Windows Server 2008: File and Print Solutions

Windows Server 2008 file services include Distributed File System (DFS) replication and namespaces to provide customers with better access to data and simplified access to files and shares across a network-wide infrastructure. DFS Replication (DFS-R) efficiently and bi-directionally replicates partial file changes to keep multiple file copies in sync. DFS Namespaces (DFS-N) makes file shares easier to locate and more resilient by enabling users to access their data without regard to which physical file server(s) that the files reside on. With replicated copies and transparent redirection, clients are can be more productive because their data is closer to them and highly available.

The Distributed File System (DFS) technologies offer wide area network (WAN)-friendly replication as well as simplified, highly-available access to geographically dispersed files. The three benefits of DFS are the following:

Better Access to Data: Many organizations have hundreds of file servers throughout the enterprise. Shared folders are often distributed on many of those file servers across a WAN. Managing a file infrastructure like this becomes a familiar IT headache. But the pain is shared by users and business decision makers alike when it becomes apparent that this key enterprise resource is wasting space, money, and time. The good news is that DFS Namespaces and Replication can help organizations manage their file infrastructure much more efficiently and easily.
Simplified Access to Files: DFS Namespace offers a storage management platform that meets the challenges faced by users. Simply put, DFS Namespace is a platform for management of shares and file infrastructures. DFS Namespace does for servers and shares what file systems do for hard disks. Just as file systems provide uniform named access to collections of sectors on disks, DFS Namespace provides a uniform naming convention and mapping for collections of servers, shares, and files.
Increased Productivity & Data Availability: Productivity and collaboration are founded on the ability to process and share information. It’s in the organizations best interests to ensure their employees have maximized access to information AND the ability to share this information. Most organizations consider this to be a business critical standard. DFS helps businesses accomplish this goal by maximizing data availability.

Learn more about DFS at the DFS Management Technology Center.

Disk Management is a system utility for managing hard disks and the volumes or partitions that they contain. With Disk Management, you can initialize disks, create volumes, and format volumes with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file systems. Disk Management enables you to perform most disk-related tasks without restarting the system or interrupting users. Most configuration changes take effect immediately.

In this version of Windows, Disk Management provides the same features you may already be familiar with from earlier versions, but also adds some new features:

Simpler partition creation. When you right-click a volume, you can choose whether to create a basic, spanned, or striped partition directly from the menu.
Disk conversion options. When you add more than four partitions to a basic disk, you are prompted to convert the disk to dynamic or to the GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.
Extend and shrink partitions. You can extend and shrink partitions directly from the Windows interface.

Administrators can easily expand and shrink volumes, including the system volume. All volumes are aligned so that they are optimized for use by server products, such as Microsoft Exchange Server.

Learn more about Disk Management at the Disk Management Technology Center.

Windows Server 2008 file services include File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) to deliver better managed file services across CIFS/SMB and NFS. By centralizing several different file service utilities available in previous versions of Windows, administrators now have a single management interface to manage all of the file allocation, quota and sharing options in one place. With flexible quota and file-type controls, administrators gain improved control and compliance over files and resource consumption, while spending less time managing file resources than ever before. With built-in reporting, FSRM provides insight into how your file serving resources are being used for management, audit and planning purposes.

Better Managed File Services: FSRM provides a single administrator interface for managing and monitoring the file serving resources in your server environment. By combining storage allocation, share management for CIFS/SMB, as well as NFS, administrators gain a single view for all file serving responsibilities.
Improved Control and Compliance over Files: FSRM provides flexible quotas for consumption of file services, as well as file screening to ensure that corporate server resources are only storing appropriate kinds of data. This enhances the servers’ availability to provide a more productive and secure environment. Tighter control also increases an organizations ability to maintain compliance requirements for data storage.
Providing Insight into how your file servers are being used, today and in the future: FSRM enables administrators to be better informed about file resource usage and have tighter controls they can be much more efficient about their time. Costs are also important and are reduced by making better use of existing hardware and limiting the amount of time required to support file services. The reporting and ability to set enforceable, network storage policies enables administrators to plan and strategize for future growth and reduce TCO. This includes evaluating network bandwidth, storage devices and corporate policy as file services grow. Better planning tools help drive an organization's growth.

Learn more at the File Server Resource Manager Technology Center.

Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure provides insight into your data to help you manage your data more effectively, reduce costs and mitigate risks by providing a built-in solution for file classification allowing administrators to automate manual processes with predefined policies based on the data’s business value.

You can use Removable Storage to easily track your removable storage media (tapes and optical disks) and to manage the libraries that contain them (such as changers and jukeboxes).

Removable Storage does the following:

Labels, catalogs, and tracks media.
Controls library drives, slots, and doors.
Provides drive-cleaning operations.

This component works with your data-management programs, such as Backup. You use data-management programs to manage the actual data stored on the media. Removable Storage makes it possible for multiple programs to share the same storage media resources, which can reduce your costs.

