Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (218 page)

with the operating system. Most disk-related tasks can be performed using the Disk

Management console, the Share and Storage Management console, or the diskpart.exe

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command-line utility, but to manage a new disk just added to Windows, the Disk

Management console must be used.

The Disk Management MMC Snap-In

The Disk Management console, or snap-in, can be used to initialize and configure new

disks; import previously configured disks; convert basic disks to dynamic disks; create,

extend, and shrink disk volumes; format disk volumes; enable shadow copies; and many

more disk-related tasks. Disk Management can also be used to create and attach or mount

VHD files to the host operating system for quick volume access and data management.

This snap-in is included as part of the Computer Management console and the Server

Manager console, but it can also be added to a separate Microsoft Management Console

window. The Disk Management console can be used to manage disks on remote machines

as well as local disks.

Diskpart.exe
Command-Line Utility

Diskpart.exe is a command-line utility that administrators can use to manage Windows

disks. Most disk tasks that can be performed using the Disk Management console can also

be performed using this command-line utility except for initializing new disks. When

issues are encountered with a Windows Server 2008 R2 that won’t boot, diskpart.exe

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might be the only option available when booting into the recovery environment, so

administrators should be well versed and comfortable with this tool.

Adding a New Disk to Windows

When a disk is added to a Windows Server 2008 R2 system, the only tool that can be used

to get the disk configured is the Disk Management snap-in. Windows Server 2008 R2 is

able to detect most disks without a reboot. This, of course, depends on the disk type and

the disk controller type. For example, if a new disk is added to a system with a RAID-

compatible disk controller, it will not be detected or available to Windows until the new

disk is configured using the RAID controller configuration utility. When a new disk is

ready to be added into the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, perform the

following steps:

1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 R2 system with an account with administrator

privileges.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.

3. In the tree pane, double-click the Storage node, and select Disk Management.

NOTE

In many cases, when a new disk is added to Windows, it is automatically detected and

an Initialize Disk pop-up Window opens; please close this window.

4. Right-click Disk Management and select Rescan Disks, as shown in Figure 28.1.

Managing Windows Server 2008 R2 Disks

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FIGURE 28.1

Rescanning disks using Disk Manager.

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5. After the disk scan completes, scroll down in the tasks pane to locate the new disk

that was just added. Right-click the disk and select Online.

6. The new disk will be listed as Unknown and Not Initialized. Right-click the disk and

select Initialize Disk.

7. When the Initialize Disk window opens, check the disk or disks to initialize, and

select the option button to create either an MBR or GPT type disk, as shown in

Figure 28.2.

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FIGURE 28.2

Initializing a new Windows disk.

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8. After the disk initialization completes, the disk will be listed as a basic disk. Repeat

the online and initialize task for any additional disks that were added to the

Windows Server 2008 R2 system.

At this point, the disk is ready to have a volume defined, formatted, and added to Windows.

Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks

In many cases, if disk fault tolerance is desired in a server configuration, the disks need to

be converted from the default basic disk configuration to a dynamic disk configuration.

After the disks are set to Dynamic, the fault-tolerance configuration can be applied. To

convert basic disks to dynamic disks, perform the following steps:

1. To convert a disk to a dynamic disk, right-click the basic disk to be converted, and

select Convert to Dynamic Disk.

CAUTION

After a disk is converted to a dynamic disk, it cannot be changed back to a basic disk

without removing all the volumes and losing the data.

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2. When the Convert to Dynamic Disk window opens, select the disk to convert by

checking the box next to the desired disk and clicking OK to convert the disk.

Creating Fault-Tolerant Volumes Using Disk Management

Windows Server 2008 R2 supports fault-tolerant disk arrays configured and managed on a

RAID disk controller or configured within the operating system using dynamic disks. To

create arrays using a RAID controller, refer to the manufacturer’s documentation and use

the appropriate disk utilities. To create a fault-tolerant volume within the Windows

Server 2008 R2 operating system using the Disk Management snap-in, perform the

following steps:

1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 R2 system with an account with administrator

privileges.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.

