Creating Virtual Disks: Future Expansion
When creating virtual disks, consider whether or not the virtual disk capacity needs to be expanded in the future.
For a Microsoft Windows operating system, format the virtual disks with New Technology File System (NTFS). Microsoft Corporation provides a utility (diskpart.exe) that can dynamically extend an NTFS file system onto any unused adjacent space.
Note also that using a single partition per virtual disk makes expansion much easier.
NOTE: The diskpart.exe utility version depends on which version of the Windows operating system is running.
NOTE: The diskpart.exe utility can be found on the CD for some versions of Windows operating systems, or on the Microsoft Corporation website (microsoft.com) for other versions. Use the correct version for your operating system.
Understanding Physical Disks
Physical Disk States
Within the management applications, physical disks can be part of one or more virtual disks and can exist in the states indicated:
Table B-5. Minimum and Maximum Physical Disk Configurations
RAID Level | Minimum Number of Physical Disks | Maximum Number of Physical Disks |
|
|
|
RAID 0 | 2 | 8 |
|
|
|
RAID 1 | 2 | 2 |
|
|
|
RAID 10 | 8 | 8 |
|
|
|
RAID 5 | 3 | 8 |
|
|
|
86