Creating Software RAID author under Windows server2003: SEOUL issued Time: 2004.07.20 I. Overview
Everyone knows that the hardware RAID solution is fast, stable, and can effectively provide high level hard disk availability and redundancy, but the price is not a fear. Fortunately, Windows 2003 provides embedded software RAID capabilities, and soft RAID can implement RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5. Soft RAID is not only very convenient, but also saves valuable funds, indeed a very practical new feature of Windows 2003 Server. RAID-5 volumes are fault tolerance that data and parity interrupts distributed in three or more physical disks. If a part of the physical disk fails, we can use the rest of the data and parity to recreate the data on the part of the failed disk. The RAID-5 volume is a good solution for data redundancy in a computer environment composed of read data. Hardware or software-based solutions can be used to create RAID-5 volumes. By hardware-based RAID, the intelligent disk controller processs the creation and regeneration of redundant information on the disk of the RAID-5 volume. The Windows Server 2003 family operating system provides software-based RAID, where the creation and regeneration of information on the disk in the RAID-5 volume will be processed by "Disk Management", and the data will be across all members in the disk array. Store. Of course, the performance and efficiency of soft RAID cannot be compared with hard RAID. Below we first talk from the creation of dynamic disks, then explain how to implement soft RAID in Windows 2003 Server, and finally tell the management of soft RAID.
Second, create a dynamic disk
When you install Windows 2003 Server, the hard disk will automatically initialize the basic disk. We cannot create new volume sets, stripes, or RAID-5 groups in the basic disk partition, and can only create similar disk configurations on dynamic disks. That is, if you want to create RAID-0, RAID-1 or RAID-5 volumes, dynamic disks must be used. After the Windows 2003 Server installation is complete, you can use the Upgrade Wizard to convert them to a dynamic disk.
After converting a disk from the basic disk into a dynamic disk, the disk contains a volume, not the disk partition. Each of which is a logical part on a hard drive, and can also specify a drive letter or hook for each volume. But to note that only volumes can be created on dynamic disks. Dynamic disks have the following features of the basic disk:
Volumes can be extended to spaces that contain non-contiguous, which can be on any available disks.
There is no limit to the number of volumes that can be created on each disk.
Windows2003 stores dynamic disk configuration information on disk instead of being stored in the registry or in other locations. At the same time, this information cannot be updated accurately. Windows
2003 Copy these disk configuration information into all other dynamic disks. Therefore, the damage of a single disk will not affect the data accessed on other disks.
A hard disk can be either a basic disk or a dynamic disk, but it cannot be combined because multiple storage types are not combined on the same disk. But if the computer
With multiple hard drives, each hard disk can be configured to be substantially or dynamically.
1. Upgrade from the basic disk to the dynamic disk:
1 Click "Start" -> "All Programs ->" Administrative Tools "-> Computer Management option to display the Computer Management window.
2 Expand the "Storage" -> Disk Management option in the left console to display all disks installed in your computer. 3 Right-click the hard disk you want to set to a dynamic disk and select the Upgrade to Dynamic Disk option in the pop-up shortcut menu, which will display the Upgrade to Dynamic Disk dialog.
4 Select the disk to be upgraded, then click "OK": button, will display the "To Upgrade" dialog, which requires the user to confirm the hard disk to be upgraded to dynamic disks.
This is very simple because this upgrade operation is not reversible. That is, the basic disk can be upgraded to a dynamic disk, but the dynamic disk cannot be recovered to a basic disk.
5 Click the "Upgrade" button to display the Disk Management prompt box, the system requires the user to confirm the disk upgrade. When the disk is upgraded to a dynamic disk, Windows98 is WINDOWS98
/ ME and other operating systems will not be able to boot from the disk.
6 Click the "Yes" button to display the Upgrade Disk Warning box. Here you prompt the file system to upgrade the disk will be forced to remove and ask the user to further confirm the operation.
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7 Click the "Yes" button to start the upgrade process of the disk. When the upgrade is complete, the Confirm warning box will be displayed, click the "OK" button to restart the computer to complete
The upgrade process of the disk.
When upgrading to a dynamic disk, you should pay attention to the following aspects:
This process must be completed as an administrator or a member of the management group. If a computer is connected to a network, the network policy settings may also block us from complete this step.
After upgrading the basic disk to a dynamic disk, you will never change the dynamic volume back to the basic partition. At this time, the only way is to delete all dynamic volumes on the disk, and then use "
Originally the basic disk "command.
Before upgrading the disk, you should turn off the program running on those disks.
To ensure that the upgrade is successful, any disk to be upgraded must contain at least 1MB unallocated space. When you create a partition or volume on a disk, the Disk Management Tool will automatically retain this space, but there is no space on the disk with other operating systems created by other operating systems.
The sector is over 512 bytes of disk, which cannot be upgraded from the basic disk to a dynamic disk.
Once the upgrade is complete, the dynamic disk cannot contain partition or logical drives, and cannot be accessed by other operating systems of non-Windows 2003.
