This chapter examines Windows Server 2003 disk management, backup and restore technologies, and disaster recovery, which are all important system administrator functions. Failure to develop and enforce programs that implement them can result in significant damage to an IT organization. This is preventive medicine. Disk management, data restoration, and disaster recovery become important when the unexpected occurs. Unfortunately, this area of administration is often treated as an afterthought, although it should always be regarded as a primary activity.
Upon completion of this chapter, you should have knowledge of the following topics:
Disk management, management tools, and storage types
Striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes
Disk fragmentation
Storage libraries
Backup and restore policies and methods
Disaster recovery
volume shadow copy of a storage volume is a copy of the original entity recorded at some point in time. Although the volume shadow copy appears static, it actually involves a dynamic process that is regularly changing. This feature supports volume shadow copies for Windows NT File System (NTFS) and file allocation table (FAT) file systems. Key components of the volume shadow copy technology include:
An API that uses the Common Object Model (COM) infrastructure for registration and configuration
COM-based "coordinator" service that provides a snapshot process and performs discovery of applications and snapshot providers
Storage filter driver for volume shadow copy technology using a copy-on-write design
Interfaces for applications and stores assuring a consistent state