Advanced RISC Computing Path Designation

The Advanced RISC Path specifies the location of information to start an operating system from the hard disk drive. The boot.ini file stores the information about the operating systems installed on hard disk drives. When you install an operating system on a computer, the operating system creates an entry in a file called boot.ini. Windows Server 2003 uses the boot.ini file to locate the boot partition information from the disk.

A sample boot.ini file contents appear.

In the boot.ini file, the word disk specifies the disk to search for boot information. The number in the brackets specifies the number of physical disks installed in the system.
The word partition specifies the partition in which the operating system is installed. In this example,
the boot.ini file specifies that the system must search for
boot information in the second partition of the first disk.
In this case, the operating system is Windows Serve 2003, Enterprise Edition. Therefore, the system will search for Windows Server 2003 boot information from the second partition of the first disk.

You can use the bootcfg command line utility to configure the boot.ini settings.

To view boot entries:

1. Select Start -> Command Prompt. The Command Prompt appears.

2. Enter bootcfg at the command line. The boot settings appear.

To view the boot loader options:

1. Open the command prompt.

2.Enter bootcfg /?. The Boot Loader Options and Explanations appear.

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks Volume (RAID)

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) volume stores data in equal stripes across an array of three or more disks. A RAID volume is fault tolerant. It means that the RAID volume can retain data in the case of power failure. It can also retain data if one of the disks in the array fails.

Mirrored Volumes

Consider a scenario, where you as a system administrator monitor all the critical sales transactions of your organization on the server. The volume and vulnerability of the data is increasing day by day. Keeping in mind the critical and vulnerability of the data, you have requested for an additional hard disk. After adding the fresh hard disk to the server, you want to implement a miqored volume of the data in the additional hard disk, to provide fault tolerance to the server. To create a mirrored volume set you must convert the two basic disks to dynamic disks.

To create a mirrored volume:

1. Open Disk Management.

2. Select one of the disk for which you want to create a striped volume.

3. Select Action All Tasks -> New Volume. The New Volume Wizard appears.

4. Click Next. The Select Volume Type screen appears.

5. Click the Mirrored option.

6. Click Next. The Select Disks screen appears.

7. Click a disk from the Available list.

8. Click Add. The disk is added to the Selected list.

9. Click Next. The Assign Drive Letter or Path screen appears.

1O. Select a drive letter for the volume.

11. Click Next. The Format Volume screen appears.

12. Select NTFS from the tile system drop down box.

13. Select the Perform a quick format check box.

14. Click Next. The Completing the New Volume Wizard screen appears.

15. Click Finish. Windows Server 2003 resynchronizes the disks and creates the mirror.

Striped Volumes

A striped volume utilizes the space of two hard disks. A striped volume can expand the space for 32 disks. The data in a striped volume is divided into blocks, known as stripes. The data is stored simultaneously in two disks and a maximum of 32 hard disks. These hard disks are also known as stripe set. A stripe set is not fault tolerant. Therefore, if one hard disk crashes then you cannot access the data on any of the disks in the volume set. You must convert your basic disks to dynamic disks before you create a striped volume.

create a striped volume:

1. Open Computer Management console. The Computer Management console appears.

2. Expand Storage.

3. Click Disk Management. Disk Management lists the disks.

4. Select one of the disk for which you want to create a striped volume.

5. Select Action > All Tasks > New Volume. The New Volume Wizard appears.

6. Click Next. The Select Volume Type screen appears.

7. Click the Striped option.

8. Click Next. The Select Disks screen appears.

9. Click Disk 0 9099 MB from the Available list.

10. Click Add. The disk is added to the Selected list.

11. Click Next. The Assign Drive Letter or Path screen appears.

12. Select a drive letter for the volume.

13. Click Next. The Format Volume screen appears,

14. Select NTFS from the file system drop down box.

15. Select the Perform a quick format check box.

16. Click Next. The Completing the New Volume Wizard screen appears.

17. Click Finish. Windows Server formats the volume and Disk Management console appears.

Implementing Fault Tolerance

The disks in a RAID configuration enable the disks to work in a synchronized manner. RAID configuration also supports fault tolerance, using which you can recover data in the event of disk failure. Windows Server 2003 supports two methods to implement fault tolerance, such as, mirrored volumes and striped volumes.

Extending Volumes

You create a volume on a disk by converting the disk from basic to dynamic. You can also increase the capacity of the volume by extending the volume. Extending the volume utilizes the unallocated space on the hard disk and adds the unallocated space to an existing volume.

To extend a volume:

1. Open Computer Management. The Computer Management console appears.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select the volume to extend.

4. Select Action > All Tasks > Extend Volume. The Extend Volume Wizard appears.

5. Click Next. The Select Disks screen appears.

6. Specify the amount of space in the Select the amount of space in MB spin box, for example 2055.

7. Click Next. The Completing the Extend Volume Wizard appears.

8. Click Finish. Windows Server 2003 creates a volume with the same volume label that you selected to extend.

Creating a Simple Volume

The Disk Management displays the partitions of the volumes and enables you to create a volume.

