Chapter Organization and Content

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It all begins with an overview of the subject of server disks and their management in the Introduction. This section talks about the explosion in drive size and overall storage capacity and why that makes it more imperative than ever to take charge of server disks and disk management.

Chapter 1 covers the fundamentals of what a hard disk is and the basic definitions of terms such as cluster, tracks, platters, head, arm, spindle, controller, seek, caching, rotational latency, SCSI, IDE, and more. It includes plenty of charts and diagrams to make things clear. Though some readers will know all of this, some may be surprised to find at least a couple of basics concepts that have so far evaded them. By understanding all the basics, more understanding results. This translates into a greater ability to manage disks throughout the enterprise.

Chapter 2 goes over the various file systems for Windows, including FAT, what it is, and how it works, as well as NTFS and what it is, how it works, and how it compares with FAT. The chapter then discusses how data is arranged in these file systems and the various problems that can arise. I also address special file types such as the Master File Table (MFT).

Chapter 3 gets into an interesting area. Unexpected disk failure is an expensive proposition. It is not simply the cost of the drives themselves, but rather the cost of technical personnel time to replace and reload the disk that should be considered. Add in the user downtime, value of lost information, and, in the case of externally facing applications, lost customers and the amount of damage skyrockets. This chapter investigates the frequency of disk failure, finding it to be a far more common experience than many realize. It also discusses one of the most common measures of disk failures — MTBF — and debunks the myth that today's high MTBF ratings equate to disks that will last for half a century. Finally, it gives some tips, strategies, and tools that can be used to guard against disk failure.

Chapter 4 investigates the basic principles of disk management, including the difference between basic and dynamic disks, the difference between the volume types, and the various types of fault-tolerance schemes.

Chapter 5 encompasses the importance of backup. It gives a brief rundown on how backups work, how backups should be organized, the media involved, tools to use to speed backups, etc. The chapter takes a look at strategies for doing backups and restoring the data as needed and goes into depth regarding the backup functions that are preinstalled with Windows, as well as the use of third-party software, mirroring, and off-site replication. The chapter also addresses the special needs of backing up Linux in heterogeneous environments.

Chapter 6 explains the importance of disaster recovery planning (DRP) and how this ties into responsible disk management. DRP actually goes way beyond RAID and backup, and this point must be thoroughly grasped. Further, the chapter covers a subset of DRP, known as the contingency plan (CP), which addresses non-catastrophic failures due to accidental deletions, disk failures, and other potential data loss scenarios. By creating and implementing a CP, organizations are more able to eliminate significant amounts of data loss smoothly and relatively effortlessly.

Chapter 7 covers a tool — defragmentation — vital to keeping systems stable, improving disk performance, and maintaining them properly. It investigates what fragmentation is, the impact it has, safety considerations with regard to it, and the best ways to defragment networks. It also discusses manual defragmenters (such as the one built into Windows 2000), comparing them with third party products and showing benchmarks of their performance.

Chapter 8 explains the subject of disk optimization, which is said to reduce the time it takes to recover data from disks via intelligent placement of files in order to minimize head movement. But, how effective is disk optimization in the real world? Some say it produces great gain, but I am not so sure. For the average consumer on a low-end PC, optimization appears to produce some benefit. Where it may fall short, however, is in the enterprise. This chapter explains why.

Chapter 9 is all about another aspect of disk management that receives little attention in computer texts — disk quotas. Even though disk space seems to be nearly infinite (i.e., the amount of disk space and the sizes of disks seem to be getting bigger and bigger), the fact is that disk quotas are more important than ever. Pay no attention to disk quotas and in a short time your enterprise will be chock full of MP3s and other miscellany, and users will be screaming for more space.

Chapter 10 is all about the amount of hidden data that exists on disks and in documents. The area of computer forensics (recovering data from computers for use as evidence in a court of law) has grown in recent years. This chapter explains some of the basics of computer forensics, some of the main sources of hidden data, ways to retrieve it, and methods to get rid of it.

Chapter 11 covers changes being made by Microsoft and some of its partners that will make disk management in general much easier, particularly with regard to the management of storage assets. In particular, the chapter focuses on shadow sets and storage virtualization for Windows-based servers.

Chapter 12 addresses the trend toward consolidating multiple commodity servers into fewer large Windows boxes. It includes a discussion of scaling out the number of servers versus scaling up, which strategy to employ when, and the value of each approach. It also covers the ways to consolidate Windows-based servers, the hardware and software available, and the disk management advantages that can be realized; for example, instead of managing thousands of small disks, it is possible to streamline server operations into a few dozen large disks.

Chapter 13 begins with a brief discussion of the early days of Windows, then gets into Microsoft's first foray into server systems — Windows NT. Within a year or two, NT will begin to disappear as the vendor no longer supports it. Windows 2000 already dominates the Windows server landscape, and that domination will last another couple of years. So, lengthy coverage of Windows 2000 was essential to this book. This chapter goes into the basics of the Windows 2000 Server operating system, its various flavors (such as Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server), and some basics on the Active Directory. Without an understanding of the Active Directory, your disk management skills are not going to get you very far on Windows 2000.

Chapter 14 is all about the main Windows desktop system of today — XP. Why have a chapter on XP if this book is more about server systems and server disks? Quite simply, it is impossible to talk about disk management without also getting into the desktop side of the equation. System administrators dealing with server disks must know all about XP and XP disk management, as they are going to encounter a lot of machines running the XP operating system. This chapter covers the essentials of the XP operating system, what is new, what is good about it and not so good, and how to manage it.

Chapter 15 covers upcoming developments. By the time you read this text, many of the items covered will already be in general release. Windows Server 2003 promises to add significantly to the gains made by Windows 2000 and certainly offers greater disk management capabilities than ever before. 64-bit computing will take a few years to become commonplace, but eventually 32-bit systems will become a thing of the past, as 16-bit systems are today. The chapter also investigates where Microsoft is going over the next few years in terms of server and desktop operating systems.

Chapter 16 covers an essential area of disk management that is given scant attention — asset management. Many organizations today have tens of thousands of hard drives and hundreds of applications running, yet they have no idea what machine runs what type of disk, what software is where, what version is running, or how all of this ties in to current licensing purchases. This subject, then, is not only an essential element of disk management, but it is also a vital organization basic when it comes to protecting an enterprise against attack from policing agencies that are increasingly on the prowl. Just last year, the Business Software Alliance levied big fines amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

Chapter 17 covers the ins and outs of distributing software in heterogeneous environments. Software deployment, or the lack of it, is actually one of the biggest sources of weakness in today's networks. A threat emerges and a patch comes out, but only a small percentage of companies actually distribute the patch in a timely fashion. This chapter, then, covers the threat and the steps that must be taken to avert it.

Chapter 18 asks such questions as: How prepared are you to meet the disk needs of the future in order to keep up with storage demands? Where exactly is the industry going and how big can disks get? Will disks be around forever? This chapter investigates what is on the disk management horizon and perhaps just beyond.



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Server Disk Management in a Windows Enviornment
Server Disk Management in a Windows Enviornment
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 197

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