70-270, 70-290 MCSE/MCSA Guide to Installing and Managing Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003

1
70-270, 70-290 MCSE/MCSA Guide to Installing and
Managing Microsoft Windows XP Professional and
Windows Server 2003

• Chapter Five
• Managing Disks and Data Storage

2
Objectives

• Understand concepts related to disk management
• Manage partitions and volumes
• Implement fault-tolerant disk strategies on
  Windows Server 2003

3
Objectives (continued)

• Monitor disk health and import foreign disks
• Use disk management and maintenance utilities
• Set up and monitor disk quotas

4
Disk Management Concepts

• Basic disk Uses traditional disk management
  techniques
• Contains primary partitions, extended partitions,
  and logical drives
• Dynamic disk Storage space divided into logical
  volumes
• More flexible
• Before using partition or volume, must format
  with a file system

5
File Systems

• File Allocation Table (FAT) Originally developed
  for DOS
• Supports volumes up to 4 GB
• Most efficient on volumes smaller than 256 MB
• Only 512 entries allowed in the root directory
• No file-level compression
• No file-level security
• Maximum file size of 2 GB
• FAT32 Enhanced version of FAT

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File Systems (continued)

• FAT volumes divided into clusters
• Cluster Group of sector(s) divided into single,
  nondivisible unit
• Sector Smallest division of a drives surface
• 512 bytes
• Only a certain number of clusters can be
  addressed
• NTFS Support for much larger volumes,
  file-by-file compression, and file-by-file
  security
• Windows XP and Windows Server 2000/2003 use NTFS
  version 5.0

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File Systems (continued)

• NTFS (continued)
• Support for volumes up to 2 TB
• Most efficient on volumes larger than 10 MB
• Unlimited entries allowed in the root directory
• File-level compression
• File-level security
• File-level encryption (see Chapter 9)
• Disk quotas, which are a means to limit users
  drive space consumption
• POSIX support
• File size limited only by the size of the volume

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File Systems (continued)
Table 5-1 FAT16 and FAT32 cluster sizes
Table 5-2 NTFS default cluster sizes
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Basic Disks

• Hard disk divided into primary and extended
  partitions
• Each partition acts as separate storage unit
• Max of 4 primary partitions or 3 primary
  partitions and 1 extended partition
• Only one partition can be marked as active
  partition
• System partition
• Boot partition Where OS files installed

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Basic Disks (continued)

• Primary Partitions Partition from which you can
  boot an OS if required
• Active partition Where computer looks for
  hardware-specific files to start OS
• Extended Partitions and Logical Drives
• Extended partition Created from unpartitioned
  space
• Enable you to exceed the 4-partition limit
• Not formatted or assigned drive letter
• Can be further divided into logical drives
• Formatted and assigned drive letters

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Basic Disks (continued)
Figure 5-1 Dividing an extended partition into
one or more logical drives
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Basic Disks (continued)

• Windows NT Volume Sets and Stripe Sets
• Volume set Multiple partitions combined to look
  like one volume
• Single drive letter
• Stripe set Multiple disks combined like a volume
  set but striped for RAID 0 or RAID 5

13
Dynamic Disks

• Make it possible to set up large number of
  volumes on one disk and to extend volumes onto
  additional physical disks
• Simple Volume Dedicated and formatted portion of
  disk space on a dynamic disk
• Can be extended only if formatted with NTFS
• Spanned Volume Consists of space taken up by 2
  to 32 dynamic disks
• Treated as single logical volume

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Dynamic Disks (continued)

• Spanned Volume (continued)
• Data written to disk space sequentially
• Maximize use of scattered pockets of disk space
  across several disks
• Able to extend

Figure 5-2 Creating a spanned volume using four
disks
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Dynamic Disks (continued)

• Striped Volume form of RAID 0 in which volume
  divided into equal spaces on 2 to 32 disk drives
• Data divided and written concurrently to all
  drives

Figure 5-3 Disks in a striped volume
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Dynamic Disks (continued)
Table 5-3 Windows XP Professional and Server
2003 disk structures
17
Managing Partitions and Volumes
Figure 5-4 The Disk Management node of the
Computer Management tool
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Managing Disk Properties

• Disk Management tool most commonly accessed via
  Storage section of Computer Management
• Primarily used for creating, deleting, and
  managing disks, partitions, and volumes
• Also provides information about them that is
  typically associated with other tools
• Activity 5-1 Viewing and Managing Disk
  Properties with Disk Management
• Objective Use Disk Management to view the
  properties of a hard disk and partition