3. In the tree pane, double-click the Storage node, and select Disk Management.

4. In the tasks pane, verify that each of the disks that will be part of the fault-tolerant

volume is listed as online. If the disks are not online or initialized, perform the steps

in the previous section, “Adding a New Disk to Windows,” before proceeding.

NOTE

If the disks that will be members of the fault-tolerant array are not dynamic, when the

fault-tolerant volume is created, the wizard can convert the disks as part of the process.

Managing Windows Server 2008 R2 Disks

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5. After all of the necessary disks are online and initialized, they should be converted

to dynamic disk using the steps in the preceding section, “Converting Basic Disks to

Dynamic Disks.” Once all of the disks are ready, right-click any of the disks and

select either New Mirrored Volume or New RAID-5 Volume to create a fault-tolerant

volume. For this example, we will be creating a RAID-5 volume, but the steps would

be the same for a spanned or striped volume.

NOTE

To create a striped or RAID-5 volume, a minimum of three disks are required.

6. After selecting New RAID-5 Volume, a New RAID-5 Volume window opens; click

Next on the Welcome page.

7. The disk that was right-clicked will already be selected. For each remaining disk that

will be part of the RAID-5 volume, select the disk in the Available section, and click

the Add button to move it to the Selected section. For this example, we will create a

RAID-5 volume using disks two through seven, as shown in Figure 28.3.

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FIGURE 28.3

Selecting disks for the RAID-5 volume.

8. After all the necessary disks are listed in the Selected section, unless only a section

of the disk will be used in the volume, the entire disk space will be used. Click Next

to continue.

9. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, select the drive letter to assign or browse to

a folder location to mount the volume into an empty folder, and then click Next.

10. On the Format Volume page, accept the defaults to format the volume as NTFS,

accept the default allocation size, and type in the volume label as required to easily

identify the drive in Disk Manager, diskpart.exe, and Explorer. Uncheck the

Perform a Quick Format check box, and click Next.

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TIP

When you’re formatting RAID-5 volumes, perform a complete format to avoid loss of

disk performance later when data is first copied to the volume.

11. On the Completing the New RAID-5 Volume Wizard page, review the settings and

click Finish to create and format the volume.

12. If any of the disks were not previously converted to dynamic disks before the start of

the volume creation, a window opens to confirm that all disks will be converted;

click the Yes button to accept the conversion of the necessary disks.

Because a quick format was not selected, the time it takes to format the volume might be

extensive, so please plan accordingly.

Creating a Fault-Tolerant Volume Using
Diskpart.exe

This section provides step-by-step instructions for creating the same RAID-5 volume as in

the preceding section using diskpart.exe. For reference, these steps will be used to

converts disks 2 through 7 to dynamic disks, create a RAID-5 volume using the entire disk,

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add a volume label, format the drive as NTFS, and assign a drive letter to the volume. As a

prerequisite, each of the disks needs to already be initialized using Disk Manager. To create

a fault-tolerant RAID-5 volume using diskpart.exe, perform the following steps:

1. Log on to the Windows Server 2008 R2 system with an account with administrator

privileges.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Server Manager.

3. In the tree pane, double-click the Storage node, and select Disk Management.

4. In the tasks pane, verify that each of the disks that will be part of the fault-tolerant

volume is initialized and listed as dynamic.

5. Any disk that is listed as unknown and offline, right-click the disk, and select

Online. Repeat for each disk that will be part of the volume.

6. Any disk that is listed as not initialized, right-click the disk, and select Initialize Disk.

Repeat for each disk that will be part of the volume.

7. Close Disk Manager.

8. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and double-click the Command Prompt short-

cut. Each of the remaining steps will be typed in the command prompt window.

9. Type diskpart.exe and press Enter.

10. Type List Disk and press Enter. Note which disks are listed as online and dynamic. As

an example, Figure 28.4 shows that disks 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are online and dynamic