Windows Server® 2008 Bible

Chapter 13. Storage Management

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Overview of Windows Server 2008 storage

• Storage management

• Disk Management Service partition styles

• The Disk Management snap-in

• Basic storage

• Dynamic volumes and fault tolerance

• Hardware RAID

• Dynamic storage management

• Managing storage with disk quotas

This chapter introduces Windows Server 2008 storage. We start by presenting the "science" of disk management, and Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM). (Removable storage and remote storage are covered in depth in Chapter 14.) We also cover configuration and types of disks, partitions, and volumes (including a new partition style introduced in the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008); software-based fault-tolerant disk configurations (using a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, or RAID); and disk quotas. The chapter concludes with an overview of how to troubleshoot common storage management problems.

Before you can proceed with storage and file management you will need to install the File Services role. This role was demonstrated in Chapter 2.

Overview of Storage

Although there are few certainties in life, in storage management you can be fairly sure that no matter how much disk space you plan for, sooner or later, you will run out of it. You can also expect a disk crash to happen at the worst possible time.

At best, the failure of a storage device or even a shortage of disk space has a negative impact on running applications; more commonly, it leads to server downtime or data loss. This, in turn, ...