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Managing Disk Properties (continued)
Figure 5-5 The Properties dialog box for an
existing partition
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Creating Partitions and Volumes

• Disk Management is primary tool for creating and
  managing partitions and volumes
• Activity 5-2 Creating and Deleting a Primary
  Partition
• Objective Create and delete a primary partition
• Activity 5-3 Creating an Extended Partition
• Objective Create an extended partition

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Creating Partitions and Volumes (continued)

• Activity 5-4 Creating a Logical Drive
• Objective Create a logical drive from within an
  extended partition
• Before creating volumes on Windows Server 2003
  system, must convert disks from basic to dynamic
• Must have administrative privileges
• Disk must contain at least 1 MB free space
• No data lost
• After upgrade, disk can be locally accessed only
  by OSs that support dynamic disks
• Primary/extended partitions become simple volumes

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Creating Partitions and Volumes (continued)

• Activity 5-5 Converting a Basic Disk to a
  Dynamic Disk
• Objective Convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk
• Activity 5-6 Creating a Simple Volume
• Objective Use Disk Management to create a simple
  volume

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Extending Volumes

• Windows Server 2003 supports capability to extend
  NTFS volumes
• As long as volumes not functioning as boot or
  system volume for system
• Volumes can be extended
• In Disk Management
• From command line by using Diskpart utility
• Activity 5-7 Extending a Volume with Diskpart
• Objective Extend an existing volume by using the
  Diskpart command

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Working with Mounted Drives

• Mounted drive Appears as folder
• Accessed through a path like any other folder
• Can mount basic or dynamic disk drive, CD-ROM
  drive, or Zip drive
• Must use empty folder on NTFS-formatted volume
• Reduce number of drive letters in use
• Activity 5-8 Mounting an NTFS Volume
• Objective Mount an NTFS volume

25
Fault-Tolerant Disk Strategies

• Fault tolerance Systems capability to recover
  from hardware or software failure
• Redundant array of independent disks (RAID)
  Increases availability of disk storage
• Data written to more than one drive
• If one drive fails, data can still be accessed
  from one of remaining drives
• Using combination of other parts of the file and
  associated parity information

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RAID Levels

• RAID 0 Uses striping with no other redundancy
  features
• Extend disk life and improve performance
• Not fault-tolerant
• RAID 1 Uses simple disk mirroring
• Windows Server 2003 includes disk duplexing

Figure 5-7 Disk mirroring
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RAID Levels (continued)

• RAID 2 Uses array of disks whereby data striped
  across all disks
• Disks store error-correction information
• RAID 3 Like RAID 2, but information written to
  only one disk

Figure 5-8 Disk duplexing
28
RAID Levels (continued)

• RAID 4 Stripes data and stores error-correcting
  information on all drives
• Checksum verification
• Windows Server 2003 does not support RAID 2-4
• RAID 5 Combines best features of RAID
• Striping, error correction, and checksum
  verification
• Striped Volumes (RAID 0)
• Reduce wear on multiple disk drives
• Increase disk performance

29
RAID Levels (continued)

• Mirrored Volumes (RAID 1)
• Only dynamic disks can be set up as mirrored
  volumes
• Good form of disk fault tolerance
• Time to create or update information doubled
• RAID-5 Volumes
• Requires minimum of three disk drives
• Parity information distributed
• Performance not as fast as with striped volumes

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RAID Levels (continued)
Figure 5-9 Disks in a RAID-5 volume
31
Software RAID and Hardware RAID

• Software RAID Implements fault tolerance through
  servers OS
• Hardware RAID Implemented through server
  hardware
• Independent of OS
• More expensive
• Faster and more flexible

32
Monitoring Disk Health and Importing Foreign Disks

• Disk Management tool provides information on
  health of disks and volumes
• Windows Server 2003 can import disks from other
  servers if another server should fail
• Foreign disks Originate from other servers

33
Disk and Volume Status Descriptions

• Most common status messages for a volume
• Failed
• Failed Redundancy
• Formatting
• Healthy
• Regenerating
• Resyncing
• Unknown

34
Disk and Volume Status Descriptions (continued)

• Most common status messages for a disk
• Audio CD
• Foreign
• Initializing
• Missing
• No Media
• Not Initialized
• Online
• Online (Errors)
• Offline
• Unreadable

