Sunday, January 30, 2011

Adding the File Services Role

Windows Server 2008 R2 systems, out of the box, can be used to share folder data right after installation. To get the most out of the system, the File Services role should be added. Adding the File Services role not only configures settings to optimize the system for file sharing, but also enables the administrator to choose which file server options as well as which tools for managing the file system will be installed. To install the File Services role, 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, click on the Roles node.

4. In the tasks pane, click on the Add Roles link.

5. When the Add Roles window opens, read the information on the Before You Begin page and if the system meets the recommendations to have a strong administrator password, static IP address, and be updated with the latest Windows security updates, click Next to continue.

6. On the Select Server Roles page, check the File Services check box, and click Next to continue.

7. The next page provides a short introduction to the File Services role and notes the fact that the Windows Search Service and the indexing service cannot be installed on the same system. Click Next to continue with the installation of the File Services role.

8. The Role Services page enables administrators to select which File Services role services will be installed on the system. The File Server service is selected by default. In addition to this service, also check Windows Search Service to set up indexing of the file system for faster searches and also check the File Server Resource Manager to enable quota, file screening, file classification, and reporting functionality. After checking the desired services, click Next to continue.

9. Because the File Server Resource Manager was selected, the next page is the Configure Storage Usage Monitoring page. Check the box next to each drive letter that will have storage reporting enabled and when completed, accept the default settings for monitoring, and click Next to continue.

10. On the Set Report Options page, accept the defaults of storing reports on the root folder, Storage Reports, and click Next to continue.

11. Because the Windows Search Service was selected, the next page will be the Select Volumes to Index for Windows Search Service. Check the volumes that will contain user data that should be indexed, and click Next to continue.

12. The Confirm Installation Selections page enables the administrator to review the chosen settings. After confirming that the settings are correct, click Install to install and configure the services and tools chosen.

13. Review the details on the results page and click Close to complete the installation.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

System File Reliability

In each release of Microsoft Windows for the workstation or server, Microsoft has made great attempts to increase the reliability of the system by extending the number of included hardware drivers. This holds true today for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, which to date have the most complete set of hardware and device drivers. Of course, Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bit, which does limit hardware compatibility to a certain degree. Microsoft works hand in hand with software and hardware manufacturers to provide the means for these manufacturers to create the best drivers for Windows that will provide the highest level of reliability for the client and server operating systems.


System File Stability
Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 allow an administrator to control the level of security associated with hardware drivers. Because Microsoft works closely with independent hardware vendors (IHVs), Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 support extensive brands of hardware and client/server peripherals. When an IHV tests its hardware and passes certain Microsoft requirements, its hardware driver is certified, digitally signed by Microsoft, and, in most cases, added to the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for the particular platform or operating system. If the driver is certified early enough in the operating system development process, the driver is included with the operating system.

Most new hardware will be detected by Windows and will prompt to search the local file system or Windows Update to find the driver. If the hardware was tested and verified by Microsoft before the production release of Windows, it should be found and added automatically. If the hardware was certified after the release of Windows, it might be included in Windows Update or the administrator might be required to locate, download, and install the driver right from the manufacturer’s website.

In most cases, administrators should only install drivers provided by Microsoft and digitally signed by Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher. In other cases, however, especially when it comes to connecting to external disk storage, it might be preferential and required to use the driver provided by the manufacturer. Unsigned drivers are not accepted by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2. These drivers are not fully tested and can cause issues. Make sure to check with the hardware manufacturer for compatibility before purchasing any new or used hardware that will be attached to a new Windows Server 2008 R2 system. In particular, disk controllers and disk access are critical to server stability and administrators should always try to configure their disk controller firmware version and driver version to match the recommended manufacturer and Microsoft specification; otherwise, data corruption or loss might result.


File Signature Verification (Sigverif.exe)
File Signature Verification is a graphic-based utility that can be used when it is suspected that original, protected, and digitally signed system files or drivers have been replaced or overwritten after an application or device installation. This tool checks the system files and drivers to verify that all the files have a Microsoft digital signature. When unsigned or incorrect version files are found, the information, including filename, location, file date, and version number, is saved in a log file and displayed on the screen.