2, set new disk to dynamic disk
1 After the computer is installed, the Write Signature and Upgrade Disk Wizard window will be automatically run when the "Disk Management" tool in Computer Management is accessed for the first time.
2 Click the "Next" button, the "Select the Disk" page to be written, select the disk you want to write to the signed disk in this list. It should be noted that the disk must be signed before installing it to the system.
3 Click the "Next" button to display the "Select the Disk" page to upgrade, select the disk to upgrade to a dynamic disk.
4 Click the "Next" button to display the "Complete Write Signature and Upgrade Disk Wizard" page, you ask for confirmation and upgrade the disk. If you have anything else, click the "Previous" button to return and re-set.
5 Click the "Complete" button, the dynamic disk upgrade process is complete.
Third, implement soft RAID
Soft RAID must also be implemented in a multi-disk system. Implementing RAID-1 minimal to have two hard drives, and implement RAID-5 at least three hard drives. Normally, the disk where the operating system is located, and the disk where the data is located is RAID-5.
1. Type of volume
1 simple volume
The simple volume consists of disk space on a single physical disk, which can consist of a single area on a disk or a plurality of regions that are linked together on the same disk. You can extend simple volumes in the same disk or extend simple volumes to other disks. If the simple volume across multiple disks, the volume is a cross-zone volume.
You can only create simple volumes on dynamic disks. Simple volumes cannot contain partitions or logical drives, and cannot be accessed by other Windows operating systems other than MS-DOS or Windows 2003. If the computer in the network is still running Windows98 or earlier, you should create a partition instead of a dynamic volume. If you want to add its capacity after creating a simple volume, you can extend this volume through the remaining unallocated space on the disk. To extend a simple volume, the volume must be formatted using the NTFS version used in Windows 2003. At the same time, it is not possible to extend the basic disks as a simple volume of the previous partition. Simple volumes can also be extended to the area of other disks of the same computer. When a simple volume is extended to one or more other disks, it will become a cross-zone volume. After expanding the cross-regional volume, the entire cross-zone can't be deleted cannot be removed any part of it. It should be noted that the cross-zone volume cannot be a mirror volume or a zone volume.
2 strip
With strip rolls, you can make a volume group of two or more disk (up to 32-piece hard drives) into a volume. When writing data from the strip volume, the data is divided into 64KB blocks and is balanced on all disks in the array. An array is a collection of two or more disks. The strip roll can effectively improve the reading performance of the disk, but it does not provide fault tolerance, and the damage of any hard disk will result in the loss of all data. The strip volume is similar to RAID-0.
3 cross-roll
Using the span volume, you can also become a volume from two or more disks (up to 32 pieces of hard drives). Unlike the strip volume, write data into a cross
When it is, first filled the empty part on the first disk, then write the data into the next disk, and push it according to the class. Although the volume of the volume can be quickly increased using the span volume,
Volumes cannot improve read performance on disk data, nor does it provide any fault tolerance. When a disk across a volume fails, all the data stored on the disk is all lost.
4 mirror volume
With the mirror volume, the RAID-1 volume, the same data of the user can be simultaneously copied to two physical disks. If one of the physical disks fails, although the data on the disk will not be used, the system can continue to use the read and write operation of data that has not yet damaged and continued normal operation, so that complete redundancy is retained on another disk. A copy of the copy, protecting data from the disk from the influence of media failure. It can be seen that the disk space utilization rate of the mirror volume is only 50% (ie each set of data has two members), so the cost of the mirror volume is relatively high. To create a mirror volume, you must use the available space on another disk. An existing volume (even system volumes and boot volumes) in dynamic disks can use the same or different controller mirror to another volume of the same or larger on other disks. It is best to use the same disk as a mirror volume to avoid possible compatibility errors in size, model, and manufacturing manufacturers to avoid possible compatibility errors.
The mirror volume can greatly enhance read performance because the fault-tolerant driver simultaneously reads data from two disk members, so the speed of reading data will increase. Of course, because the fault-tolerant driver must write data to the two members, it is slightly reduced. The mirror volume can contain any partition (including starting partitions or system partitions), but two hard drives in the mirror volume must be a Windows 2003 dynamic disk.
5Raid-5 volumes
In the RAID-5 volume, Windows 2003 implements fault tolerance by adding parity information bands to each hard disk partition of the volume. If a hard disk fails, Windows 2003 can rebuild data on the failed hard disk with data and parity information on the rest of the hard disk.
Since the parity information is to be calculated, the write operation on the RAID-5 volume is slower than the write operation on the mirror volume. However, RAID-5 volumes provide better read performance than mirroring volumes. The reason is very simple, and Windows 2003 can read data simultaneously from multiple disks. The RAID-5 volume is relatively high compared to the mirror volume, the more the number of hard drives in the RAID-5 volumes, the lower the cost of the redundant data strip. But there are also some restrictions in RAID-5 volumes. First, RAID-5 volumes require at least 3 hard drives to be implemented, but most can not exceed 32 hard drives; second, RAID-5 volumes cannot include root partition or system partition; RAID-1 volume and RAID-5 volume difference As shown in Table 1 below: 2, implement soft RAID
1 In "Disk Management", right click on the hard disk you want to set up, and select the Create Volume option in the shortcut menu to display the Create Volume Wizard window.
