The Best Damn Windows Server 2003 Book Period- P21 ppsx

Understanding and Using Remote Storage Windows Server 2003’s Remote Storage provides fast access to data stored on disks and archival capabilities for data that isn’t frequently used, an

■ Using Hardware RAID

■ Use hardware RAID whenever possible because it offers the best performance

■ Try to use identical hardware for all your servers.This makes it easier to recover if you have a disaster

■ Always keep spare disks on hand When you lose one drive (with most RAID levels), you no longer have any fault tolerance.You need to be able to replace failed hardware as quickly as possible (This also applies to software RAID)

■ Keep RAID controllers updated with the current firmware revision

■ Always back up your data before updating the firmware on RAID controllers

■ Using Software RAID

■ Use mirrored volumes for the boot and system partitions

■ Use RAID-5 volumes for database disks (e.g., Exchange and SQL servers)

■ Use striped volumes on database servers’ disks that contain transaction logs (e.g., Exchange and SQL servers)

■ Use striped volumes for disks that are used for printer spooling

Understanding and Using Remote Storage

Windows Server 2003’s Remote Storage provides fast access to data stored on disks and archival capabilities for data that isn’t frequently used, and best of all, it handles switching between the two It automates the archival process and makes accessing archived data easy for the end user With

Remote Storage the server backs up seldom-used files for you automatically, and then automatically restores them when you attempt to access them

What is Remote Storage?

Remote Storage provides a means of extending the disk space on your servers without having to buy more hard disks Instead, you use a tape or a magneto-optical (MO) disk library to archive less-frequently used files It costs significantly less per megabyte to buy a library full of tapes compared

to equivalent storage space on hard disks

After it is set up, Remote Storage runs on autopilot.You tell Remote Storage which volume(s)

to manage and you specify how much free space you want to remain available on your managed volume; when the amount of free space drops below that level, Remote Storage kicks in and moves

enough files to the media library to bring the disk back within your predefined parameters A

man-aged volume refers to a disk volume in Windows whose files are monitored and manman-aged by Remote

Storage

One big advantage of Remote Storage is that all the files on the server look the same to the end user When a user needs to open a file, he simply double-clicks it If the file has not yet been moved to tape, it is opened immediately If the file has been moved to tape, Remote Storage

retrieves it from storage and puts a copy on the local disk (a cached copy) Users might notice a

delay while this takes place, but they do not have to take any extra steps to retrieve the file After the file is cached, it will be automatically opened for the user

Storage Levels

Remote storage has two defined storage levels.The levels exist in a hierarchical structure:

■ Local storage is the top level It contains the NTFS disks of the computer that is running Remote Storage

■ Remote storage is the bottom level.This is the library that is connected to the server run-ning Remote Storage

Remote Storage keeps as much information as possible in the top level for faster access Only when this level is reaching its storage limit is the data moved to the bottom level

Relationship of Remote Storage and Removable Storage

Removable Storage is a feature of Windows Server 2003 that enables multiple programs to share the

same storage media It organizes all your available media into separate media pools Microsoft defines

a media pool as a logical collection of removable media that share the same management policies

Applications use media pools to control access to specific media within the library Removable Storage requires that all data-management programs run on the computer connected to the library

In other words, Removable Storage provides a standard way for applications to access a media library By having all applications access the library through Remote Storage, Microsoft has provided

a level of compatibility between applications, including Remote Storage Remote Storage uses Removable Storage to access the media stored in the library

Media Pools

Media pools contain either media or other media pools Using the capability to nest media pools inside each other enables you to create a hierarchical media pool structure for Removable Storage.You can group media pools together and manage them as a single unit Media pools can span multiple libraries.There are two main types of media pools: system media pools and application media pools

System media pools hold media not currently being used by an application Removable Storage creates one of each of the following system media pools (as shown in Figure 5.85) for each media type in your system:

■ Free media pools These pools hold media not currently in use by applications.This media is readily available for use

■ Unrecognized media pools Blank media and media not recognized by Removable Storage go into the unrecognized media pool and are unusable until they are moved into a free media pool

■ Import media pools These pools are recognized by Removable Storage, but they have not been used by Remote Storage before After they have been catalogued they can be used

Application media pools contain media created and controlled by applications For example, Backup and Remote Storage use application media pools for storage Application media pools dic-tate which media can be accessed by any given application An application can use more multiple media pools, and more than one application can use a single media pool

Setting Up Remote Storage

Remote Storage is not installed by default.You add it via the Add or Remove Programs applet

in Control Panel Before starting the installation, you must verify that enough tapes or disks have been moved to a free media pool in Removable Storage to hold all the files you wish to move to Remote Storage and that the local disks being managed are running Windows 2000’s or Windows Server 2003’s versions of NTFS (NTFS version 5) If you want compression and indexing on local disks, enable these before starting setup.You must be logged on with administrative rights to install Remote Storage.You cannot install Remote Storage into a clustered environment Remote Storage will not fail over Also, Remote Storage will not work with shared cluster disks but it will work with local disks that are not shared