To run this tool, click Start, Run, and in the search pane, type Sigverif.exe, and press Enter. When the window is open, click Start to run a check for signed drivers and system files in the operating system. This starts a scan of the devices drivers and if they all pass, a window will open stating that the files have been scanned and verified and digitally signed. Click OK to close the pop-up and click Close to close the File Signature Verification window.


System File Checker (Sfc.exe)
The System File Checker is a command-line tool that is similar in function to the File
Signature Verification tool, but any detected incorrect files are automatically replaced with the Microsoft version of the detected file. This tool can be dangerous and cause serious problems if the administrator is not sure if certain Windows files or unsigned drivers are required for the operating system to function properly. This tool should be used if operating systems become unstable and drivers or system files are suspected or logged as possible causes of problems.

Sfc.exe can be configured to run using Group Policy. Sfc.exe options are configurable using Group Policy with settings found in Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Windows File Protection. This might be a good option for supporting workstations to maintain system stability. It might also prove to be useful for servers, but as a general guideline, use is on workstations and servers only when system file corruption or driver issues have been reported as problematic.

Sfc.exe scans and replaces any system files that it detects are incorrect. If any unsigned drivers are necessary for operation, do not run this utility; otherwise, the files might be replaced and cause your hardware to operate incorrectly, producing data corruption, loss of functionality, or actually producing different problems.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Working with Virtual Hard Disks

Virtual hard disks have been around since virtual machines appeared on the scene in the late 1990s. Windows Server 2008 R2 can create and directly attach Microsoft virtual hard
disks or VHD files. VHD files are used in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V guest machines, as well as Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and Microsoft Virtual PC, although not all VHD versions are 100% interchangeable. Starting with Windows Server 2008 R2, VHD files can be easily created and attached to the host operating system using Disk Manager. To create and attach a new VHD file, 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. Right-click Disk Management and select Create VHD.

5. In the Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window, click Browse to select the volume and folder to place the new VHD file.

6. In the Browse Virtual Disk Files window, locate the correct volume and folder, type in the name of the new VHD file, and click Save.

7. Back in the Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window, enter the size of the new virtual hard disk and pull down the menu to select MB, GB, or TB. For our example, we will create a 10GB file on the E: drive called NEW-Virtual-Disk.vhd.

8. In the Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window, after the location, name, and size of the new virtual disk are defined, select the Fixed Size option button to create the file and allocate all the space to file, and click OK to create the new virtual hard disk.

9. Once the process completes, scroll down in the Disk Management tasks pane to locate the new virtual hard disk, which should be listed as the last disk and should be listed as Unknown and Not Initialized. Right-click the disk in the left section of the tasks pane and select Initialize Disk.

10. In the Initialize Disk window, choose to create an MBR partition style for the disk, ensure that the correct disk is checked in the window, and click OK to initialize the disk.

11. Once initialized, the disk will be listed as basic and online. Right-click the unallocated space in the tasks pane and select New Simple Volume.

12. Follow the steps to format the disk as NTFS and assign a drive letter.

13. Once the process has completed, the virtual hard disk will be available in My Computer and Windows Explorer just as any other local drive.

14. Once the usage of the disk is complete, from within Disk Manager, right-click the attached virtual hard disk and select Detach VHD.

15. In the Detach Virtual Hard Disk window, the disk that was selected will be listed; if the virtual hard disk file will be used again, do not check the box to delete the virtual disk as part of detaching it. Click OK to detach the disk.

Once the virtual hard disk is detached, if the disk was not deleted, it can be copied to any other Windows Server 2008 R2 system and mounted or attached to the host operating system or a Hyper-V guest virtual machine. One use of this new feature is to easily preload software and files on virtual disks that will be used for Hyper-V guest machines or to mount up virtual disk for disk repair, data copies, backup, or a number of different functions.

To attach an existing virtual disk to a Windows Server 2008 R2 system, the server administrator can open Server Manager, right-click the Disk Management node, and select Attach VHD, and then the administrator can choose to attach the VHD in read-only mode to avoid changing or modifying any data stored within the disk.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Creating a Fault-Tolerant Volume Using Diskpart.exe

This section provides step-by-step instructions for creating the same RAID-5 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, 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 shortcut. 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. The online or offline status is listed in the Status column and a dynamic disk is shown in the Dyn column with a * symbol.