2 Click the "Next" button to display the Select Volume Type page where you want to create the volume you want to create. Typically, in order to protect data security, it should be selected to use RAID-1 or RAID-5 volumes.
3 Click the "Next" button to display the Select Disk page. Select the disk you want to add in the "All Available Dynamic Disk" list box on the left and click the Add button to add it to the RAID-5 volume and display the "Selected Dynamic Disk" list. In the box.
4 After the dynamic disk is added, click the "Next" button to display the Assignment Laptler and Path page. Select the Assignment Drive No. option and assign the drive letter to the RAID-5 volume to facilitate administrative and access.
5 Click the "Next" button to display the "Volume Format" page. Select "Format this volume as described below" option and use the default NTFS file system and allocation unit size. A volume label can be specified for the RAID-5 volume for distinguish between other rolls.
6 Click the "Next" button to display the Finish Create Volume Wizard page, and the creation of the volume is complete.
7 Click the "Finish" button to automatically format the newly created volume. At this point, the RAID-5 volume has been created.
Fourth, RAID volume management
1, add a mirror volume
For existing dynamic disks, the security of data can be improved simply by adding a mirror volume.
In "Disk Management", right-click the dynamic disk you want to add to the mirror disk and select Add Mirror option in the shortcut menu, and the Add Mirror dialog is displayed. In the disk list, select the dynamic disk to be set to the image, and then click the "Add Mirror" button to this mirroring completion, it is important to note that the disk space added to the image must be greater than or equal to the existing volume.
2, test mirroring system or startup volume
Turn off your computer, then disconnect or close a disk to analog disk failure, use the remaining mirror to restart your computer. Verify that Windows can start correctly, turn off the computer and reconnect the disk and restart your computer. When the startup menu appears, select the image on the disk that remains the connection status. Turn on Computer Management (Local), click Disk Management in the Console Tree, right-click the disk with any volume with "failure", and then click "Reactivate the disk.
3, reactivate RAID-5 disks
If the I / O error is temporary, you can try to reactivate the disk; turn on the computer management (local), click "Disk Management" in the console tree. Right-click on the local failure disk, and then click "Reactivate Disk", the status of the RAID-5 volume should be "regenerated" and then becomes "good". 4, soft RAID recovery
The purpose of disk redundancy is that the system can save the integrity of the data when the disk is faulty. Although failures of a disk member in RAID-1 and RAID-5 do not result in loss of data, other members can continue to run, but if failure cannot be restored in time, the disk volume will no longer have redundant features. Therefore, the failed RAID-1 and RAID-5 must be restored in time.
1) Repair mirror volume and RAID-5 volumes
In "Disk Management", the status of the failure volume will be displayed as "redundancy", one of the disks will be displayed as "offline", "lost" or "online (error)." The mirror volume can be restored by the following operations:
1 Make sure the disk has been connected to the computer and has been powered.
2 In "Disk Management", right-click the disk identified as "offline", "Lost" or "Online (Error)", and then click Reactivate Disk option in the shortcut menu. At this point, the status of the disk should be returned to "good" while the mirror volume should be automatically regenerated.
If the disk is severely damaged or impossible, you will only see the "Delete" command in the shortcut menu that pops up. At this time, Windows 2003 will not be able to fix the mirror volume. Also, if the disk continuously displays "Online (Error)", it is possible to indicate that the disk will fail to fail, and the disk should be replaced as quickly as possible.
2) Replace the disk and create a new mirror volume
If the repair still does not reactivate the mirror disk, or the status of the mirror volume is not restored to the "good" state, the failed disk must be replaced, and a new mirror volume is created.
1 Right-click on the failed volume and select "Delete Mirror" option to display the Delete Mirror dialog.
2 Select the lost disk from the disk list, and then click the "Delete Mirror" button to display the Disk Management warning box to prompt the user to confirm.
3 Click the "Yes" button to delete the mirror volume. Then right-click the lost disk and select "Delete Disk" option in the pop-up shortcut menu to remove the disk.
4 Replace the new disk and set the disk to a dynamic disk.
5 Create a new mirror volume. For the creation of the new mirror volume, see the "Add Mirror Volume".
3) Replace the disk and regenerate the RAID-5 volume
1 Replace the fault disk and set it to a dynamic disk.
2 In "Disk Management", right-click the RAID-5 volume of the failed disk, select the Recovery Volume option in the shortcut menu that pops up, and the "Repair RAID-5 volume" dialog is displayed.
3 Select the disk to replace the failed disk in the RAID-5 volume, and click the "OK" button. At this point, the RAID-5 volume begins to automatically fix.
4 Right-click the failed disk and select "Delete Disk" option in the pop-up shortcut menu and remove the disk from the system.
