Windows Server 2008 Inside Out- P10

2. On the Select Server Roles page, select File Services and then click Next. Read the introductory page and then click Next again. 3. On the Select Role Services page, select the check boxes for one or more role services to install, as shown in Figure 14-3. To allow for interoperability with UNIX, be sure to add Services For Network File System. Click Next. Figure 14-3 Select the appropriate role services for the file server. 4. A DFS namespace is a virtual view of shared folders located on different servers. If you are installing DFS Namespaces, you’ll have three additional confi guration pages:  On the Create A DFS Namespace page, set the root name for the fi rst namespace or elect to create a namespace later. The namespace root name should be something that is easy for users to remember, such as CorpData. In a large enterprise, you might need to create separate namespaces for each major division.  On the Select Namespace Type page, specify whether you want to create a domain-based namespace or a stand-alone namespace. Domain-based namespaces can be replicated with multiple namespace servers to provide high availability but can have only up to 5,000 DFS folders. Stand-alone namespaces can have up to 50,000 DFS folders but are replicated only when you use failover server clusters and confi gure replication.  On the Confi gure Namespace page, you can add shared folders to the namespace as well as namespaces that are associated with a DFS folder. Click Add. In the Add Folder To Namespace dialog box, click Browse. In the Browse For Shared Folders dialog box, select the shared folder to add Installing and Configuring File Services 417 Chapter 14 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. and then click OK. Next, type a name for the folder in the namespace. This name can be the same as the original folder name or a new name that will be associated with the original folder in the namespace. After you type a name, click OK to add the folder and complete the process. Note You do not have to confi gure DFS Namespaces at this time. After you’ve installed DFS Namespaces, DFS Replication, or both, you can use the DFS Management console to manage the related features. This console is installed and available on the Administrative Tools menu. 5. With File Server Resource Manager, you can monitor the amount of space used on disk volumes and create storage reports. If you are installing File Server Resource Manager, you’ll have two additional confi guration pages:  On the Confi gure Storage Usage Monitoring page, you can select disk vol- umes for monitoring. When you select a volume and then click Options, you can set the volume usage threshold and choose the reports to generate when the volume reaches the threshold value. By default, the usage threshold is 85 percent.  On the Set Report Options page, you can select a save location for usage reports. One usage report of each previously selected type is generated each time a volume reaches its threshold. Old reports are not automati- cally deleted. The default save location is %SystemDrive%\StorageReports. To change the default location, click Browse and then select the new save location in the Browse For Folder dialog box. You can also elect to receive reports by e-mail. To do this, you must specify the recipient e-mail addresses and the SMTP server to use. Note You do not have to confi gure monitoring and reporting at this time. After you’ve installed FSRM, you can use the File Server Resource Manager console to manage the related features. This console is installed and available on the Administrative Tools menu. Note You do not have to confi gure DFS Namespaces at this time. After you’ve installed DFS Namespaces, DFS Replication, or both, you can use the DFS Management console to manage the related features. This console is installed and available on the Administrative Tools menu. Note You do not have to confi gure monitoring and reporting at this time. After you’ve installed FSRM, you can use the File Server Resource Manager console to manage the related features. This console is installed and available on the Administrative Tools menu. Chapter 14 418 Chapter 14 Storage Management Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 6. If you are installing Windows Search Service, you’ll see an additional confi guration page that allows you to select the volumes to index. Indexing a volume makes it possible for users to search a volume quickly. However, indexing entire volumes can affect service performance, especially if you index the system volume. Therefore, you might want to index only specifi c shared folders on volumes, which you’ll be able to do later on a per-folder basis. Note You do not have to confi gure indexing at this time. After you’ve installed Windows Search Service, you can use the Indexing Options utility in Control Panel to manage the related features. 