To create a new volume:

1. Open Computer Management console.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select the unallocated space in the dynamic disk.

4. Select Action > All Tasks > New Volume. The New Volume Wizard appears.

5. Click Next. The Select Volume Type screen appears.

6. Select the type of the volume.

7. Click Next. The Select Disks screen appears.

The different options on the Select Disks screen are:

> Available - Lists all the disks

> Selected - Lists the selected disks

> Add - includes the disk in the selected list

> Remove - Deletes the selected disk from the list

> Remove All - Deletes all disks from the list

> Maximum available space in MB - Specifies the available disk space

> Select the amount of space in MB - Specifies to select the disk space

8. Specify the amount of space, for example, 4110, in the Select the amount of space in MB spin box.

9. Click Next. The Assign Drive Letter or Path screen appears.

10. Select a drive letter from the Assign the following drive letter drop down box.

11. Click Next. The Format Volume Screen appears.

12. Select a file system, for example, NTFS.

13. Click Next. The Final screen appears.

14. Click Finish. Windows Server 2003 formats, creates the volume and lists in under Disk Management.

Configuring Volumes

Windows Server 2003 identifies the disk space in a dynamic disk as a volume. You can create any number of volumes on a dynamic disk. You must convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk to configure volumes on a hard disk.

To convert a basic into a dynamic disk:

1. Open Computer Management console.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select the disk you want to convert.

4. Select Action > All Tasks > Convert to Dynamic Disk. Windows Server 2003 converts the basic disk a dynamic disk.

Creating and Formattinci Partitions

You must create a partition after installing and initializing the disk. Windows Server 2003 initializes the disk, but does not allocate the space on the disk. You must partition the disk to allocate the space. You must format the partition in order to access it because partitioning only allocates the disk space. Windows Server 2003 supports the FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. You can control disk access by formatting the partition using the NTFS file system. The New Partition wizard creates and formats the partition. You can also manually format the partition using Disk Management.

To create a partition:

1. Open the Computer Management Console.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select the unallocated space of the disk.

4. Select Action > All Tasks > New Partition. The New Partition Wizard appears,

5. Click Next. The Select Partition Type screen appears.

The different options on the Select Partition Type screen are:

> Primary partition - Makes the drive bootable and enables to start an operating system.

> Extended partition - Links the free space in the disk to the primary partition so that you can use the disk

> Logical drive - Divides the extended partition into smaller partitions.

6. Select Primary Partition.

7. Click Next. The Specify Partition Size screen appears.

8. Enter the required partition size Partition size in MB spin box.

9. Click Next. The Assign Drive Letter or Path screen appears.

10. Select a drive letter from the Assign the following drive letter list box.

11. Click Next. The Format Partition screen appears.

The different options on the Format Partition screen are:

> Do not format this partition - Specifies not to format the partition.

> File System - Specifies the file system to apply when formatting the partition.

> Allocation size - Specifies the allocation size for the cluster.

> Volume Label - Specifies a name to identify the partition.

> Perform a quick format - Specifies to execute a quick format.

> Enable file and folder compression - Specifies to compress files and folders to save disk space.

12. Select NTFS from the File System list box.

13. Select Default from the Allocation Size list box.

14. Specify a name in the Volume Label text box.

15. Select the Perform a quick format check box.

16. Click Next. The Completing the New Partition Wizard screen appears.

17. Click Finish. Windows formats the partition and displays the partition under Disk Management.

To format a disk manually:

1. Open Computer Management.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select the partition to format.

4. Select Action > All Tasks > Format. The Format dialog box appears.

5. Specify a name for the partition in the Volume Label text box, for example, New Volume.

6. Select a file system from the File system drop down box, for example, NTFS.

7. Click OK. Windows Server 2003 formats the partition.

Configuring Disks

You can add new disks to the server to increase the storage capacity of the server. To add a new disk drive to the server, you must perform steps, such as installing the disk, initializing the disk, creating and formatting partitions, assign drive letters and mounting and extending volumes.

1. Installing disks

Installing the disk involves the process of physically adding the disk to the server. You must enable Windows Server 2003 to scan and detect the disk. When you install the disk, Windows Server 2003 automatically detects the disk. You can install disks either by switching down the server, then installing the disk or by adding the dis without taking the server offline.

To enable Windows Server 2003 automatically detect disks:

1. Open Computer Management console.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Select Action > Rescan Disks. Windows Server 2003 searches for disks and lists them under Disk management.

2. Initializing Disks

Windows Server 2003 creates a disk signature on the disk when you initialize the disk. The disk signature enables the operating system to allocate space on the disk for partitions and volumes. Windows Server 2003 automatically starts the Initialize Disk Wizard after you install a new disk. You can also manually initialize the disk.

To initialize a disk manually:

1. Select Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. The Computer Management console appears,

2. Click Disk Management. The Disk Management Window appears,

3. Right-click the disk. A shortcut menu appears.

4. Select Initialize Disk. Windows initializes the disk.