MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

LAB 3
CONFIGURING LOCAL
STORAGE

THIS LAB CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES:

Exercise 3.1 Initializing Disks

Exercise 3.2 Creating Simple Volumes

Exercise 3.3 Creating a Storage Pool

Lab Challenge Removing Storage Components

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

The lab environment consists of computers connected to a local area network, along
with a server that functions as the domain controller for a domain called adatum.com.
The computers required for this lab are listed in Table 3-1.

Table 3-1
Computers Required for Lab 3
Computer Operating System Computer Name
Domain controller Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERA
Member server Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERB
Member server with three Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERC
additional SCSI hard drives

In addition to the computers, you also require the software listed in Table 3-2 to
complete Lab 3.
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

Table 3-2
Software Required for Lab 3
Software Location
Lab 3 student worksheet Lab03_worksheet.docx (provided by instructor)

Working with Lab Worksheets

Each lab in this manual requires that you answer questions, create screen shots, and
perform other activities that you will document in a worksheet named for the lab, such
as Lab03_worksheet.docx. It is recommended that you use a USB flash drive to store
your worksheets, so you can submit them to your instructor for review. As you
perform the exercises in each lab, open the appropriate worksheet file, fill in the
required information, and save the file to your flash drive.

After completing this lab, you will be able to:

 Initialize new disks

 Create storage spaces, disks, and volumes with Server Manager

 Create volumes with the Disk Management snap-in

Estimated lab time: 60 minutes

Exercise 3.1 Initializing Disks

Overview In this exercise, you use two different tools to bring three new disks
online and initialize them in preparation for creating storage volumes.

Mindset Adding disk drives is a common server hardware upgrade, requiring an

administrator to prepare them for use.
Completion time 15 minutes

1. Log on to the SERVERC computer using adatum/administrator and Pa$

$w0rd, then, in Server Manager, click File and Storage Services. A File and
Storage Services submenu appears (see Figure 3-1).
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

Figure 3-1
The File and Storage Services submenu in Server Manager

2. Click Disks. The Disks page appears, showing one online disk and three offline
disks.

The three offline disks all use the SCSI bus type, whereas
the online disk uses the ATA bus. Why can’t the three offline
disks use the ATA bus as well?
Question
1 ATA support a maximum of four devices (keep in mind
that (1)the system disk and (2)DVD-ROM already count as
two)So, to add three more disks, another interface is
necessary.

3. Right-click the offline disk number 1 and, from the context menu, select Bring
Online. A message box appears, warning you not to bring the disk online if it is
already online and connected to another server.

4. Click Yes. The disk’s status changes to Online.

5. Right-click the same disk number 1 and, from the context menu, select Initialize.
A message box appears, warning you that any data on the disk will be erased.

6. Click Yes. The disk is partitioned and ready to create volumes.

7. In Server Manager, click Tools > Computer Management. The Computer

Management console appears.
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

8. In the left pane, click Disk Management. The Disk Management snap-in appears
(see Figure 3-2).

Figure 3-2
The Disk Management snap-in

9. Right-click the Disk 2 tile and, from the context menu, select Online.

10. Right-click the Disk 2 tile a second time and, from the context menu, select
Initialize Disk. The Initialize Disk dialog box appears.

11. Select the GPT (GUID Partition Table) option and click OK. The Disk 2 status
changes to Online.

12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 to initialize Disk 3.

End of exercise. You can leave the windows open for the next exercise.

What advantage is there to using the Disk Management

snap-in to initialize new disks, rather than Server Manager?
Question
2 The Disk management gives you the two options for GPT
or Master Boot Record (MBR) partitions, while the server
manager always creates GPT partitions only by default.
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

Exercise 3.2 Creating Simple Volumes

Overview In this exercise, you use two methods to create simple volumes, using
Server Manager and the Disk Management snap-in.

Mindset Server Manager and Disk Management both provide wizards for creating
simple volumes, with similar capabilities.
Completion time 15 minutes

1. On SERVERC, in Server Manager, in the File and Storage Services submenu,

click Volumes. The Volumes home page appears.

2. Click Tasks > New Volume. The New Volume Wizard appears, displaying the
Before you begin page.

3. Click Next. The Select the server and disk page appears.

4. Select Disk 1 and click Next. The Specify the size of the volume page appears.

5. In the Volume size text box, type 10 and click Next. The Assign to a drive letter
or folder page appears.

6. Click Next. The Select file system settings page appears.

7. Click Next. The Confirm selections page appears.

8. Click Create. The Completion page appears.

9. Click Close. The new volume appears in the Volumes pane.

10. Switch to the Computer Management console. The new volume you just created
appears in the Disk 1 pane of the Disk Management snap-in.

11. Right-click the unallocated space on Disk 2 and, from the context menu, select
New Simple Volume. The New Simple Volume Wizard appears, displaying the
Welcome page.