Use the following steps to install and configure Remote Storage

Installing Remote Storage

1 Open Control Panel by clicking Start | Control Panel.This will display a screen similar

to that shown in Figure 5.86

2 Double-click Add or Remove Programs.This will display the screen shown in Figure

5.87

Figure 5.85 Understanding How Media Pools Work Together

Unrecognized Media Pool

Import Media Pool

Free Media Pool

Application Media Pool

New Media

Return to Free Pool Get From

Free Pool

3 From the Add or Remove Programs window, click Add/Remove Windows Components.You should see a “Please wait…” message, as shown in Figure 5.88

4 You will next be presented with the Windows Components Wizard, as shown in

Figure 5.89

Figure 5.86 Opening Control Panel

Figure 5.87 Using Add or Remove Programs

Figure 5.88 Waiting on Windows Setup

5 Scroll down and click the check box next to Remote Storage.

6 Click Next to continue.

7 Windows will now configure the newly installed components, as shown in Figure 5.90

8 Next you will see the Completing the Windows Components Wizard, as shown in Figure 5.91 Click Finish to close the wizard.

Figure 5.89 Adding Windows Components

Figure 5.90 Waiting While Windows Configures Components

Configuring Remote Storage

1 Open the Remote Storage MMC by clicking Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools | Remote Storage

2 Because this is the first time you have opened the Remote Storage MMC, the Remote

Storage Setup Wizard will automatically start, as shown in Figure 5.92 Click Next to

continue

3 You will next be asked which volumes you want Remote Storage to manage, as shown in

Figure 5.93 For this example, we select the C drive Select the disk(s) that you want to manage and click Next to continue.

Figure 5.91 Completing the Components Wizard

Figure 5.92 Running the Remote Storage Setup Wizard

4 Set the criteria for managing free space on the volume with the Volume Settings dialog box shown in Figure 5.94 Click Next to continue.

5 You will next be asked to choose which media type to use, as shown in Figure 5.95 For

this example, select Removable media and click Next to continue.

Figure 5.93 Selecting the Volumes to be Managed

Figure 5.94 Managing Free Space on Your Volumes

Figure 5.95 Selecting a Media Type

6 The last item to configure is the schedule for copying files, as shown in Figure 5.96.To

accept the defaults, click Next and skip to step 9 To customize the schedule, click the Change Schedule button.This will display the Schedule window shown in Figure 5.97.

7 Set the schedule to copy files at a time that is least busy in your environment and click

OK

8 You will be returned to the screen shown in Figure 5.96 Click Next to continue.

9 On the Completing the Remote Storage Setup Wizard screen (5.98), review the set-tings to make sure they are correct, and then click Finish to complete the configuration

of Remote Storage

Figure 5.96 Verifying the Schedule for Copying Files

Figure 5.97 Customizing the Schedule for Copying Files

Using Remote Storage

Now that you have installed and configured Remote Storage, you need to know how to administer

it Like Microsoft’s other administrative tools, Remote Storage is managed through an MMC snap-in.The Remote Storage MMC has two panes: the console pane on the left is used to navigate the various components of Remote Storage and the details pane on the right displays specifics of whichever component is selected in the left console pane

The Remote Storage MMC (see Figure 5.99) that is accessed from the Administrative Tools

menu also contains the snap-ins for Removable Storage and Event Viewer However, Remote

Storage itself has only two containers to manage: the Managed Volumes container and the Media

container We previously discussed storage levels within Remote Storage We said the top level was

for local storage and the bottom level was for remote storage.The Managed Volumes container is the top level of storage and is used for managing local storage.The Media container is the bottom

level and is used for managing remote storage

The Managed Volumes container is used to perform the following tasks:

■ Set the desired free space

■ Specify file-selection criteria and rules

■ Change the file-copy schedule

■ Set the maximum number of drives to access simultaneously

■ Set the runaway recall limit

■ Validate files

■ Discontinue volume management

■ Modify files on managed volumes

Figure 5.98 Completing the Remote Storage Setup Wizard

The Media container is used to perform the following tasks:

■ Create media copies

■ Synchronize media copies

■ Recreate the media master

Setting the Desired Free Space

You can configure how much free space you want available on your managed volume If the volume falls below your specified threshold, then Remote Storage deletes cached files until the volume is back within acceptable limits.You can also tell Remote Storage to delete all cached files from the volume to create a large amount of available free space

Specifying File-Selection Criteria and Rules

You tell Remote Storage which files to manage on your volume.You set criteria that must be met

in order for the file to be copied to remote storage After the criteria have been met, the files are copied Minimum files size and elapsed time since last use are the common criteria used by Remote Storage

In addition to using criteria to control which files get copied to Remote Storage, you can also create rules.There are two types of rules, inclusion and exclusion Inclusion rules control which files are copied to Remote Storage and exclusion rules control which files are not copied to Remote Storage Rules are processed in order and the first rule that matches is applied Change the order of your rules to set their priority

Remote Storage has a predefined list of rules available for use.You cannot modify these rules or change their order.You can create your own rules and order them however you see fit By default, all system, hidden, encrypted, extended attribute, and sparse files are excluded from the file rule list

as these files cannot be copied to remote storage

Figure 5.99 Using the Remote Storage MMC