objective: Use Disk Management to view the

properties of a hard disk and partition• From AdminXX account

• Start My Computer Manage Expand Storage Disk Management

• Explore information available for partitions, disks, and volumes as directed

18

Activity 6-2: Creating and Deleting a Primary Partition

• Objective: Use Disk Management to create and delete a new primary partition

• Create a new NTFS partition using the New Partition Wizard

• Assign a drive letter• Verify that the new partition was created• Delete the partition

19

Activity 6-3: Creating an Extended Partition

• 6-3 Objective: To create an extended partition using the New Partition Wizard• Once an extended partition has been created, you can

create a logical drive

20

Activity 6-4: Creating a Logical Drive

• 6-4 Objective: To create a logical drive within the new partition using the New Partition Wizard

21

Activity 6-5: Converting a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

• Objective: To convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk using Disk Management

• Convert and verify according to exercise• If necessary to convert from dynamic to basic

• Must be empty, backup first

• Once a dynamic disk is available• Can create different types of volumes on the disk

22

Activity 6-6: Creating a Simple Volume

• Objective: To create a simple volume on a dynamic disk

• Create using New Volume Wizard• Format in NTFS file system

• Assign a drive letter

23

Extending Volumes

• Volume can be extended unless• Functioning as boot or system volume

• Possible tools• Disk Management

• DISKPART command-line utility

24

Activity 6-7: Extending a Volume Using DISKPART

• Objective: To extend a volume using the DISKPART command

• Open the command line and enter the DISKPART command

• Select the simple volume and extend the size by 50 MB

• Verify that the size of the volume has been increased

25

Mounted Drives

• Mounting a drive is an alternative to assigning it a drive letter

• A mounted drive is represented as a folder with a normal path

• To mount a drive:• Must be on an NTFS volume• Must be an empty folder

• Reasons:• 26 drive letter limit• Path access is convenient• Backups

26

Activity 6-8: Mounting an NTFS Volume

• Objective: To mount an NTFS volume• Create an empty folder• Use Disk Management to mount a drive to the

folder• Test by creating a test folder on the drive and

viewing it from the mounted folder

27

Fault Tolerant Disk Strategies

• Fault tolerance• The ability to recover gracefully from hardware or

software failure

• Hard disks do fail periodically• Software RAID provides various levels of fault

tolerance• A combination of RAID and backup can minimize

disruption and loss of data

28

RAID Levels• Redundant Array of Independent Disk strategies

• Set of standards for:• Lengthening disk life• Preventing data loss• Enabling uninterrupted access to data

• Windows Server 2003 supports level 0, 1, and 5• RAID level 0

• Striping with no other redundancy features

• RAID level 1• Disk mirroring (duplicating data from main disk to

backup disk)

29

RAID Levels (continued)

• RAID level 2• Disk striping, error correction across all disks

• RAID level 3• Disk striping, error correction on 1 disk

• RAID level 4• Disk striping, error correction across all disks,

checksum on 1 disk

• RAID level 5• Disk striping, error correction across all disks,

checksum across all disks

30

RAID Levels (continued)

• Supported on FAT and NTFS• Either RAID level 1 or 5 is usually recommended• Considerations:

• Placement of boot and system files

• Number of disks required or supported

• Cost (per megabyte of storage)

• Amount of memory required

• Read and write access speed

31

Striped Volume (RAID 0)

• Reasons to use:• Reduce wear on disk drives by equalizing load

• Increase disk performance

• No specific fault tolerance support• Can be created using New Volume Wizard

32

Mirrored Volume (RAID 1)

• Creates a copy of data on a backup disk• Requires 2 disks • Highly effective fault tolerance since a complete

copy of data is available• Disk read performance is equal to non-mirrored• Disk write time is doubled• Created through New Volume Wizard

33

Mirrored Volume (continued)

34

RAID-5 Volume

• Requires a minimum of 3 disks• Provides good fault tolerance• Parity information distributed across all drives• Performance slower than with a striped volume

(parity information must be computed and stored)

35

RAID-5 Volume (continued)

• Read access is equal to striped volume• Storage requirement for parity information is 1/n

with n the number of disks• Created through New Volume Wizard

36

RAID-5 Volume (continued)

37

Software RAID and Hardware RAID

• Software RAID uses existing hardware and implements particular software strategies

