• Illustration: File Server Resource Manager

Two new storage management tools will be included in the next release of Windows Server, code-named Windows Server 2003 R2—a minor update due in late 2005. File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) helps system administrators control the amount and types of data that can be stored in various directories, and Storage Manager for SANs (storage area networks) makes it easier for them to configure SAN disk arrays compliant with Windows Server 2003's Virtual Disk Service.

File Server Resource Manager

FSRM is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 snap-in plus several new background services. FSRM allows system administrators to manage disk storage quotas on R2 servers, control what kinds of files are permitted to be stored on them, and generate reports on disk usage. The FSRM management console includes context-sensitive Action panes that guide administrators through various configuration tasks, exploiting a new capability in MMC 3.0 (For an illustration, see "File Server Resource Manager".)

These new features provide useful system administration capabilities that today are only available through add-ons from partners.

Quota Management

Although Windows Server has had a mechanism for controlling and managing disk quotas—configurable limits on file storage—since Windows 2000, this quota mechanism lacked several capabilities. Although it allowed organizations to track and cap per-user file storage for each disk volume (i.e., drive letter), it did not account properly for file compression and did not notify users when they were near their quota: users just received an "insufficient disk space" warning when they exceeded it. Furthermore, since the quotas were tracked based on file ownership, it was not useful for files shared by multiple users.

Although Windows Server 2003 R2 still supports the old quota mechanism, it also has a new one manageable through FSRM. The new quotas track storage on a per-directory basis, including subdirectories, rather than on a per-user basis, and track actual disk space used, thus taking file compression into account. FSRM can be configured to send e-mail notifications to the user who exceeded the quota and to an administrator, and it can even be configured to execute additional commands when a threshold has been crossed.

Administrators can also use FSRM to track directory space usage without imposing hard limits on users.

File Screening Management

New in Windows Server 2003 R2 is its ability to screen the types of files written to its file system (based on their file extension) and to block files that do not meet policy. For example, organizations may not want users clogging a server with large video files or copies of their Outlook mailbox files. As with the new quota feature, the policies are configured within FSRM and are set on a per-directory basis (which can even be the root directory for the entire volume). Screening can be set as active, where Windows blocks writing any file with extensions violating the policy, or passive, where it is used only to track policy violations. As with quota management, it can be configured to send out e-mail notices to violators and administrators and to trigger execution of additional commands.

FSRM comes with preconfigured templates that can be applied to any target directory, and with preconfigured file extension groups, such as image files, compressed files, and executable files. Administrators can even configure directories such that only one class of file extensions can be saved to them, such as Office files. Administrators can edit the built-in templates and extension groups or create new ones.

However, R2's screening mechanism is limited to scanning the file extension only: it does not check that the file content actually matches the extension. This means that users could save a prohibited file type to the server merely by saving it with a permitted extension.

Storage Reports Management

FSRM's Storage Reports Management feature generates reports that help administrators identify trends in disk usage, a capability absent in prior versions of Windows.

Storage Reports Management can periodically generate many useful storage-related reports and e-mail them to administrators in various formats, such as HTML or text. In addition to summarizing the quota and file-screening activity mentioned earlier, administrators can configure the canned reports that ship with FSRM to track other storage-related information, such as file usage by owner, duplicate files, or least recently accessed file.

Storage Manager for SANs

Windows Server 2003 R2 also includes Storage Manager for SANs, an MMC 3.0 snap-in that will make it easier for administrators to configure access to disk volumes on SANs that support the Virtual Disk Service (VDS), a storage management API introduced in Windows Server 2003. VDS gives Microsoft and third-party management applications a standard hardware-independent way to manage any storage device or SAN component that has an associated VDS provider.

One of the difficulties with SANs is that each hardware vendor has traditionally provided a proprietary method for managing storage, making creation of storage-management applications that work uniformly across multiple storage vendors problematic. VDS helps rectify this situation, enabling Microsoft and storage ISVs to provide standard administrative interfaces, such as the Windows Disk Management utility, to perform common storage configuration operations, such as disk formatting, binding or breaking a mirror, or dynamically growing storage volumes when needed as users or applications consume disk space. However, until R2 there was no VDS-compliant console for initially configuring and attaching Windows Server 2003 computers to SAN-based storage arrays.

Storage Manager for SANs gives administrators an easier way to discover, configure, and attach R2 servers to SAN-based logical disk volumes called logical unit numbers (LUNs), without requiring the storage vendor's proprietary management software. Storage Manager for SANs supports both Fibre Channel and Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage, as long as the SAN equipment supports VDS. Storage Manager for SANs is especially useful for configuring iSCSI SANs, which, while significantly less expensive than Fibre Channel SANs, are more complex to configure.

Although Microsoft claims that the major SAN vendors, including EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, and IBM, supply storage arrays with VDS providers, customers need to check that their particular model is supported.

Resources

Other new features in Windows Server 2003 R2 are described in "Windows Server 2003 R2 Targets Branch Offices" on page 3 of the Aug. 2005 Update, "Windows Server 2003 R2 Identity Management" on page 3 of the Oct. 2005 Update and "R2 to Include Unix Services" on page 6 of the Oct. 2005 Update.

Details on the benefits of SANs and Windows support for them can be found in "Driving Down the Cost of SANs" on page 3 of the May 2005 Update, "Windows Networked Storage Enhanced" on page 13 of the June 2004 Update, and "Windows .NET Server Supports Enterprise Storage" on page 3 of the Dec. 2002 Update.

Details on FSRM and Storage Manager for SANS is available at technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/060b8543-ca11-4750-8a86-83515856b84c1033.mspx.