Planning Storage Solutions

Lesson 6

Skills Matrix
Technology Skill

Objective Domain

Planning Server Storage Plan storage

Objective #

5.1

Server Storage
A Windows server can conceivably perform
its tasks using the same type of storage as
a workstation, that is, one or more
standard hard disks connected to a
standard drive interface such as Serial ATA
(SATA).
The I/O burdens of a server are quite
different from those of a workstation, and
a standard storage subsystem can easily
be overwhelmed by file requests from
dozens or hundreds of users.
In addition, standard hard disks offer no

Server Storage
There are a variety of storage technologies
that are better suited for server use, and
the process of designing a storage solution
for a server depends on several factors,
including the following:
The amount of storage the server needs.
The number of users that will be accessing
the server at the same time.
The sensitivity of the data to be stored on
the server.
The importance of the data to the
organization.

Estimating Storage Requirements

The amount of storage space you
need in a server depends on a
variety of factors, not just the initial
requirements of your applications
and users.
Operating system
Paging file
Memory dump
Log files
Shadow copies
Fault tolerance

Disk Technology
Direct-Attached Storage
Advanced Technology Attachment
(ATA)
Parallel ATA
Serial ATA

Small Computer System Interface

(SCSI)

Logital Unit Numbers (LUN)

To use SCSI on a server, all of the devices and
host adapters must support the same standard.
You connect SCSI devices to a host adapter using
a daisy chain cable arrangement called a SCSI
bus.
Many host adapters enable you to connect both
internal and external devices, so you can expand
the bus as needed, even if the computer case
does not have room for additional drives.
Every device on a SCSI bus has an identifier
called a SCSI ID, which the host adapter uses to
send commands to the device.
Subcomponents of a SCSI device, such as
individual drives in an array, are identified using
logical unit numbers (LUNs).

External Drive Arrays

High capacity servers often store
hard drives in a separate housing,
called an external drive array,
which typically incorporates a disk
controller, power supply, cooling
fans, and cache memory into an
independent unit.
Drive arrays can connect to a
computer using a disk interface, such
as SCSI (Small Computer System
Interface), IEEE 1394 (FireWire), or
USB 2.0, or a network interface, such

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Network Attached Storage

Planning for Storage Fault Tolerance

Redundant Array of Independent
Disks
Disk mirroring (RAID 1)
Disk duplexing

Strip set with Distributed Parity (RAID

5)

Windows Disk Settings

Select a partitioning style (MBR or
GPT).
Select a disk type (Basic versus
Dynamic).
Divide the disk into partitions or
volumes.
Format the partition with a file
system.

Partition Style
Windows Server 2008 computers can use
either one of the following two hard disk
partition styles:
MBR The MBR partition style has been
around since before Windows and is still
the default partition style for x86-based
and x64-based computers.
GPT GPT has also been around for a
while, but no x86 version of Windows prior
to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista
supports it. (Windows XP Professional x64
Edition does support GPT.) Now you can use
the GPT partition style on x86-, as well as
x64-based, computers.

Partition Style

Basic Disks
A basic disk uses primary partitions,
extended partitions, and logical
drives to organize data.
A primary partition appears to the
operating system as though it is a
physically separate disk and can host
an operating system, in which case it
is known as the active partition.

Basic Disks
During the operating system installation,
the setup program creates a system
partition and a boot partition.
The system partition contains hardwarerelated files that the computer uses to
start.
The boot partition contains the operating
system files, which are stored in the
Windows file folder.
In most cases, these two partitions are one
and the same, the active primary partition
that Windows uses when starting.
The active partition tells the computer
which system partition and operating

Partitions

Volume Types
A dynamic disk can contain an
unlimited number of volumes that
function much like primary partitions
on a basic disk, but you cannot mark
an existing dynamic disk as active.
Simple Volume
Spanned Volume
Striped Volume
Mirrored Volume
RAID-5 Volume

Volume Size
Although Windows Server 2008 can
support dynamic volumes as large as
64 terabytes, this does not mean
that you should create volumes that
big, even if you have a server with
that much storage.
To facilitate the maintenance and
administration processes, it is usually
preferable to split your servers
storage into volumes of manageable
size, rather than create a single,
gigantic volume.

