{"id":812,"date":"2012-07-25T22:54:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T22:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2012-07-25T23:43:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T23:43:37","slug":"file-system-planning-for-active-directory-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"File System Planning for Active Directory 101"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you are going to install Active Directory in an organization, it\u2019s  always wise to consider the base operating system install and to verify  that a few important configurations are done in advance. One of the most  important being the planning of the local server file system. Although  commonly not overlooked, it is not commonly understood why it\u2019s so  important to plan for it. In this article we will cover how to verify  your file system configuration and what to do if you need to convert the  file system for the Active Directory installation.<\/p>\n<p>Preparing for Active Directory takes a lot of preplanning and this  article was designed to help you master the file system planning portion  of it before you begin with your deployment.<\/p>\n<h2>Verifying your File System<\/h2>\n<p>When deploying Active Directory,  it\u2019s imperative that you first plan and design the rollout of the base  operating system (OS), also seen as NOS, or Network Operating System.  Active Directory, if planned properly, is pretty much bullet proof, but  if you don\u2019t, then you will have problem after problem \u2013 guaranteed.  Active Directory is very self-healing, but that\u2019s if it\u2019s perfectly set  up. Not deploying the right file system will not only prevent you from  deploying Active Directory in the first place, but also stop you from  using many features that are important to use on a production server. In  this article we look at how to verify your current file system before  deploying Active Directory and what to do if you have to convert it  prior to Active Directory deployment. When planning Active Directory,  the file system of the OS is used to provide security \u2013 you cannot have  security without using a file system that allows for it. You should  consider that the file system is responsible for managing and tracking  all the data on your hard disk, including the Active Directory database.  Why consider the file system? Well, if you don\u2019t then you won\u2019t be able  to install Active Directory, or use a file system that allows you to  use\u00a0other features such as disk quotas, redundancy, encryption, remote  storage and remote file access, to name a few. As you can see, planning  the file system becomes imperative when planning. Planning ahead of time  will ensure your success.<\/p>\n<h2>Windows Server 2003 File Systems<\/h2>\n<p>Windows Server 2003 allows for the deployment of different file systems. The file systems available are FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. <em>WinFS<\/em>,  a new file system name which is either in a possible Longhorn  deployment, of even after that with the next generation of Windows OS.  EFS and DFS are different. File systems available with Windows Server  2003 are:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><strong>File Allocation Table (FAT):<\/strong> Rarely used ever. Used mostly in  cases (older technology and ideas) where you want to put a small  partition on your disk next to NTFS so that you can repair the system or  do whatever in DOS, instead of using the Recovery Console, or other  tools that are better to use. The fundamental difference between FAT and  NTFS partitions is that NTFS allows for file system\u2013level security<\/li>\n<li><strong>File Allocation Table 32 (FAT32):<\/strong> Rarely used on a  Windows Server 2003 system, especially one that is deploying Active  Directory. Support for FAT and FAT32 are mainly included in Windows  Server 2003 for backward compatibility and multiple boot partitions,  especially when using other Windows OS\u2019s such as configuring a single  computer to boot into both Windows 98 SE and Windows Server 2003.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Windows New Technology File System 5 (NTFS 5):<\/strong> not to be  confused with the original Windows New Technology File System (NTFS),  NTFS 5 is more robust and what you want to deploy whenever planning for  Active Directory. Strongly consider using only NTFS partitions on  production server machines! NTFS 5 brings new benefits to Windows Server  systems, including: disk quotas, file system encryption, dynamic  volumes and remote storage capabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>NTFS 5 Features<\/h2>\n<p>Just so you can get an idea of what NTFS 5 will bring you, let\u2019s look at some of the features a little closer.<\/p>\n<p><em>Disk quotas<\/em> are used to restrict the amount of space network  and system user are allows to save to disk. Windows Server 2003 supports  disk quota restrictions at the volume level by default. When deploying  disk quotas, you can restrict the amount of storage space that any user  uses on a single disk volume.<\/p>\n<p>You can also plan for <em>file system encryption<\/em> which allows for  systems administrators to use encryption so that it can prevent data  from being used in case it is stolen or intercepted by an unauthorized  user. The encryption process allows for data to be secured on the  volume\u2026 as long as you have it set up correctly and are using NTFS 5.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dynamic volumes <\/em>are also specific to NTFS 5. Dynamic volumes  are used to help add protection for your Windows Server 2003 system,  especially in the event of a disk failure. Protecting against disk  failures should be a systems administrator\u2019s biggest concern\u2026 if your  disk stops working, you will have to have a way to recover. Disks are  also a lot like light bulbs, they were designed to fail. This is why  there is a MTBF associated with most disks\u2026 a \u2018Mean Time Between  Failure\u2019 is when the disk subsystems have outlived their intended  usefulness. NTFS 5 and dynamic disks help to alleviate the inherent  weaknesses associated with older technology such as NT such as needing  to reboot a system to get a new disk to work once replaced. Windows NT  4.0 supported various levels of Redundant Array of Independent (or  inexpensive) Disks (RAID) technology, but nothing to the level that is  available now with Windows Server 2003.<\/p>\n<p>You can also use the <em>Remote Storage<\/em> features supported by NTFS  5 to automatically off-load rarely used data to tape or other devices  such as a NAS (network attached storage), but the files remain available  to users because they haven\u2019t been removed from the machine \u2013 it\u2019s  seamless. As you can see, NTFS 5 brings a greater level of flexibility,  security, data protection, increased scalability, and increased uptime.<\/p>\n<h2>Planning for Active Directory<\/h2>\n<p>Now that you understand what  you need when deploying a production server, you should now consider  what is needed for deploying Active Directory. Aside from all the great  things that NTFS 5 brings you, we have yet to talk about Active  Directory\u2019s needs. Active Directory absolutely needs NTFS to be  installed, more specifically, Windows Server 2003 and NTFS 5. Why? The  Active Directory database \u2018must\u2019 sit on an NTFS partition. Now \u2013  although we have discussed NTFS 5 and the reason for selecting it, we  have not yet looked at how to verify or install it, if need be. There is  more to talk about before we view, install or convert it\u2026 we still need  to talk about space.