• Hardware RAID requires specialized hardware (more expensive) but lessens the burden on the OS

• Often implemented on the adapter for disk drives• Often includes a battery backup • Advantages include: faster read and write, mixed

RAID levels, failed disk hot-swap, better setup options

38

Monitoring Disk Health and Importing Foreign Disks

• Disk Management provides status information on disks and volumes • Number of different status descriptions

• Windows Server 2003 provides the ability to import disks from other servers if necessary (foreign disks)

39

Disk and Volume Status Descriptions

• Optimal descriptions:• Disk should be ONLINE

• Volume should be HEALTHY

• Common volume messages include:• Failed, failed redundancy, formatting, healthy,

regenerating, resyncing, unknown

• Common disk messages include:• Audio CD, foreign, initializing, missing, no media, not

initialized, online, online (errors), offline, unreadable

40

Importing Foreign Disks

• Used when a server fails• Disks from the server can be moved to another server

• When first connected, the disk status will be foreign and it will not be accessible

• Use the Import Foreign Disks option on the disk• If multiple disks are imported

• Each disk is imported individually• Default is that disk will use its original drive letter but

an available letter is chosen if there is a conflict

41

Other Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities

• Introduces disk-related utilities other than Disk Management• Some provide extra features or functions

• Some are similar but are accessible from the command line

42

Check Disk

• Allows you to scan a disk for bad sectors and file system errors

• Disk can’t be in use during scan• Two start options:

• Automatically fix file system errors

• Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors

• CHKDSK command-line utility has similar functionality

43

CONVERT

• CONVERT is a command-line utility• Converts existing FAT and FAT32 partitions or

volumes to NTFS• Leaves existing data intact

44

Disk Cleanup• Allows an administrator to determine where disk

space is being used and could potentially be freed• Files that can be removed include:

• Temporary internet files

• Downloaded program files

• Files in recycle bin

• Windows temporary files

• No longer used Windows components and programs

• Can also compress files• Command-line version is CLEANMGR

45

Disk Defragmenter

• Free disk space eventually become fragmented as files are created and removed

• Results in slower access and higher disk wear• Defragmentation attempts to place files in

contiguous areas• Defragmentation should be done periodically

46

Activity 6-9: Using the Disk Defragmenter Utility

• Objective: to analyze and defragment a volume using the Disk Defragmenter utility

• The utility graphically displays the fragmentation status of the disk before and after defragmentation

• Command-line version of command is DEFRAG• Can be used to schedule defragmentation when used

with a batch file and Task Scheduler

• Get complete syntax and options with DEFRAG /?

47

DISKPART

• Command-line utility for managing disks, volumes, partitions

• Uses include: • Configuring active partition, assigning drive letters,

implementing fault tolerance schemes, etc.

• Can manage disks from within scripts • Get the complete syntax and options with

DISKPART /?

48

FORMAT

• Used to implement a file system on an existing partition

• Also used on MS-DOS and Windows 9X• Has a variety of advanced settings

• Setting allocation unit (cluster) size

• Command-line version can be run from scripts• Get the complete syntax and options with

FORMAT /?

49

FSUTIL• Used with FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems• Includes many advanced features, requires

experienced user• Information available includes:

• Listings of drives, volume information, NTFS-specific data

• Tasks include:• Managing disk quotas, displaying free space

• Get complete information in Help and Support Center

50

MOUNTVOL

• Used to create, delete, or list volume mount points from command line

• VolumeName parameter is difficult to use• Complicates adding new mount point

• Doesn’t affect removing mount points

• Get complete syntax and options with MOUNTVOL /?

51

Summary• Windows Server 2003 supports data storage types:

• Basic disk

• Divided into 4 primary partitions or 3 primary and 1 extended partition with logical drives

• Dynamic disk

• Can be divided into a number of volumes on 1 disk

• A number of disks can be configured in 1 volume

• Support simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID-5 volumes

• Primary tool for disk management:• Disk Management

52

Summary (continued)• Fault tolerance implemented through RAID

strategies• Most highly recommended are:

• RAID level 1 (mirrored volumes)

• RAID level 5 (striped, distributed parity info)

• Hardware RAID very effective but more costly• A number of command-line tools and other

utilities are available for disk management and cleanup