Disk Types and Performance

As performance increases,
so does cost
SSD

OS
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SAS . 5mi
st :1
Fa

IOPS Performance
SCSI ~2 1
0

I OPS
SATA ~1
5 0

w
EIDE Slo Cost
w
S lo
What Is Direct Attached Storage?

DAS disks are physically attached to the server

Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Easy to configure • Isolated because it attaches
• Inexpensive solution only to a single server
• Slower

Server with attached disks

What Is Network Attached Storage?

NAS is storage that is attached to a dedicated storage device

and accessed through network shares

Advantages:
• Relatively inexpensive NAS Device

• Easy to configure

Local Area Network

Disadvantages: (Ethernet)
• Slower access times
• Not an enterprise solution File-level access
(CIFS, NFS)

NAS offers centralized storage at an

File Server
affordable price
What Is a SAN?

SANs offers higher availability with the most flexibility

Advantages:
• Fastest access times
Servers
• Easily expandable
• Centralized storage
• High level of redundancy
Switches
Disadvantages:
• More expensive
• Requires specialized skills
Storage Devices

SANs can be implemented using Fibre Channel or iSCSI

What is iSCSI storage ?

• iSCSI storage is an inexpensive and simple way to configure a

connection to remote disks. Many application requirements dictate
that remote storage connections must be redundant in nature for
fault tolerance or high availability.
What is iSCSI storage ?

• iSCSI transmits SCSI commands over IP networks

Component Description
iSCSI client that
Provides high performance and runs the iSCSI
IP network redundancy Initiator

TCP/IP protocol
Run on the storage device and
iSCSI targets enable access to the disks

A software component or host

iSCSI adapter on the server that
initiators
provides access to iSCSI targets Storage
Array
A globally unique identifier used
IQN to address initiators and targets
on an iSCSI network
iSCSI Target Server
iSCSI Target Server and iSCSI Initiator

The iSCSI target server The iSCSI initiator

Runs as a service in the
Is available as a role service in operating system
Windows Server 2012 Is installed by default on
Provides the following features: Windows 8 and Windows
- Network/diskless boot Server 2012
- Server application storage
- Heterogeneous storage
- Lab environments
What Is RAID?

• RAID combines multiple disks into a single logical unit to provide

fault tolerance and performance
• RAID provides fault tolerance by using:
• Disk mirroring
• Parity information
• RAID can provide performance benefits by spreading disk I/O
across multiple disks
• RAID can be configured using several different levels
• RAID should not replace server backups
Selecting a Partition Table Format

MBR
• Standard Partition table format since early 1980s
• Supports a maximum of 4 primary partitions per drive
• Can partition a disk up to 2 TB

GPT
• GPT is the successor of MBR partition table format
• Supports a maximum of 128 partitions per drive
• Can partition a disk up to 18 EB

 Use MBR for disks smaller than 2 TB

 Use GPT for disks larger than 2 TB
Selecting a File System

When selecting a file system, consider the differences between FAT, NTFS,
and ReFS
FAT provides:
• Basic file system
• Partition size limitations
• FAT32 to enable larger disks
• exFAT developed for flash drives
NTFS provides:
• Metadata
• Auditing and journaling
• Security (ACLs and encryption)
ReFS provides:
• Backward compatibility support for NTFS
• Enhanced data verification and error correction
• Support for larger files, directories, volumes, etc.
What Is the Storage Spaces Feature?
Use storage spaces to add physical disks of any
type and size to a storage pool, and then
create highly-available virtual disks from the
storage pool Disk Drive
To create a virtual disk, you need the
following: Virtual Disk
• One or more physical disks
• Storage pool that includes the disks Storage Pool
• Virtual drives that are created with disks
from the storage pool Physical Disks
• Disk drives that are based on virtual
drives
Virtual drives are not virtual hard disks (VHDs);
they should be considered a drive in Disk Manager
Built-in Disk Management Tools

• Built-in Disk Management Tools in Windows

Windows Server 2012
– Storage pools.
– Disk Management.
What is a Partition?

Primary
• A physical disk is sectioned into separate

partitions
C:
C:
• A physical disk can have up to three primary
D:
D:
partitions and one extended partition
E:
E:
• Extended partitions are subdivided into
F:
F:

logical drives G:
G:

H:
H:

Extended
Extended with
with
logical
logical drives
drives
What Is Fault Tolerance?

• The ability to survive hardware failure

• Fault-tolerant volumes provide data redundancy

• Fault-tolerant volumes are not a replacement for backup

What Is a Simple Volume?

• Contains space on a single disk

• Can be extended if formatted with NTFS

• Spanning is not available

• Fault tolerance is not available

• Read & write speed is normal

How Simple Volume works?

123456
1
2
3
4 Volume
Disk 1
5
6

Administrator
Types of RAID Volumes in Windows 2012

• Simple Volume (RAID-0)

• Mirrored Volume (RAID-1)

• RAID-5 Volume (Striped With Parity)

What Is a Simple Volume (RAID-0)?

• Minimum - 2 Hard Disks

• Data is written alternately and evenly to two or more disks

• Spanning is available

• Fault Tolerance is not available

• Read & Write Speed is Fast

How RAID-0 works?

123456
1
3 Disk 1
5
Volume
2
4 Disk 2
6

Administrator
What Is a Mirrored Volume (RAID-1)?

• Minimum - 2 Hard Disks

• Simultaneously data will be written to two volumes on two different

disks
• Any volume can be mirrored including the system and boot volumes

• Fault Tolerance is available

• Read Speed is Fast & Write Speed is Slow

• 50% overhead
 How RAID-1 works?

123
1
2 Disk 1
3
Volume
1
2 Disk 2
3

Administrator
What Is a Parity (RAID-5) Volume?

• Minimum - 3 Hard Disks

• Data is written alternately and evenly to two or more disks and a

parity is written on one disk

• Fault Tolerance is available

• Read & Write Speed is Fast,

 How RAID-5 works?

123456
1
3 Disk 1
P=5&6

2
P = 3 Volume
& 4
Disk 2
5

P=1&2
4 Disk 3
6

Administrator
 What will happen ?

New Disk

Disk
Generate
Data
Disk 22––Fails
Generate
Data Fails
Recovered
Data
Data
Loss
Recovered
Data
Data
Loss

1
3 Disk 1
P=5&6

2
Volume P=3& 4
Disk 2
5

P=1&2
4 Disk 3
6

Administrator
What Are Mount Points and Links?

A mount point is a reference to a location on a disk

that enables Windows operating system access to disk
resources
• Use volume mount points:
• To mount volumes or disks as folders instead of using
drive letters
• When you do not have drive letters available for creating
new volumes
• To add disk space without changing the folder structure

A link file contains a reference to another file or

directory
• Link options:
• Symbolic file link (or, soft link)
• Symbolic directory link (or, directory junctions)
What Is a Mounted Drive?

• Is assigned a path rather than a drive letter

• Allows you to add more drives without using up drive letters

• Adds volumes to systems without adding separate drive letters for

each new volume