Disk Management
Disk Management is a Microsoft
Management Console (MMC) snap-in that
you use to perform disk-related tasks,
such as the following:

Initializing disks.
Selecting a partition style.
Converting basic disks to dynamic disks.
Creating partitions and volumes.
Extending, shrinking, and deleting volumes.
Formatting partitions and volumes.
Assigning and changing driver letters and
paths.
Examining and managing physical disk
properties, such as disk quotas, folder

Disk Management

The Initialize Disk Dialog Box

Disk Management Snap-in

with a Newly Initialized Disk

The Convert to Dynamic Disk Dialog

Box

The Disk to Convert Dialog Box

The Convert Details Dialog Box

The Disk Management Information Box

The Specify Volume Size Page

The Assign Drive Letter or Path Page

The Format Partition Page

The Select Disks Pages

Extending Volumes
Windows Server 2008 extends
existing volumes by expanding them
into adjacent unallocated space on
the same disk.
When you extend a simple volume
across multiple disks, the simple
volume becomes a spanned volume.
You cannot extend striped volumes.

Extending Volumes
To extend a volume on a basic disk, the
system must meet the following
requirements:
A volume of a basic disk must be either
unformatted or formatted with the NTFS file
system.
If you extend a volume that is actually a
logical drive, the console first consumes
the contiguous free space remaining in the
extended partition.
You can extend logical drives, boot
volumes, or system volumes only into

Extending Volumes
To extend a volume on a dynamic disk, the
system must meet these requirements:
When extending a simple volume, you can
use only the available space on the same
disk, if the volume is to remain simple.
You can extend a simple volume across
additional disks if it is not a system volume
or a boot volume.
You can extend a simple or spanned
volume if it does not have a file system (a
raw volume) or if you formatted it using the
NTFS file system.
You cannot extend mirrored or RAID-5
volumes.

Shrinking Volumes
When shrinking volumes, the Disk
Management console frees up space
at the end of the volume, relocating
the existing volumes files, if
necessary.
The console then converts that free
space to new unallocated space on
the disk.

Shrinking Volumes
To shrink basic disk volumes and simple or
spanned dynamic disk volumes, the
system must meet the following
requirements:
The existing volume must not be full and
must contain the specified amount of
available free space for shrinking.
The volume must not be a raw partition
(one without a file system).
You can shrink a volume only if you
formatted it using the NTFS file system.
You cannot shrink striped, mirrored, or
RAID-5 volumes.
You should always defragment a volume
before you attempt to shrink it.

Storage Area Network

RAID is a proven high availability
technology that was first defined in
1988, but server-attached RAID
arrays are subject to scalability
problems.
You can install only so many drives
into a single computer.
The terminated SCSI bus that was
originally used for connections to
external drive arrays is limited to 16
devices and a maximum length of 25

Storage Area Network

Multiple Servers Connected to a SAN

Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is a high-speed serial
networking technology, originally designed
for use with supercomputers but now
associated primarily with storage area
networking.
Fibre Channel is a versatile technology,
supporting various network media,
transmission speeds, topologies, and
upper level protocols.
Its primary disadvantage is that it requires
specialized hardware that can be
extremely expensive.

Fibre Channel Media

A Fibre Channel network can use a variety
of network media.
Copper alternatives include video or
miniature coaxial cable and, more
commonly, shielded twisted pair (STP) with
DB-9 or HSSDC (High Speed Serial Data
Connection) cable connectors.
Fiber optic alternatives include 62.5- or 50ohm multimode and 7- or 9-ohm
singlemode, all using LC or SC connectors.
Because Fibre Channel uses serial instead
of parallel signaling, it can span much
longer distances than a pure SCSI
connection, up to 50 kilometers or more in
some cases.

Fiber Channel Speeds

Transmission speeds for Fibre
Channel networks range from 133
Mbps (megabits per second) to 1
Gbps (gigabit per second) for copper
cables, and up to 10 Gbps for fiber
optic.
Maximum speeds depend on the type
of cable the network uses, the
lengths of the cable segments, and,
in the case of fiber optic, the type of
laser used to transmit the signals.

Fibre Channel Topologies

Point-to-point (FC-P2P)
Consists of two devices only, directly
connected with a single cable.
Arbitrated loop (FC-AL)
Consists of up to 127 devices,
connected in a loop topology, similar
to that of a token ring network.
The loop can be physical, with each
device connected to the next device,
or virtual, with each device connected
to a hub that implements the loop.

