Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Evaluating the Disk Subsystem

Hard disk drives and hard disk controllers are the two main components of the disk subsystem. The two objects that gauge hard disk performance are Physical and Logical Disk. Although the disk subsystem components are becoming more and more powerful, they are often a common bottleneck because their speeds are exponentially slower than other resources. The effects, though, can be minimal and maybe even unnoticeable, depending on the system configuration.

To support the Resource Monitor’s Disk section, the physical and logical disk counters are enabled by default in Windows Server 2012. The Disk section in Resource Monitor, shown in Figure 34.17, provides a good high-level view of current physical and logical disk activity ...