Removable Storage organizes all the media in your libraries into different media pools. It also moves media between media pools in order to provide the amount of data storage your applications require.

Learn more at the Removable Storage Technology Center.

Services for Network File System (NFS) provides a file sharing solution for enterprises that have a mixed Windows and UNIX environment. With Services for NFS, you can transfer files between computers running Windows Server 2008 and UNIX operating systems using the NFS protocol.

Services for NFS includes the following improvements:

Active Directory Lookup. The Identity Management for UNIX Active Directory schema extension includes UNIX user identifier (UID) and group identifier (GID) fields. This enables Server for NFS and Client for NFS to look up Windows-to-UNIX user account mappings directly from Active Directory Domain Services. Identity Management for UNIX simplifies Windows-to-UNIX user account mapping management in Active Directory Domain Services.
64-bit support. You can install Services for NFS components on all editions of Windows Server 2008, including 64-bit editions.
Enhanced server performance. Services for NFS includes a file filter driver, which significantly reduces common server file access latencies.
Unix special device support. Services for NFS supports UNIX special devices (mknod).
Enhanced Unix support. Services for NFS supports the following versions of UNIX: Sun Microsystems Solaris version 9, Red Hat Linux version 9, IBM AIX version 5L 5.2, and Hewlett Packard HP-UX version 11i.

Learn more at the NFS Technology Center.

Shadow Copies of Shared Folders provides point-in-time copies of files that are located on shared resources, such as a file server. With Shadow Copies of Shared Folders, users can view shared files and folders as they existed at points of time in the past. Accessing previous versions of files, or shadow copies, is useful because users can:

Recover files that were accidentally deleted. If you accidentally delete a file, you can open a previous version and copy it to a safe location.
Recover from accidentally overwriting a file. If you accidentally overwrite a file, you can recover a previous version of the file.
Compare versions of a file while working. You can use previous versions when you want to check what has changed between two versions of a file.

Learn more about Shadow Copies of Shared folders.

Share and Storage Management provides a centralized location for you to manage two important server resources:

Folders and volumes that are shared on the network
Volumes in disks and storage subsystems

You can share the content of folders and volumes on your server over the network using the Provision a Shared Folder Wizard, which is available in Share and Storage Management. This wizard guides you through the necessary steps to share a folder or volume and assign all applicable properties to it. With Share and Storage Management, you can provision storage on disks that are available on your server, or on storage subsystems that support Virtual Disk Service (VDS). The Provision Storage Wizard guides you through the process of creating a volume on an existing disk, or on a storage subsystem attached to your server. If the volume is going to be created on a storage subsystem, the wizard will also guide you through the process of creating a logical unit number (LUN) to host that volume. You also have the option of only creating the LUN, and using Disk Management to create the volume later.

Share and Storage Management also helps you monitor and manage the volumes that you have created, as well as any other volumes that are available on your server.

Learn more at the Share and Storage Management Technology Center.

You can use the Shared Folders Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to centrally manage file shares on a computer. Shared Folders enables you to create file shares and set permissions, as well as view and manage open files and users connected to file shares on the computer.

Learn more at the Shared Folders Technology Center.

With Storage Explorer, you can view and manage the Fibre Channel and iSCSI fabrics that are available in your storage area network (SAN).

A fabric is a network topology where devices are connected to each other through one or more high-efficiency data paths. In the case of a Fibre Channel fabric, the network includes one or more Fibre Channel switches that allow servers and storage devices to connect to each other through virtual point-to-point connections. For iSCSI fabrics, the network includes one or more Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) servers that provide discoverability and partitioning of resources.

Storage Explorer can display detailed information about servers connected to the SAN, as well as components in the fabrics such as host bus adapters (HBAs), Fibre Channel switches, and iSCSI initiators and targets.

You can also perform many administrative tasks on an iSCSI fabric—for example, you can log on to iSCSI targets, configure iSCSI security, add iSCSI target portals, add iSNS servers, and manage Discovery Domains and Discovery Domain Sets.

Learn more at the Storage Explorer Technology Center.

Storage Manager for SANs helps you create and manage logical unit numbers (LUNs) on Fibre Channel and iSCSI disk drive subsystems that support Virtual Disk Service (VDS) in your storage area network (SAN).

A LUN is a logical reference to a portion of a storage subsystem. A LUN can comprise a disk, a section of a disk, a whole disk array, or a section of a disk array in the subsystem. Using LUNs simplifies the management of storage resources in your SAN because they serve as logical identifiers through which you can assign access and control privileges.

Learn more at the Storage Manager Technology Center.

Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 is a solid mid-market to small enterprise storage solution. A centralized management console and optimized file services help simplify the tasks surrounding storage management. More efficient file services mean data is more intelligently handled and costs are minimized. As the organization grows, Windows Storage Server scales to provide for highly available data in a highly protected environment.

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