Fibre Channel Topologies

Switched fabric (FC-SW)
Consists of up to 16,777,216 (224)
devices, each of which is connected
to a Fibre Channel switch.
Unlike Ethernet switches, Fibre
Channel switches provide redundant
paths between the connected
devices, forming a topology called a
mesh or fabric.
If a switch or a connection between
switches fails, data can find an

iSCSI
iSCSI is an alternative storage area
networking technology that enables
servers and storage devices to
exchange SCSI traffic using a
standard IP network instead of a
dedicated Fibre Channel network.
Because iSCSI uses a standard IP
network for its lower layer
functionality, you can use the same
cables, network adapters, switches,
and routers for a SAN as you would
for a LAN or wide area network

iSCSI
iSCSI communication is based on two
elements:
Initiators
Targets

iSCSI Initiator
Initiates the SCSI communication process.
Is a hardware or software device running on a
computer that accesses the storage devices on
the SAN.
On an iSCSI network, the initiator takes the
place of the host adapter that traditional SCSI
implementations use to connect storage
devices to a computer.
The initiator receives I/O requests from the
operating system and sends them, in the form
of SCSI commands, to specific storage devices
on the SAN.
The only difference between an iSCSI initiator
and a SCSI host adapter is that the initiator

iSCSI Target
Integrated into a drive array or computer.
The target receives SCSI commands from
the initiator and passes them to a storage
device, which is represented by a logical
unit number (LUN).
A LUN is essentially an address that SCSI
devices use to identify a specific storage
resource.
A single LUN can represent an entire hard
disk, part of a disk, or a slice of a RAID
array.
Therefore, a single computer or drive array
can have many LUNs, represented by

iSNSs
After the initiators and targets are in place,
the only problem remaining in iSCSI
communications is how the two locate
each other.
The Internet Storage Name Service
(iSNS) makes this possible by registering
the presence of initiators and targets on a
SAN and responding to queries from iSNS
clients.
Windows Server 2008 includes an iSNS
implementation as a feature, which can
provide the identification service for an

iSNS Components
iSNS server Receives and processes
registration requests and queries from clients
on the SAN, using the iSNS database as an
information store.
iSNS database Information store on an
iSNS server that contains data supplied by
client registrations. The server retrieves the
data to respond to client queries.
iSNS clients Component in iSCSI initiators
and targets that registers information about
itself with an iSNS server and sends queries
to the server for information about other
clients.
iSNS Protocol (iSNSP) Protocol used for

The Storage Manager for SANs Console

Create LUNs in the Storage

Manager for SANs Console

Displaying Subsystem Information

Displaying Drive Information

The Storage Explorer Console

Configuring an iSCSI Initiator

Summary
Windows Server 2008 supports two
hard disk partition types: MBR and
GPT; two disk types: basic and
dynamic; five volume types: simple,
striped, spanned, mirrored, and RAID5; and two file systems: NTFS and
FAT.
The Disk Management snap-in is the
primary interface you use to
initialize, partition, and format disks.

Summary
A storage area network (SAN) is a
network dedicated solely to highspeed connections between servers
and storage devices.
Fibre Channel is a high-speed serial
networking technology that was
originally designed for use with
supercomputers but is now
associated primarily with storage
area networking.

Summary
iSCSI is an alternative storage area
networking technology that enables
servers and storage devices to
exchange SCSI traffic using a
standard IP network instead of a
dedicated Fibre Channel network.

Summary
An iSCSI initiator is a hardware or
software device running on a
computer that accesses the storage
devices on the SAN.
The other half of the iSCSI equation
is the iSCSI target, which receives
SCSI commands from the initiator
and passes them to a storage device,
represented by a logical unit number
(LUN).

Summary
The Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS)
registers the presence of initiators and
targets on a SAN and responds to queries
from iSNS clients.
Storage Manager for SANs can manage
only storage devices that include support
for the Microsoft Virtual Disk Service.
The storage device manufacturer must
supply a software component called a VDS
hardware provider, which you install on
the computer, that will manage the
device.

Summary
Storage Explorer is an MMC console
that provides information about SAN
resources and enables administrators
to perform a variety of management
tasks.