11. Based on the disk configuration detailed, disk 6 and disk 7 need to be converted to dynamic disks.

12. In the Command Prompt window, type select disk 6 and press Enter.

13. In the Command Prompt window, type convert dynamic and press Enter.

14. In the Command Prompt window, type select disk 7 and press Enter.

15. In the Command Prompt window, type convert dynamic and press Enter. Leave diskpart.exe running in the Command Prompt window.

16. Now that all of the disks are initialized, online, and dynamic, we can create the RAID-5 volume.

17. In the Command Prompt window, type Select disk 2 and press Enter.

18. In the Command Prompt window, type Create volume RAID disk 2,3,4,5,6,7 and press Enter.

19. Now that the RAID-5 volume is created, we will format it, but the volume will need to be identified. In the Command Prompt window, type List volume and press Enter.

20. The new volume should be listed as a RAID-5 volume, the new volume is listed as volume 2.

21. In the Command Prompt window, type Select volume 2 and press Enter.

22. In the Command Prompt window, type Format FS=NTFS label=New_RAID5_Volume, and press Enter to format the volume. This will perform a full format of the volume.

23. When the format completes, the window details if the format completed successfully.
If the format completed successfully, once the volume is formatted, type Assign Letter=F and press Enter to assign the new volume the letter F.

24. When the drive letter is assigned, in the Command Prompt window, type Exit, and press Enter to close diskpart.exe.

25. In the Command Prompt window, type Exit, and press Enter to close the Command Prompt window.

The new RAID-5 volume should now be accessible from the operating system.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Friday, January 14, 2011

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Monday, January 10, 2011

Adding a New Disk to Windows Server 2008 R2

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 RAIDcompatible 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.

4. Right-click Disk Management and select Rescan Disks.

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.
.

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.

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.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Friday, January 7, 2011

Managing Windows Server 2008 R2 Disks

Disks in Windows Server 2008 R2 can be managed using a few different tools included 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 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 might be the only option available when booting into the recovery environment, so administrators should be well versed and comfortable with this tool.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (2010)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Utilizing External Disk Subsystems

Windows Server 2008 R2 is capable of utilizing and, in some cases, managing disks stored in external storage area networks (SANs) or disk subsystems. Many enterprise organizations, and actually many midsize organizations, deploy Windows systems connected to external disk storage. As organizations move toward consolidating and virtualizing servers, the need to provide fault-tolerant disk storage at the organization level instead of at the server level has become more common.

Hardware-Based Disk Arrays
As a best practice, whenever possible, use RAID-compatible disk controllers or SANs to provide fault-tolerant disk volumes to Windows Server 2008 R2 systems. Using externally managed RAID arrays will reduce server processing requirements and can also improve the recoverability of the system if operating system corruption is encountered.

Boot from Storage Area Networks
Many SAN vendors and Microsoft tout the ability to deploy diskless servers that boot from SAN disks. This configuration allows SAN vendors to completely manage the Windows system disks and can simplify the recovery or replacement of a server based on hardware failure or scheduled replacement.

Managing External Storage
Windows Server 2008 R2 provides a tool called “Storage Manager for SANs” to assist administrators in managing SAN-based disks. In most cases, however, SAN vendors provide and recommend the use of their own vendor-based management tools.

External Storage Support Requirements
Microsoft has very tight specifications when it comes to supporting external storage for Windows servers. Administrators who plan to utilize external storage should review the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware Compatibility List for external storage devices, storage controllers, driver types, driver versions, and controller firmware versions to verify supported compatibility before purchasing any external storage devices—that is, if the administrators want to be supported by Microsoft in the event of disk or data corruption.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (2010)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Windows Server 2008 R2 Partition or Volume

When referring to Windows disks, administrators might consider partitions and volumes interchangeable. In fact, even though the graphical user interface makes no clear distinction and might refer to everything as a volume, volumes only exist on dynamic disks and partitions only exist on basic disks. This is especially important when managing disks using the diskpart.exe command-line utility, which defines a clear delineation between partitions and volumes.