7. When you’ve completed all the optional pages, click Next. You’ll see the Confi rm Installation Options page. Click Install to begin the installation process. When Setup fi nishes installing the server with the features you’ve selected, you’ll see the Installation Results page. Review the installation details to ensure that all phases of the installation completed successfully. If the File Services role is installed already on a server and you want to install addi- tional services for a fi le server, you can add role services to the server using a similar process. In Server Manager, expand the Roles node and then select the File Services node. In the main pane, the window is divided into several panels. Scroll down until you see the Role Services panel and then click Add Role Services. You can then follow the previous procedure starting with step 3 to add role services. Confi guring Storage When you install disks, you must confi gure them for use by choosing a partition style and a storage type to use. After you confi gure drives, you prepare them to store data by partitioning them and creating fi le systems in the partitions. Partitions are sections of physical drives that function as if they are separate units. This allows you to confi gure multiple logical disk units even if a system has only one physical drive and to apportion disks appropriately to meet the needs of your organization. Using the Disk Management Tools When you want to manage storage, the primary tool you use is Disk Management, as shown in Figure 14-4. Disk Management is a snap-in included in Computer Manage- ment and Server Manager. It can be added to any custom MMC you create as well. As long as you are a member of the Administrators group, you can use Disk Management to confi gure drives and software RAID. Note You do not have to confi gure indexing at this time. After you’ve installed Windows Search Service, you can use the Indexing Options utility in Control Panel to manage the related features. Configuring Storage 419 Chapter 14 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Figure 14-4 Disk Management is the primary tool for managing storage. Disk Management makes it easy to work with any available internal and external drives on both local and remote systems. You can start Disk Management by clicking Start, pointing to All Programs, selecting Administrative Tools, and then Computer Manage- ment. You’re automatically connected to the local computer on which you’re running Computer Management. In Computer Management, expand Storage, and then select Disk Management. You can now manage the drives on the local system. To use Disk Management to work with a remote system, right-click the Computer Management entry in the left pane, and select Connect To Another Computer on the shortcut menu. This displays the Select Computer dialog box (shown in the following screen). Type the domain name or IP address of the system whose drives you want to view, and then click OK. Chapter 14 420 Chapter 14 Storage Management Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Disk Management has three views:  Disk List Shows a list of physical disks on or attached to the selected system with details on type, capacity, unallocated space, and status. It is the only disk view that shows the device type, such as Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or Integrated Device Electronics (IDE), and the partition style, such as master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT).  Graphical View Displays summary information for disks graphically according to disk capacity and the size of disk regions. By default, disk and disk region capac- ity are shown on a logarithmic scale, meaning the disks and disk regions are dis- played proportionally. Change the Scaling Options to Get Different Disk Views You can also specify that you want all disks to be the same size regardless of capacity (which is useful if you have many disk regions on disks) or that you want to use a linear scale in which disk regions are sized relative to the largest disk (which is useful if you want to get perspective on capacity). To change the size settings for the Graphical View, click View, Settings, and then in the Settings dialog box, select the Scaling tab.  Volume List Shows all volumes on the selected computer (including hard disk partitions and logical drives) with details on volume layout, type, fi le system, sta- tus, capacity, and free space. It also shows whether the volume has fault tolerance and the related disk usage overhead. The fault tolerance information is for soft- ware RAID only. Volume List and Graphical View are the default views. In Figure 14-4, the Volume List view is in the upper-right corner, and the Graphical View is in the lower-right corner. To change the top view, select View, choose Top, and then select the view you want to use. To change the bottom view, select View, choose Bottom, and then select the view you want to use. Disk Management’s command-line counterpart is the DiskPart utility. You can use Disk- Part to perform all Disk Management tasks. DiskPart is a text-mode command inter- preter that you invoke so that you can manage disks, partitions, and volumes. As such, DiskPart has a separate command prompt and its own internal commands. Although earlier releases of DiskPart did not allow you to format partitions, logical drives, and volumes, the version