Although the features mentioned in the previous section likely compel most system administrators to use NTFS, additional reasons make using it mandatory. The most important reason is that the Active Directory data store must reside on an NTFS partition. Therefore, before you begin installing Active Directory, make sure you have at least one NTFS partition available. Also, be sure you have a reasonable amount of disk space available (at least 4GB). Because the size of the Active Directory data store will grow as you add objects to it, also be sure that you have adequate space for the future.
Exercise 11.1 shows you how to use the administrative tools to view and modify disk configuration.
Before you make any disk configuration changes, be sure you completely understand their potential effects; then perform the test in a lab environment and make sure you have good, verifiable backups handy. Changing partition sizes and adding and removing partitions can result in a total loss of all information on one or more partitions.
If you want to convert an existing partition from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, you need to use the CONVERT command- line utility. For example, the following command converts the C: partition from FAT to NTFS: CONVERT c: /fs:ntfs
EXERCISE 11.1
Viewing Disk Configurations
- Right click the Start button and then choose Disk Management (shown in Figure 11.2).
FIGURE 11.2 Computer Management
The Disk Management program shows you the logical and physical disks that are currently configured on your system. Note that information about the size of each partition is also displayed (in the Capacity column).
2. To see the available options for modifying partition settings, right- click any of the disks or partitions and choose Properties. This step is optional.
3. Close Computer Management.
Storage in Windows Server 2022
As an IT administrator, you’ll need to ask many questions before you start setting up a server. What type of disks should be used? What type of RAID sets should be made? What type of hardware platform should be purchased? These are all questions you must ask when planning for storage in a Windows Server 2022 server. In the following sections, I will answer these questions so that you can make the best decisions for storage in your network’s environment.
Initializing Disks
To begin, I must discuss how to add disk drives to a server. Once a disk drive has been physically installed, it must be initialized by selecting the type of partition. Different types of partition styles are used to initialize disks: Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT).
MBR has a partition table that indicates where the partitions are located on the disk drive, and with this particular partition style, only volumes up to 2 TB (2,048 GB) are supported. An MBR drive can have up to four primary partitions or can have three primary partitions and one extended partition that can be divided into unlimited logical drives.
Windows Server 2022 can only boot off an MBR disk unless it is based on the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI); then it can boot from GPT. An Itanium server is an example of an EFI- based system. GPT is not constrained by the same limitations as MBR. In fact, a GPT disk drive can support volumes of up to 18EB (18,874,368 million terabytes) and 128 partitions. As a result, GPT is recommended for disks larger than 2TB or disks used on Itanium- based computers. Exercise 11.2 demonstrates the process of initializing additional disk drives to an active computer running Windows Server 2022. If you’re not adding a new drive, then stop after step 4. I am completing this exercise using Computer Management, but you also can do this exercise using Server Manager.
EXERCISE 11.2
Initializing Disk Drives
- Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
- Select Disk Management.
- After disk drives have been installed, right- click Disk Management and select Rescan Disks.
- A pop- up box appears indicating that the server is scanning for new disks. If you did not add a new disk, go to step 9.
- After the server has completed the scan, the new disk appears as Unknown.
- Right- click the Unknown disk, and select Initialize Disk.
- A pop- up box appears asking for the partition style. For this exercise, choose MBR.
- Click OK.
- Close Computer Management.
The disk will now appear online as a basic disk with unallocated space.
Configuring Basic and Dynamic Disks
Windows Server 2022 supports two types of disk configurations: basic and dynamic. Basic disks are divided into partitions and can be used with previous versions of Windows. Dynamic disks are divided into volumes and can be used with Windows 2000 Server and newer releases.
When a disk is initialized, it is automatically created as a basic disk, but when a new fault- tolerant (RAID) volume set is created, the disks in the set are converted to dynamic disks. Fault- tolerance features and the ability to modify disks without having to reboot the server are what distinguish dynamic disks from basic disks.
Fault tolerance (RAID) is discussed in detail later in this chapter in the “Redundant Array of Independent Disks” section.
A basic disk can simply be converted to a dynamic disk without loss of data. When a basic disk is converted, the partitions are automatically changed to the appropriate volumes. However, converting a dynamic disk back to a basic disk is not as simple. First, all the data on the dynamic disk must be backed up or moved. Then, all the volumes on the dynamic disk have to be deleted. The dynamic disk can then be converted to a basic disk. Partitions and logical drives can be created, and the data can be restored.
The following are actions that can be performed on basic disks:
■ Formatting partitions
■ Marking partitions as active
■ Creating and deleting primary and extended partitions
■ Creating and deleting logical drives
■ Converting from a basic disk to a dynamic disk
The following are actions that can be performed on dynamic disks:
■ Creating and deleting simple, striped, spanned, mirrored, or RAID- 5 volumes
■ Removing or breaking a mirrored volume
■ Extending simple or spanned volumes
■ Repairing mirrored or RAID- 5 volumes
■ Converting from a dynamic disk to a basic disk after deleting all volumes In Exercise 11.3, you’ll convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk.
EXERCISE 11.3
Converting a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
- Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
- Select Disk Management.
- Right- click a basic disk that you want to convert and select Convert To Dynamic Disk, as shown in Figure 11.3.
EXERCISE 11.3 (continued)
4. The Convert To Dynamic Disk dialog box appears. From here, select all of the disks that you want to convert to dynamic disks. In this exercise, only one disk will be converted.
5. Click OK.
6. The Convert To Dynamic Disk dialog box changes to the Disks To Convert dialog box and shows the disk/disks that will be converted to dynamic disks.
7. Click Convert.
8. Disk Management will warn that if you convert the disk to dynamic, you will not be able to start the installed operating system from any volume on the disk (except the current boot volume). Click Yes.
9. Close Computer Management.
The converted disk will now show as Dynamic in Disk Management.