12. Click Next. The Specify Volume Size page appears.

13. In the Simple volume size in MB spin box, type 10000 and click Next. The Assign
Drive Letter or Path page appears.

14. Click Next. The Format Partition page appears.

MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

15. Click Next. The Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard page appears.

16. Click Finish. The wizard creates the volume, and it appears in the Disk 2 pane.

What Windows PowerShell commands should you use to

create a simple volume of the same size on disk 3 using the
drive letter G:?

Question (1)New-partition -diskNumber 3 -DriveLetter G -Size

3 10gb

(2)Format-volume -DriveLetter G -FileSystem NTFS

17. Create a 10 GB simple volume on disk 3 with the drive letter G: using Windows
PowerShell.

18. Press Alt+Prt Scr to take a screen shot of the Disk Management snap-in, showing
the three volumes you created, and then press Ctrl+V to paste the resulting image
into the Lab 3 worksheet file in the page provided.
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

End of exercise. Close Computer Management and any formatting prompt windows, if
needed, before you begin the next exercise.

Exercise 3.3 Creating a Storage Pool

Overview In this exercise, you use the Server Manager console to create a storage
pool, which consists of space from multiple physical disks.

Mindset Storage pools are a new feature in Windows Server 2012 R2, which enable
you to create a flexible storage subsystem with various types of fault
tolerance.
Completion time 15 minutes

1. On SERVERC, in Server Manager, on the File and Storage Services submenu,

click Storage Pools. The Storage Pools home page appears (see Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3
The Storage Pools home page
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

2. In the Storage Pools tile, click Tasks > New Storage Pool. The New Storage Pool
Wizard appears, displaying the Before you begin page.

3. Click Next. The Specify a storage pool name and subsystem page appears.

4. In the Name text box, type Pool1 and click Next. The Select physical disks for
the storage pool page appears.

5. Select the check boxes for PhysicalDisk1 and PhysicalDisk2 in the list and click
Next. The Confirm selections page appears.

6. Click Create. The wizard creates the storage pool.

7. Click Close. The new pool appears in the Storage Pools tile.

8. Select Pool1.

9. In the Virtual Disks tile, click Tasks > New Virtual Disk. The New Virtual Disk
Wizard appears, displaying the Before you begin page.

10. Click Next. The Select the storage pool page appears.

11. Click Next. The Specify the virtual disk name page appears.

12. In the name text box, type Data1 and click Next. The Select the storage layout
page appears.

13. In the layout list, select Parity and click Next. A warning appears, stating that the
storage pool does not contain a sufficient number of physical disks to support the
Parity layout.

Why can’t the wizard create a virtual disk using the Parity
layout when there are only two physical disks in the storage
pool? “For a parity-based fault tolerance system to function,
Question there must be at least two data sources and a parity source to
4 calculate the missing data when one source fails. In a two-
disk storage pool, you have either two data sources and no
parity source or one data source and one parity source, neither
of which is sufficient to provide fault tolerance. ”

14. In the layout list, select Mirror and click Next. The Specify the provisioning type
page appears.

15. Leave the default Fixed option selected and click Next. The Specify the size of
the virtual disk page appears.
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

16. Select the Maximum size option and click Next. The Confirm selections page
appears.

17. Click Create. The wizard creates the virtual disk and the View results page
appears. Clear the Create a volume when this wizard closes checkbox.

18. Click Close. The virtual disk appears on the Storage Pools page.

19. Press Alt+Prt Scr to take a screen shot of the Storage Pools page, showing the
storage pool and the virtual disk you created, and then press Ctrl+V to paste the
resulting image into the Lab 3 worksheet file in the page provided.

20. In the Virtual Disks tile, right-click the Data1 disk you just created and, from the
context menu, select New Volume. The New Volume Wizard appears.

21. Using the wizard, create a volume on Disk 4 (Data1) using all of the available
space, the NTFS file system, and the drive letter J:.

End of exercise. Close any open windows before you begin the next exercise.

At this point in the lab, what would happen to any data stored
Question on the E:, F:, G:, and J: drives if Disk 2 on the server was to
5 fail? Data in three drives will be kept. Data in one drive
will be lost (drive F)
MOAC 70-410 - Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Lab Manual

Lab
Challenge Removing Storage Components
Overview In addition to the graphical tools provided with Windows Server 2012
R2, you can also manipulate the storage subsystem using Windows
PowerShell commands.
Completion time 15 minutes
To complete this challenge, list the Windows PowerShell commands needed to delete
all of the storage components you created during this lab on the SCSI disks of
SERVERC. Then, restart SERVERC and take a screen shot of the Storage Pools page,
showing the removal of the storage pool and the virtual disk you created. Press Ctrl+V
to paste the resulting image into the Lab 3 worksheet file in the page provided.

Remove-VirtualDisk –FriendlyName data1

Remove-StoragePool –FriendlyName pool1
Remove-Partition –DriveLetter g
Remove-Partition –DriveLetter f
Remove-Partition –DriveLetter e

End of lab. You can log off or start a different lab. If you want to restart this lab,
you’ll need to click the End Lab button in order for the lab to be reset.