<\/p>\n<p>Space on your disks is imperative. You must plan for Active Directory  properly. Besides for using a mandatory NTFS formatted partition, you  must absolutely ensure you have enough disk space as well. To  successfully install AD you must have at least one NTFS formatted  partition, because the NTFS partition is required for the SYSVOL folder.  The Windows Server 2003 System Volume (SYSVOL) is a collection of  folders and reparse points in the file system that exists on each domain  controller (DC) in a domain. SYSVOL provides a standard location to  store data that must be replicated. The File Replication service (FRS)  is used to replicate the SYSVOL data. if the space on your disks does  not allow for future growth of the Active Directory database, you could  see serious problems in this area &#8211; make sure you plan! You need to  ensure that enough space is provided to store SYSVOL.<\/p>\n<p>Make sure you consider capacity. You need to make sure that you have  allocated adequate disk space for Active Directory (specifically SYSVOL)  to function. Make sure that you also consider for future growth\u2026 the  Active Directory Database grows as you add more and more objects to it.  Always consider space as well as performance. If you have too much on a  server, too many services, or if you have too much going on in your disk  I\/O, then you will surely feel it \u2013 make sure that you plan your  performance as well. Also consider that you want a reliable as well as  \u2018fast\u2019 disk(s) in use as well. Although you need at least 250 MB of free  space on the partition you plan to install AD on, you would be insane  to only plan for that amount \u2013 1-2 GB minimum and hopefully if you plan  with the management teams in your organization \u2013 you may find that  Active Directory may grow exponentially year after year \u2013 that means you  want to ensure that your DC\u2019s have plenty of disk space to handle the  future growth.<\/p>\n<h2>Modify a Disk<\/h2>\n<p>Up to now, you should now understand why its  imperative to plan out your file system for Active Directory. In this  section of the article we will cover how to verify your current file  system and what to do if you need to covert it for Active Directory  preparation. To convert a partition to NTFS you will need to use the <em>convert<\/em> command. Before we look at how to convert anything, let\u2019s see what we  first have and talk about safety. This exercise will show you how to use  the administrative tools to view and modify disk configuration.<\/p>\n<blockquote dir=\"ltr\"><p><strong>Note<\/strong>:<br \/>\nSafety is important. Before you make any disk  configuration changes, be sure you completely understand their potential  effects, perform the test in a lab environment and make sure you have  good verifiable backups handy because if you attempt this on a  production system without considering\u00a0the impact, you could make a  mistake and extend your day job into the night, quite possibly through  it. Changing partition sizes and adding and removing partitions can  result in a total loss of all information on one or more partitions so  be careful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To view your current disk configuration, you will want to use the  Computer Management MMC (Microsoft Management Console). This can be  found in the Administrative Tools folder either in the Control Panel or  in the Start Menu.<\/p>\n<p>To view the disk configuration, do the following.<\/p>\n<ol type=\"1\">\n<li>Open the Computer Management MMC in the Administrative Tools program group.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote dir=\"ltr\"><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.windowsnetworking.com\/img\/upl\/image0031127116851292.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"0\" align=\"bottom\" \/><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ol type=\"1\">\n<li>Under the Storage branch in the navigation pane, click Disk Management.<\/li>\n<li>Now you have opened the Disk Management program which shows you  the logical and physical disks that are currently configured on your  system, you can see the size of your partitions, if they are formatted  with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS and so on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Windows Server 2003 allows you to convert existing FAT or FAT32  partitions to NTFS and this is actually pretty easy to do, but can be  very destructive if done without care. Converting a disk to NTFS is also  a one way ticket, a one way process, that cannot be reversed. You  cannot convert a NTFS partition to any other file system without losing  data so you must ensure that you have verifiable backups of your data so  that you can redeloy it on your systems. If you want to convert an  existing partition from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, you\u2019ll need to use the <em>convert<\/em> command-line utility. The following command seen here (in the next line) converts the C: partition from FAT to NTFS:<\/p>\n<blockquote dir=\"ltr\"><p>convert X: \/fs:ntfs<\/p>\n<p>(Where <strong>X<\/strong> is the letter of the drive you want to covert \u2013 such as <strong>C<\/strong>, or <strong>D<\/strong>, etc)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you are dual booting, you will want\u00a0to make sure that you think  about that before you convert, you may not be able to access other  partitions if dual booting and making a conversion. You also need to  make sure that if any system files on your server are part of the  conversion process, (such as the Windows paging file), then you will  absolutely need to reboot your server for it to take place. If the  server is running, it will not hand over control so that they can be  converted \u2013 it will take a reboot to make it happen. Once you reboot (if  you need to), then you can now run <em>dcpromo<\/em> and begin the Active  Directory installation process \u2013 only because the file system is  verified. There are other things you must also plan for (such as DNS)  which will be covered in future articles.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Planning for Active Directory is not easy, but if you plan over time and  properly design and plan the deployment, you will see that it will go  seamless. In this article we covered Windows Server 2003 File Systems to  include NTFS 5, what is necessary for planning Active Directory and how  to plan your File System to allow for the installation of Active  Directory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you are going to install Active Directory in an organization, it\u2019s always wise to consider the base operating system install and to verify that a few important configurations are done in advance. One of the most important being the planning of the local server file system. Although commonly not overlooked, it is not commonly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ad","category-general-2003-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsoftgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}