Mount Point
When a new volume is created in Windows, it can be assigned a drive letter or mounted into an existing empty folder on an existing volume. When a volume is mounted into folder, this is known as a mount point or junction point. Mount points can be very useful in situations where administrators want to simplify disk access for end users, but must also make use of a number of small disks versus a single large disk. For example, on a database server with three disks, an administrator might assign disk1 the D drive, disk2 would be mounted in d:\data, and disk3 would be mounted in d:\logfiles. Any administrator would only need to connect to the D drive to access the databases or log files. One thing that administrators must test before using mount points is to see that all clients, applications, and backup agents support the use of mount or junction points and can successfully access and back up data stored within them. With many backup applications, enabling a backup job to back up data stored on a mounted volume is not the default and can cause major problems if the correct backup configuration is not selected before a failure occurs.


Simple Volumes
A simple volume is a single partition created on a single basic or dynamic disk. On a basic disk, simple volumes can be extended to include free, unallocated space that exists in a sequential section of the disk. To extend a simple volume to a noncontiguous, unallocated space on the same disk or a different disk, the disk will need to be upgraded to a dynamic disk.


Spanned Volumes
A spanned volume is treated as a single drive, but the volume spans two or more disks or different noncontiguous areas of the same disk. Spanned volumes provide no disk fault tolerance but can be used to meet disk storage needs that exceed the capacity of a single disk or volume. Spanned volumes are slowest when it comes to reading and writing data and are recommended only when the space of more than a single disk is necessary or an existing simple volume needs to be extended to add disk space and there is no available, unallocated space located next to the volume. For instance, if an application, file share, or service is dependent on the drive letter, does not support the moving of data or system files to another drive, and the current drive is nearly full, a simple volume can be upgraded to a spanned volume and extended with unallocated space on the same or another disk to add additional disk space. A simple volume that has been extended with unallocated space on the same disk is still considered a simple volume. If the simple volume is extended to a different disk, it is automatically converted to a spanned volume. The allocated space on each of the disks can be different sizes, and there is no space lost when creating a spanned volume. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that a spanned volume can never be reverted to a simple volume.


Striped Volumes
A striped volume or RAID-0 compatible volume requires two or more Windows dynamic disks and provides the fastest of all disk configurations. Striped volumes read and write data from each of the disks simultaneously, which improves disk access time. Striped volumes utilize all the space allocated for data storage but provide no disk fault tolerance. If one of the disks should fail, the entire data set would become inaccessible. Stripe sets require the exact amount of disk space on each of the allocated disks. For example, to create a 15GB stripe set array with three disks, 5GB of unallocated space would be required on each disk.


Fault-Tolerant Volumes
When fault-tolerant disk arrays managed by hardware controllers are not available, faulttolerant volumes can be created using multiple Windows dynamic disks. Fault-tolerant volumes in Windows are able to maintain data availability in the event of a single disk failure. Windows Server 2008 R2 supports two types of fault-tolerant volumes, including mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes.


Mirrored Volumes
Mirrored or RAID-1 compatible volumes require two separate disks to create. Furthermore, the size of the volume must be equal and available in one contiguous, unallocated section of each of the disks. Mirrored volumes duplicate data across each disk and can withstand the failure of a single disk. Because the mirrored volume is an exact replica of the first disk, the total space capacity is the capacity of one disk.


RAID-5 Volumes
Software-based RAID-5 volumes require three or more Windows dynamic disks and can provide faster disk read access than a single disk because all disks in the set can be read at the same time. Write performance can be slower than a single disk because of the parity stripe that must be generated and written. The space allocated to the RAID-5 volume on each disk in the volume must be equal and contiguous unallocated space. For example, to create a RAID-5 volume that requires 100GB on each disk, a disk with two separate areas of 50GB of unallocated space cannot be used to participate in the volume.

RAID-5 sets can withstand the failure of a single disk in the volume. During a disk failure, the remaining disks in the volume will continue to provide access to data but at a slower or degraded rate. This capability is achieved by reserving a small portion of each disk’s allocated space to store data parity information that can be used to rebuild a failed disk and to continue to provide data access. This is called a parity stripe. RAID-5 parity information requires the total space of a single disk in the array. For example, if five 10GB dynamic disks are used to create a single RAID-5 volume, 40GB would be available for data storage. The reserved 10GB would be spread evenly across all five disks. The formula for usable capacity of a RAID-5 array is (N - 1) * S, where N is the total number of drives in the array and S is the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.

Source of Information :  Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed