Scenario
A. Datum has just procured a new server, and it is your job to add storage to the new infrastructure. You will add disks of various sizes by using different methodologies.
Objectives
After completing this lab, you will be able to:
• Create and mount a VHD drive.
• Create and make available new volumes.
• Change the sizes of the volumes.
• Create a fault-tolerant disk configuration using Storage Spaces Lab Setup
Estimated Time: 50 minutes
Virtual Machines: 10967A-LON-DC1, 10967A-LON-SVR1 User Name: ADATUM\Administrator
Password: Pa$$w0rd
For this lab, you will use the available virtual machine environment. Before you begin the lab, you must follow these steps:
1. On the host computer, click the Hyper-V Manager icon on the bottom toolbar.
2. In Hyper-V Manager, click 10967A-LON-DC1, and in the Actions pane, click Start.
3. In the Actions pane, click Connect. Wait until the virtual machine starts.
4. Log on using the following credentials:
o User name: Administrator o Password: Pa$$w0rd o Domain: ADATUM
5. Repeat the previous steps for 10967A-LON-SVR1
Exercise 1: Creating and Mounting a VHD File
Scenario
A. Datum wants to use Hyper-V for disk management. You are asked create and mount a VHD file.
Windows PowerShell should be used to verify the newly created disk drive.
The main tasks for this exercise are as follows:
1. Create and initialize a virtual hard disk
2. Use Windows PowerShell to identify the newly created disk, bring the disk online and initialize it
Task 1: Create and initialize a virtual hard disk
1. Ensure you are signed on to 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine with user name ADATUM\Administrator and password Pa$$w0rd.
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2. In Disk Management, create a new .vhd file with the following configuration:
• Location and filename: C:\Temp\LON-SVR1-Disk7
• Virtual hard disk size: 7 GB
• Virtual hard disk format: VHD
• Virtual hard disk type: Dynamically expanding
Task 2: Use Windows PowerShell to identify the newly created disk, bring the disk online and initialize it
1. Open the Windows PowerShell console.
2. Use the Get-Disk cmdlet to list all disks present on the Windows Server 2012 server and Identify the disk that has just been created.
3. Use the Set-Disk cmdlet with the” –number” and “–isOffline” parameters to bring the .vhd file online.
4. Find a Windows PowerShell command that can initialize the newly created disk.
5. Use the newly discovered cmdlet with the parameters ”–number” and “–PartitionStyle” to initialize the disk with a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition style.
Results: After this exercise, you should have a Hyper-V® .vhd file.
Exercise 2: Creating and Making Available New Volumes
Scenario
You are asked to create a 2 GB NTFS volume and 10 GB ReFS volume shared drives. The drives will use the letters J and K respectively.
The main tasks for this exercise are as follows:
1. Create two new simple volumes 2. Change the new disks drive letters 3. Mount the new volume
Task 1: Create two new simple volumes
1. Ensure you are signed on to 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine with user name ADATUM\Administrator and password Pa$$w0rd
2. Locate Disk 1,bring it online and initialize it
3. On Disk 1 Create a New Simple Volume with the following details o Simple Volume size in MB: 2000
o Assign the following driver letter: J o FileSystem: NTFS
o Volume Label: SimpleVol_NTFS 4. Format the new volume.
5. Verify the volume is available in File Explorer.
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6. On Disk 2 Create another New Simple Volume with the following details and verify it is created successfully
o Simple Volume size in MB: 10000 o Assign the following driver letter: K o FileSystem: ReFS
o Volume Label: SimpleVol_ReFS
Task 2: Change the new disks drive letters
1. On the 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine in the Disk Management console 2. Assign the NTFS volume the letter R to the Volume SimpleVol1NTFS.
3. Assign the ReFS volume the letter S to the Volume SimpleVol1ReFS.
4. Verify the Volumes have changed Drive letters in File Explorer
Task 3: Mount the new volume
1. On the 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine in the Disk Management console 2. Mount the new SimpleVol_NTFS volume so it is accessible via the file location
C:\MountedVolume_NTFS
3. Mount the new SimpleVol_ReFS volume so it is accessible via the file location C:\MountedVolume_ReFS
4. Verify once mounted they are both accessible as expected.
Results: After this exercise, you should have a 2 GB NTFS volume and a 10 GB ReFS volume
Exercise 3: Vary the Sizes of the NTFS and ReFS Volumes
Scenario
You receive an email from your manager asking you to double the size of the NTFS volume you just created but shrinking the ReFS volume down to half its original configuration size.
The main tasks for this exercise are as follows:
1. Extend the size of the NTFS volume 2. Shrink the size of the ReFS volume
Task 1: Extend the size of the NTFS volume
1. On the 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine in the Disk Management console locate the SimpleVol_NTFS volume.
2. Extend the volume by 4 GBs.
3. Verify the NTFS volume size has increased from 2 GB to 6 GB in size and is still accessible
Task 2: Shrink the size of the ReFS volume
1. On the 10967A-LON-SVR1 virtual machine in the Disk Management console locate the SimpleVol_ReFS volume.
2. Attempt to Shrink the volume to approximately 5 GBs.
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3. Verify that the ReFS volume was unable to be shrunk
Results: You have expanded the NTFS volume to 4 GB in size but have failed to shrink the ReFS volume size as shrinking ReFS volume is not supported. If your manager insists that you have an ReFS drive to the reduced size the volume will need to be re-created.
Exercise 4: Creating a Fault-Tolerant Disk Configuration by Using Storage Spaces
Scenario
You now receive an email from your manager asking you to create a Storage Pool for use with some files shares that will be created.
The main tasks for this exercise are as follows:
1. Create a storage pool
2. Create a storage space virtual disk
3. Verify the virtual disk is available and functional 4. Add an additional physical disk to the storage pool 5. Remove a physical disk to simulate disk failure 6. Verify storage virtual disk state and data accessibility 7. Repair and verify the health of the virtual disk 8. Revert the lab machines
Task 1: Create a storage pool
1. Ensure you are signed in to 10967A-LON-SVR1 and logged on with user name ADATUM\Administrator and password Pa$$w0rd
2. In Server Manager click on File and Storage Services followed by Volumes then Storage Pools 3. Create a Storage Pool with the following settings:
• Name: StoragePool1
• Physical Disks to Add:
• PhysicalDisk3
• PhysicalDisk4
Task 2: Create a storage space virtual disk
1. Create a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk with the following settings:
o Storage Pool: StoragePool1 o Virtual Disk Name: VirtualDisk1 o Storage Layout: Mirror
o Provisioning Type: Thin o Size of the virtual Disk: 4 GB
2. Create a Volume on the Virtual Disk with the following settings:
3. Server: LON-SVR1
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4. Virtual disk: Virtual Disk 1
5. Size of the volume: Default Max available capacity 6. Driver Letter: T
7. File System: NTFS
8. Volume Label: VirtualDiskMirVol
Task 3: Verify the virtual disk is available and functional
• Create a file Test File.txt on the volume VirtualDiskMirVol on driver T:
Task 4: Add an additional physical disk to the storage pool
• Add an additional disk, PhysicalDisk 5 , to the storage Pool
Task 5: Remove a physical disk to simulate disk failure
• In Server Manager in the Storage Pools and then the Physical Disks section remove PhysicalDisk 4
Task 6: Verify storage virtual disk state and data accessibility
1. Open File Explorer and verify the text file, Test File.txt, that was created earlier is still available and accessible.
2. Check the health status of the VirtualDisk1 virtual disk
Task 7: Repair and verify the health of the virtual disk 1. Repair the VirtualDisk1 virtual disk
2. Verify the health of the virtual disk and also that the .txt file created earlier is still available and accessible
Task 8: Revert the lab machines
When you have completed the lab, revert the virtual machines back to their initial state. To do this, follow these steps:
1. On the host computer, start Hyper-V Manager.
2. In the Virtual Machines list, right-click 10967A-LON-DC1, and then click Revert.
3. In the Revert Virtual Machine dialog box, click Revert.
4. Repeat these steps for 10967A-LON-SVR1.
Results: You have created Storage Pool and Virtual Disk and have verified the integrity of the share data in the event of catastrophic hard disk failure by simulating the removal of a disk to represent hard disk failure
Question: What kind of storage is easiest to configure and why?
Question: How would you determine the kind of storage to implement?
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Module Review and Takeaways
Common Issues and Troubleshooting Tips
Common Issue Troubleshooting Tip
Determining the allocation unit when formatting a drive with a file system
General storage configuration issues
Review Question(s)
Question: What are the different kinds of disks?
Question: What are some different storage technologies?
Question: What are the most important implementations of RAID?
Question: What options are available for fault tolerance in Storage Spaces?
Tools
Tool Use for Where to find it
Diskpart Manipulating disks and volumes. Command Prompt
FSUtil Manipulating files and storage
services.
Run fsutil.exe from the command line.
Windows PowerShell Managing and configuring storage and Storage Spaces.
The Storage module is part of the operating system. The Storage Spaces module has to be downloaded.
Disk Manager Manages disks and volumes Server Manager
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