35
Importing Foreign Disks

• When server fails, data stored on servers hard
  disks could still be intact
• Needs to be made accessible to network users
• Windows Server 2003 supports importing dynamic
  disks from other OSs
• Should import each disk individually with Import
  Foreign Disk command

36
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities

• Some utilities offer functions or features not
  found in Disk Management
• Check Disk Tool Scan disk for bad sectors and
  file system errors
• Automatically fix file system errors or scan for
  and attempt recovery of bad sectors
• Accessed through volume or partitions Properties
  dialog box
• Can also run Chkdsk command from command line
• Include /f option to fix errors automatically

37
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)

• Convert Command Convert existing FAT or FAT32
  partitions and volumes to NTFS
• Existing files and folders retained
• When converting system or boot partition, Convert
  command doesnt actually perform conversion
• Sets flag on partition or volume telling OS to
  convert next time computer restarted
• Activity 5-9 Converting a FAT32 Partition to
  NTFS
• Objective Convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS

38
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)

• Disk Cleanup Tool Determine how much disk space
  can be freed by removing unnecessary files

Figure 5-15 The Disk Cleanup tool
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Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)

• The Disk Defragmenter Tool
• Files may not be saved contiguously
• Disk becomes fragmented
• Slows access time and creates disk wear
• Defragmenting Locate fragmented folders and
  files
• Move to location on disk so they are in
  contiguous order
• Activity 5-10 Using Disk Defragmenter
• Objective Defragment a volume with the Disk
  Defragmenter utility

40
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)
Figure 5-17 Results of analyzing volume
fragmentation
41
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)

• Diskpart Command Manage disks, volumes, and
  partitions from command line
• Configure active partition, assign drive letters,
  control file system mounting, create and extend
  volumes and partitions, implement fault-tolerance
  strategies, import disks, and more
• Manage disks from scripts used to automate tasks
• Format Command Used to format disks
• Specify which supported file system
• Specify advanced settings

42
Using Disk Maintenance and Management Utilities
(continued)

• Fsutil Command Gather information and perform
  tasks related to FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
• Control many advanced file system settings and
  functions
• Mountvol Command Create, delete, or list volume
  mount points

43
Monitoring Disk Quotas

• Disk quotas Used to monitor and control amount
  of disk space available to users
• Prevents users from consuming all available disk
  space
• Encourages users to delete old files
• Allows an administrator to track disk usage
• Allows administrators to track when users are
  reaching available limits
• Disabled by default

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Monitoring Disk Quotas (continued)
Figure 5-18 The Quota tab
45
Monitoring Disk Quotas (continued)
Table 5-4 Disk quota configuration parameters
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Monitoring Disk Quotas (continued)

• Exceptions can be created for users who require
  more disk space than others
• On user-by-user basis
• Activity 5-11 Configuring and Managing Disk
  Quotas
• Objective Enable and manage disk quota settings

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Managing Disk Quotas from the Command Line
Figure 5-20 Using Fsutil to query a volume or
partition for quota information
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Summary

• Windows XP and Server 2003 support the FAT,
  FAT32, and NTFS file systems
• Basic disks consist of primary and extended
  partitions as well as logical drives
• Dynamic disks allow volumes to be created and
  fault-tolerant disk strategies to be implemented
• Basic disks support up to four primary partitions
  or three primary and one extended partition

49
Summary (continued)

• Disk Management is the primary tool for managing
  disks, partitions, and volumes
• Mirrored volumes, also known as RAID 1, mirror
  the contents of one volume to another disk
• RAID-5 volumes use disk striping with parity to
  allow continued operation of a volume if a single
  disk in that volume should fail
• There are a number of tools for managing,
  maintaining, and monitoring disks and partitions
  from the command line, including Chkdsk,
  Diskpart, Defrag, Format, Fsutil, and Mountvol

50
Summary (continued)

• The Disk Cleanup tool allows administrators to
  remove unnecessary files and applications from a
  partition or volume as well as save space by
  compressing seldom-used files
• Disk Defragmenter is used to optimize the
  performance of a partition or volume
• The Convert command can be used to convert
  existing FAT or FAT32 partitions to NTFS
• Administrators can implement disk quotas to
  control the amount of disk space a users files
  can consume on an NTFS partition or volume