Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Creating virtual disks

Before you can create a virtual disk, you must create at least one storage pool on your file server. Continuing from the procedure that was started in the previous section, file server HOST7 now has a storage pool named Archive Pool that has a capacity of 696 GBs but no virtual disks yet.

Note: When the storage pool named Archive Pool was created in this lesson's example, one of the three physical disks was assigned the Hot Spare role. One might expect, then, that the total capacity of the pool would be displayed as 2 x 232 GBs = 464 GBs, and not as 696 GBs. However, because the Hot Spare disk can be re-allocated as Automatic if needed, the capacity of the pool is displayed as 696 GBs, not 464 GBs.

To create a new virtual disk from a storage pool using Server Manager, perform the following steps:

1. Launch the New Virtual Disk Wizard-for example, by right-clicking on the Archive Pool item.
2. Select the storage pool from which you want to create your new virtual disk. In this example, you are using Archive Pool.
3. Give your new virtual disk a descriptive name, such as "Archive Disk," that identifies the purpose of the new disk.
4. Select the storage layout you want to use for the new virtual disk. Because Archive Pool has more than one physical disk in it, you can choose either Simple, Mirror, or Parity as the storage layout for your new virtual disk. Because the disk in this example will be used to store valuable company information, select Mirror for its storage layout.
5. Select the provisioning type you want to use for the new virtual disk. Because the disk in this example will be used for archival storage of company information that might grow over time, select Thin for the provisioning type.
6. Specify the size of the new virtual disk you are creating. The possible size you can specify depends on the type of provisioning-namely:
   • If you selected Fixed as the provisioning type, you can either select Maximum Size to allow Storage Spaces to create a virtual disk that has the maximum capacity of the storage pool, or you can specify the size in MBs, GBs, or TBs that you want your virtual disk to be. If you specify a size, you have the option of selecting the Create The Largest Virtual Disk Possible, Up To The Specified Size check box, which will limit the size of your new disk if you specify a value too large for the selected storage pool.
   • If you selected Thin as the provisioning type, you only have the option of specifying the size in MBs, GBs, or TBs that you want your virtual disk to be.
   In this example, specify 2 TBs as the maximum size of the new virtual disk. This large value is possible for this server only because you selected Thin as the provisioning type.
7. Complete the remaining steps of the wizard to create the new virtual disk.

Alternatively, you could use Windows PowerShell to create the same virtual disk. Begin by using the New-VirtualDisk cmdlet to create the new virtual disk:

PS C:\> New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "Archive Pool" `
-FriendlyName "Archive Disk" -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -ProvisioningType Thin `
-Size 2TB

FriendlyName  ResiliencySettingName  OperationalStatus  HealthStatus
------------  -------------------    -----------------  ------------
Archive Disk  Mirror 		     OK 		Healthy

IsManualAttach   Size
--------------   ----
False 	         2 TB

Any new virtual disk created this way must then be initialized (brought online) before it can be used. You can use the Get-Disk cmdlet to display more information about the disks (physical and virtual) on the server:

PS C:\> Get-Disk

Number  Friendly Name 			  OperationalStatus
------  ------------- 			  -----------------
0 	ATA ST3250310NS SCSI Disk Device  Online
4 	Microsoft Storage Space Device 	  Offline

Total Size  Partition Style
----------  ---------------
232.83 GB    MBR
2 TB 	     RAW

From the command output just shown, you can see that the number of the new virtual disk is 4. You will use this information with the Initialize-Disk cmdlet as follows:

PS C:\> Initialize-Disk -Number 4

By default, the Initialize-Disk cmdlet creates a GUID Partition Table (GPT) type of disk:

PS C:\> Get-Disk -Number 4

Number   Friendly Name 			  OperationalStatus
------   ------------- 			  -----------------
4        Microsoft Storage Space Device   Online

Total Size  Partition Style
----------  ---------------
2 TB 	     GPT

If you want to, you can use the -PartitionStyle parameter of the Initialize-Disk cmdlet to create virtual disks of the Master Boot Record (MBR) type; however, for virtual disks larger than 2 TBs in size, the GPT type must be used.