that ships with Windows Server 2008 allows you to do this using the internal format command. You invoke the DiskPart interpreter by typing diskpart at the command prompt. Disk- Part is designed to work with physical hard disks installed on a computer, which can be internal, external, or a mix of both. Although it will list other types of disks, such as CD/DVD drives, removable media, and universal serial bus (USB)-connected fl ash random access memory (RAM) devices, and allow you to perform some minimal tasks, such as assigning a drive letter, these devices are not supported. Change the Scaling Options to Get Different Disk Views You can also specify that you want all disks to be the same size regardless of capacity (which is useful if you have many disk regions on disks) or that you want to use a linear scale in which disk regions are sized relative to the largest disk (which is useful if you want to get perspective on capacity). To change the size settings for the Graphical View, click View, Settings, and then in the Settings dialog box, select the Scaling tab. Configuring Storage 421 Chapter 14 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. After you invoke DiskPart, you can list available disks, partitions, and volumes by using the following list commands:  List Disk Lists all internal and external hard disks on the computer  List Volume Lists all volumes on the computer (including hard disk partitions and logical drives)  List Partition Lists partitions, but only on the disk you’ve selected Then you must give focus to the disk, partition, or volume you want to work with by selecting it. Giving a disk, partition, or volume focus ensures that any commands you type will act only on that disk, partition, or volume. To select a disk, type select disk N, where N is the number of the disk you want to work with. To select a volume, type select volume N, where N is the number of the volume you want to work with. To select a partition, fi rst select its related disk by typing select disk N, and then select the parti- tion you want to work with by typing select partition N. If you use the list commands again after selecting a disk, partition, or volume, you’ll see an asterisk (*) next to the item with focus. When you are fi nished working with Disk- Part, type exit at the DiskPart prompt to return to the standard command line. Listing 14-1 shows a sample DiskPart session. As you can see, when you fi rst invoke DiskPart, it shows the operating system and DiskPart version you are using as well as the name of the computer you are working with. When you list available disks, the out- put shows you the disk number, status, size, and free space. It also shows the disk parti- tion style and type. If there’s an asterisk in the Dyn column, the disk is a dynamic disk. Otherwise, it is a basic disk. If there’s an asterisk in the Gpt column, the disk uses the GPT partition style. Otherwise, it is an MBR disk. You’ll fi nd more information on parti- tion styles in “Using the MBR and GPT Partition Styles” on page 425. Listing 14-1 Using DiskPart: an example C:\> diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001 Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: CORPSVR02 DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ---------- ------- ------ --- --- Disk 0 Online 56 GB 0 B * * Disk 1 Online 29 GB 0 B Disk 2 Online 37 GB 9 GB DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- --------- ----- ------- ------- ------ ------ Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B Volume 1 G W2PFPP_EN CDFS CD-ROM 361 MB Chapter 14 422 Chapter 14 Storage Management Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Volume 2 C Apps NTFS Partition 56 GB Healthy System Volume 3 D Data NTFS Partition 29 GB Healthy Volume 4 N Data2 NTFS Partition 28 GB Healthy Volume 5 S Partition 47 MB Healthy DISKPART> select disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------ - ------- Partition 1 Primary 56 GB 32 KB DISKPART> select partition 1 Partition 1 is now the selected partition. DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- - ------ * Partition 1 Primary 56 GB 32 KB DISKPART> exit Leaving DiskPart . C:\> Adding New Disks Thanks to hot swapping and Plug and Play technologies—both supported by Windows Server 2008—the process of adding new disks has changed considerably from the days of Windows NT 4.0. If a computer supports hot swapping of disks, you can install new disks without having to shut down the computer. Simply insert the hard disk drives you want to use. If the computer doesn’t support hot swapping, you will need to shut down the computer, insert the drives, and restart the computer. Either way, after you insert the drives you want to use, log on and access Disk Manage- ment in the Computer Management tool. If the new drives have already been initialized, meaning they have disk signatures, they should be brought online automatically when you select Rescan Disks from the Action menu. If you are working with new drives that haven’t been initialized, meaning they lack a disk signature, when you choose to initial- ize the new disk, Windows Server 2008 will start the Initialize Disk Wizard. This wiz- ard will allow you to choose either the MBR or GPT partitioning style. Configuring Storage 423 Chapter 14 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. You can use Disk Management to initialize a new disk as well. In the Disk List view, the disk will be marked with a red down arrow icon, and the disk’s status will be listed as Not Initialized. You can then right-click the disk’s icon and select Initialize Disk. When the Initialize Disk Wizard starts, follow these steps to confi gure the disks: 1. Click Next to get to the Select Disks To Initialize page. The disks you added are selected for initialization automatically, but if you don’t want to initialize a particular disk, you can clear the related check box. 2. Select either the MBR or GPT partitioning style. 3. When the wizard fi nishes, the disk is ready for partitioning and formatting. As discussed previously, storage performance is primarily a factor of a disk’s access time (how long it takes to register a request and scan the disk), seek time (how long it takes to fi nd the requested data), and transfer rate (how long it takes to read and write data). By enabling disk write caching, you could reduce the number of times the operating system accesses the disk by caching disk writes and then performing several writes at once. In this way, disk performance is primarily infl uenced by seek time and transfer rate. The drawback of disk write caching is that in the event of a power or system failure the cached writes might not be written to disk, and this can result in data loss. Windows Server 2008 disables disk write caching by default, but you can enable it on a per-disk basis as long as write caching is supported by your hardware. Keep in mind that some server applications require disk write caching to be enabled or disabled, and if these applications use a particular set of disks, these disks must use the required setting for disk write caching. To confi gure disk write caching, start Computer Management, expand the System Tools node, and select Device Manager. In the details pane, expand Disk Drives, right-click the disk drive you want to work with, and then select Properties. In the Device Properties dialog box, select the Policies tab. Select or clear Enable Write Caching On The Disk as appropriate, and click OK. SIDE OUT Windows Server 2008 can use disk write caching As discussed previously, storage performance is primarily a factor of a disk’s access time (how long it takes to register a request and scan the disk), seek time (how long it takes to fi nd the requested data), and transfer rate (how long it takes to read and write data). By enabling disk write caching, you could reduce the number of times the operating system accesses the disk by caching disk writes and then performing several writes at once. In this way, disk performance is primarily infl uenced by seek time and transfer rate. The drawback of disk write caching is that in the event of a power or system failure the cached writes might not be written to disk, and this can result in data loss. Windows Server 2008 disables disk write caching by default, but you can enable it on a per-disk basis as long as write caching is supported by your hardware. Keep in mind that some server applications require disk write caching to be enabled or disabled, and if these applications use a particular set of disks, these disks must use the required setting for disk write caching. To confi gure disk write caching, start Computer Management, expand the System Tools node, and select Device Manager. In the details pane, expand Disk Drives, right-click the disk drive you want to work with, and then select Properties. In the Device Properties dialog box, select the Policies tab. Select or clear Enable Write Caching On The Disk as appropriate, and click OK. Chapter 14 424 Chapter 14 Storage Management Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Using the MBR and GPT Partition Styles The term partition style refers to the method that Windows Server 2008 uses to organize partitions on a disk. Two partition styles are available: MBR and GPT. Originally, only x86-based computers used the MBR partition style, and only Itanium-based comput- ers running 64-bit versions of Windows used the GPT partition style. With Windows Server 2008, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions support both MBR and GPT. The GPT partition style will be recognized also in Windows Server 2003 as long as it has been upgraded to Service Pack 1 or later. This is true for both x86 and x64 platforms. With 64-bit versions of Windows, the GPT partition style is preferred and it is the only partition style from which you can boot Itanium-based computers. The key difference between the MBR partition style and the GPT partition style has to do with how parti- tion data is stored. Note For this discussion, I focus on the basic storage type and won’t get into the details of the dynamic storage type. That’s covered in the next section. Working with MBR Disks MBR uses a partition table that describes where the partitions are located on the disk. The fi rst sector on a hard disk contains