Virtual Disk Service

In previous versions of Windows, the operating system had to have special drivers for disk virtualization. Otherwise, it may see storage on a SAN or NAS device that it might not own and consequently try to take over or use the storage when it shouldn't. This created many problems and often required administrators to work closely with third-party disk vendors to implement a storage solution. In Windows Server 2003, the virtual disk service (VDS) provides a management interface that abstracts disk virtualization.

VDS gives administrators more flexibility and control over the disk subsystem. Specifically, external disks used for disk virtualization can be easily managed and maintained just as easily as if the storage were local to the server.

Although VDS is not considered a backup and restore utility, it is a service that administrators have long awaited for backup and recovery purposes. For instance, administrators can more easily allocate and deallocate storage either through a script or the GUI that can be used for storing backup snapshots.

Note

Many organizations are using VDS to create storage volumes for backup snapshots to disk. These snapshots are then backed up to tape during the nightly backup routine. This allows administrators to easily take snapshots periodically during the day to further safeguard data without sacrificing performance or availability.

By default, Windows Server 2003 incorporates basic and dynamic VDS providers, and many VDS providers can be obtained from hardware vendors. These third-party VDS providers supply LUN discovery and management services.