2. In Server Manager, in the left pane, click File and Storage Services, and in the Servers pane, click
Storage Pools.
3. In the STORAGE POOLS pane, click TASKS and then in the TASKS drop-down list, click New Storage
Pool.
4. In the New Storage Pool Wizard, on the Before you begin page, click Next.
5. On the Specify a storage pool name and subsystem page, in the Name box, type StoragePool1, and then click Next.
6. On the Select physical disks for the storage pool page, click all available physical disks, and then click Next.
7. On the Confirm selections page, click Create.
8. On the View results page, wait until task completes, and then click Close.
Create a virtual disk and a volume
1. Under Storage Pools, click StoragePool1.
2. In the VIRTUAL DISKS pane, click TASKS, and then in the TASKS drop-down list, click New Virtual
Disk.
3. In the New Virtual Disk Wizard, on the Before you begin page, click Next. 4. On the Select the storage pool page, click StoragePool1, and then click Next.
5. On the Specify the virtual disk name page, in the Name box, type Simple vDisk, and then click
Next.
6. On the Select the storage layout page, in the Layout list, select Simple, and then click Next. 7. On the Specify the provisioning type page, click Thin, and then click Next. You should mention
that this configures thin provisioning for that volume.
8. On the Specify the size of the virtual disk page in the Virtual disk size box, type 2, and then click
Next.
9. On the Confirm selections page, click Create.
10. On the View results page, wait until the task completes. Make sure that the Create a volume when
this wizard closes check box is selected, and then click Close.
11. In the New Volume Wizard, on the Before you begin page, click Next.
12. On the Select the server and disk page, under Disk, click Simple vDisk virtual disk, and then click
Next.
13. On the Specify the size of the volume page, click Next to confirm the default selection. 14. On the Assign to a drive letter or folder page, click Next to confirm the default selection. 15. On the Select file system settings page, in the File system drop-down list, select ReFS, in the
Volume label box, type Simple Volume, and then click Next.
16. On the Confirm selections page, click Create.
Module Review and Takeaways
Best Practices
The following are recommended best practices:
• If you want to shrink a volume, defragment the volume first so you can reclaim more space from the volume.
• Use the GPT partition table format for disks larger than 2 TB. • For very large volumes, use ReFS.
• Do not use FAT or FAT32 on Windows Server operating system disks.
• Use the Storage Spaces feature to have the Windows operating system manage your disks.
Review Question(s)
Question: Your current volume runs out of disk space. You have another disk available in the same server.
What actions in the Windows operating system can you perform to help you add disk space?
Answer: Your answers can include converting the disk to a dynamic disk and extending the
volume with the second disk. You can also use the second disk as a mount point to move some large files and re-assign their path. You could also use links to move large files to the new volume, and then create a link from their original location.
Question: What are the two disk types in Disk Management? Answer: The two types of disks are basic and dynamic. Question: What are the most important implementations of RAID?
Answer: The most important implementations of RAID are:
o RAID 1: Mirrored set without parity or striping. o RAID 5: Striped set with parity.
o RAID 6: Striped set with dual distributed parity. o RAID 1+0: Mirrored drives configured as a strip set.
Question: You attach five 2 TB disks to your Windows Server 2012 computer. You want to simplify the
process of managing the disks, and if one disk fails, you want to make sure the data is not lost. What feature can you implement to accomplish this?
Answer: You can implement the Storage Spaces feature, create a storage pool with all five disks,
and then create a virtual disk with parity or mirroring to make it highly available. Alternatively, you could create a RAID-5 volume in Disk Management, but this would not manage the disks automatically.
Tools
Tool Use Where to find it Disk
Management Initialize disks Create and modify volumes In Server Manager on the Tools menu (part of Computer Management)
Diskpart.exe Initialize disks
Create and modify volumes from a command prompt
Tool Use Where to find it Mklink.exe Create a symbolic link to a file or
folder Command prompt
Chkdsk.exe Check a disk for a NTFS-formatted volume
Cannot be used for ReFS or virtual disks
Command prompt
Defrag.exe Disk defragmentation tool for NTFS- formatted volumes.
Cannot be used for ReFS or virtual disks