the MBR and a master boot code that’s used to boot the system. The MBR resides outside of partitioned space. Note It’s easy to confuse master boot record with boot sector. These are two different struc- tures on the hard drive. The master boot record contains the disk signature and partition table and is the fi rst sector of the hard drive. A boot sector contains the BIOS parameter block and marks the fi rst sector of the fi le system. MBR disks support a maximum volume size of up to 4 TB unless they’re dynamic disks and use RAID. MBR disks have two special types of partitions associated with them. The fi rst partition type, called a primary partition, is used with drive sections that you want to access directly for fi le storage. You make a primary partition accessible to users by creating a fi le system on it and assigning it a drive letter or mount point. The second partition type, called an extended partition, is used when you want to divide a sec- tion of a disk into one or more logical units called logical drives. Here, you create the extended partition fi rst, then create the logical drives within it. You then create a fi le system on each logical drive and assign a drive letter or mount point. Note For this discussion, I focus on the basic storage type and won’t get into the details of the dynamic storage type. That’s covered in the next section. Note It’s easy to confuse master boot record with boot sector. These are two different struc- tures on the hard drive. The master boot record contains the disk signature and partition table and is the fi rst sector of the hard drive. A boot sector contains the BIOS parameter block and marks the fi rst sector of the fi le system. Configuring Storage 425 Chapter 14 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Each MBR drive can have up to four primary partitions or three primary partitions and one extended partition. It is the extended partition that allows you to divide a drive into more than four parts. Note These rules apply to MBR disks that use the basic storage type. There’s also a storage type called dynamic. I discuss basic and dynamic storage types in “Working with Basic and Dynamic Disks” on page 428. Working with GPT Disks GPT disks don’t have a single MBR. With GPT disks, critical partition data is stored in the individual partitions, and there are redundant primary and backup partition tables. Further, checksum fi elds are maintained to allow for error correction and to improve partition structure integrity. GPT disks use a primary and backup partition array. Each partition array has a header that defi nes the range of logical block addresses on the disk that can be used by parti- tion entries. The GPT header also defi nes its location on the disk, its globally unique identifi er (GUID), and a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) checksum that is used to verify the integrity of the GPT header. The primary GPT header is created directly after the protected MBR on the disk. The backup GPT header is located in the last sector on the disk. Firmware acts as the interface between a computer’s hardware and its operating system. Although most x86-based computers use the basic input/ouput system (BIOS) as their fi rmware, Itanium-based computers and some newer computers use the Extensible Firm- ware Interface (EFI). Only systems that use EFI will be able to boot directly to a GPT disk. But all editions of Windows 2008 can use GPT disks for data. A computer’s fi rmware verifi es the integrity of the GPT headers by using the CRC32 checksum. The checksum is a calculated value used to determine whether there are errors in a GPT header. If the primary GPT header is damaged, fi rmware checks the backup header. If the backup header’s checksum is valid, the backup GPT header is used to restore the primary GPT header. The process of restoring the GPT header works much the same way if it is determined that the backup header is damaged—only in reverse. If both the primary and backup GPT headers are damaged, the Windows operating system won’t be able to access the disk. Note These rules apply to MBR disks that use the basic storage type. There’s also a storage type called dynamic. I discuss basic and dynamic storage types in “Working with Basic and Dynamic Disks” on page 428. SIDE OUT GPT headers and error checking GPT disks use a primary and backup partition array. Each partition array has a header that defi nes the range of logical block addresses on the disk that can be used by parti- tion entries. The GPT header also defi nes its location on the disk, its globally unique identifi er (GUID), and a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) checksum that is used to verify the integrity of the GPT header. The primary GPT header is created directly after the protected MBR on the disk. The backup GPT header is located in the last sector on the disk. Firmware acts as the interface between a computer’s hardware and its operating system. Although most x86-based computers use the basic input/ouput system (BIOS) as their fi rmware, Itanium-based computers and some newer computers use the Extensible Firm- ware Interface (EFI). Only systems that use EFI will be able to boot directly to a GPT disk. But all editions of Windows 2008 can use GPT disks for data. A computer’s fi rmware verifi es the integrity of the GPT headers by using the CRC32 checksum. The checksum is a calculated value used to determine whether there are errors in a GPT header. If the primary GPT header is damaged, fi rmware checks the backup header. If the backup header’s checksum is valid, the backup GPT header is used to restore the primary GPT header. The process of restoring the GPT header works much the same way if it is determined that the backup header is damaged—only in reverse. If both the primary and backup GPT headers are damaged, the Windows operating system won’t be able to access the disk. Chapter 14 426 Chapter 14 Storage Management Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... OUT 429 Disk issues when upgrading to Windows Server 2008 In Windows Server 2008, fault-tolerant sets that you created in Windows NT are not supported Before upgrading to Windows Server 2008, it is recommended that you remove the fault-tolerant features Start by backing up the data If you have a mirror set, break the mirror set and then run Windows Server 2008 Setup If you have a volume set, stripe set,... www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark Chapter 14 When you install Windows Server 2008 on a new system with unpartitioned disks, disks are initialized as basic disks When you upgrade to Windows Server 2008, disks with partitions are initialized as basic disks Windows 2000 had limited support for the faulttolerant features found in Windows NT 4.0 In Windows 2000, you can use basic disks to maintain existing... MBR to GPT by typing convert gpt To convert a disk from GPT to MBR, type convert mbr Using the Disk Storage Types The term storage type refers to the method that Windows Server 2008 uses to structure disks and their contents Windows Server 2008 offers three storage types: basic disk, dynamic disk, and removable disk The storage type you use doesn’t depend on the processor architecture—it does depend,... FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS Both Windows Vista with SP1 or later and Windows Server 2008 support exFAT with removable storage devices as well Chapter 14 The exFAT fi le system is the next generation file system in the FAT (FAT12/16, FAT32) family Although retaining the ease-of-use advantages of FAT32, exFAT overcomes FAT32’s 4-GB file size limit and FAT32’s 32-GB partition size limit on Windows systems exFAT also... working with fi xed disks, you can use basic, dynamic, or both storage types on any edition of Windows Server 2008 When you are working with non-fi xed disks, the disk has the removable storage type automatically Working with Basic and Dynamic Disks Basic disks use the same disk structure as earlier versions of the Windows operating system When using basic disks, you are limited to creating four primary... systems exFAT also supports allocation unit sizes of up to 32,768 KB exFAT is designed so that it can be used with and easily moved between any compliant operating system or device Note Both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 support hot-pluggable media that use NTFS volumes This new feature allows you to format USB flash devices and other similar media with NTFS Removable disks support network file and... if necessary— but do so only if directed to Chapter 14 Although the ESP is normally created for you automatically when you install Windows Server 2008, there are some limited instances when you might be directed to create an ESP after installing an additional GPT disk on a server, such as when you want to use the new disk as a boot device rather than the existing boot device You can create the necessary... drive: Provided you enter the correct volume label, Convert will continue as shown in the following example: Volume CORPDATA created 4/10 /2008 3:15 PM Volume Serial Number is AA6A-D44A Windows is verifying files and folders File and folder verification is complete Windows has checked the file system and found no problems 91,827,680 KB total disk space 91,827,672 KB are available 8,192 bytes in each allocation...Configuring Storage 427 If you install the Windows Server 2008 64-bit edition on a new system with clean disks or an existing system with a clean disk, Setup will initialize the disk as a GPT disk (only for computers with EFI) Setup will offer to create... the set before you upgrade As long as you have a working backup, you can upgrade the disks to dynamic after installation, re-create the fault-tolerant set, and then restore the data from backup Windows Server 2008 systems can use both basic and dynamic disks You cannot, however, mix disk types when working with volume sets All disks, regardless of whether they are basic or dynamic, have five special . disk type. In Windows Server 2008, fault-tolerant sets that you created in Windows NT are not sup- ported. Before upgrading to Windows Server 2008, it is. disk type. In Windows Server 2008, fault-tolerant sets that you created in Windows NT are not sup- ported. Before upgrading to Windows Server 2008, it is