be directed to get those files from a side-by-side feature store, which is a shared folder that contains feature files. It is available to the server on the network, from Windows Update, or from installation media. This can be overwritten using the – Source option in the Windows PowerShell utility.
Source Files for Roles or Features
Offline virtual hard disks (VHDs) cannot be used as a source for installing roles or features that have been completely removed. Only sources for the same version of Windows Server 2012 R2 are supported.
To install a removed role or feature using a WIM image, follow these steps:
1. Run the following command:
In step 1, imagepath is the path where the WIM files are located.
2. Run the following command:
In step 2, featurename is the name of the role or feature from Get-WindowsFeature. path is the path to the WIM mount point, and index is the index of the server image from step 1.
To add or remove a role or feature, you must have administrative rights to the Windows Server 2012 R2 machine.
Storage in Windows Server 2012 R2
As an IT administrator, you’ll need to ask many questions before you start setting up a server. What type of disks should be used? What type of RAID sets should be made? What type of hardware platform should be purchased? These are all questions you must ask when planning for storage in a Windows Server 2012 R2 server. In the following sections, I will answer these questions so that you can make the best decisions for storage in your network’s environment.
Initializing Disks
To begin, I must first discuss how to add disk drives to a server. Once a disk drive has been physically installed, it must be initialized by selecting the type of partition. Different types of partition styles are used to initialize disks: Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT).
MBR has a partition table that indicates where the partitions are located on the disk drive, and with this particular partition style, only volumes up to 2TB (2,048GB) are supported. An MBR drive can have up to four primary partitions or can have three primary partitions and one extended partition that can be divided into unlimited logical drives.
Windows Server 2012 R2 can only boot off an MBR disk unless it is based on the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI); then it can boot from GPT. An Itanium server is an example of an EFI-based system. GPT is not constrained by the same limitations as MBR. In fact, a GPT disk drive can support volumes of up to 18EB (18,874,368 million terabytes) and 128 partitions. As a result, GPT is recommended for disks larger than 2TB or disks used on Itanium-based computers. Exercise 1.3 demonstrates the process of initializing additional disk drives to an active computer running Windows Server 2012 R2. If you’re not adding a new drive, then stop after step 4. I am completing this exercise using Computer Management, but you also can do this exercise using Server Manager.
EXERCISE 1.3: Initializing Disk Drives
1. Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
2. Select Disk Management.
3. After disk drives have been installed, right-click Disk Management and select Rescan Disks.
4. A pop-up box appears indicating that the server is scanning for new disks. If you did not add a new disk, go to step 9.
5. After the server has completed the scan, the new disk appears as Unknown.
6. Right-click the Unknown disk, and select Initialize Disk.
7. A pop-up box appears asking for the partition style. For this exercise, choose MBR.
8. Click OK.
9. Close Computer Management.
The disk will now appear online as a basic disk with unallocated space.
Configuring Basic and Dynamic Disks
Windows Server 2012 R2 supports two types of disk configurations: basic and dynamic. Basic disks are divided into partitions and can be used with previous versions of Windows. Dynamic disks are divided into volumes and can be used with Windows 2000 Server and newer releases.
When a disk is initialized, it is automatically created as a basic disk, but when a new fault-tolerant (RAID) volume set is created, the disks in the set are converted to dynamic disks. Fault-tolerance features and the ability to modify disks without having to reboot the server are what distinguish dynamic disks from basic disks.
A basic disk can simply be converted to a dynamic disk without loss of data. When a basic disk is converted, the partitions are automatically changed to the appropriate volumes. However, converting a dynamic disk back to a basic disk is not as simple. First, all the data on the dynamic disk must be backed up or moved. Then, all the volumes on the dynamic disk have to be deleted. The dynamic disk can then be converted to a basic disk. Partitions and logical drives can be created, and the data can be restored.
The following are actions that can be performed on basic disks:
■ Formatting partitions
■ Marking partitions as active
■ Creating and deleting primary and extended partitions
■ Creating and deleting logical drives
■ Converting from a basic disk to a dynamic disk
The following are actions that can be performed on dynamic disks:
■ Creating and deleting simple, striped, spanned, mirrored, or RAID-5 volumes
■ Removing or breaking a mirrored volume
■ Extending simple or spanned volumes
■ Repairing mirrored or RAID-5 volumes
■ Converting from a dynamic disk to a basic disk after deleting all volumes
In Exercise 1.4, you’ll convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk.
EXERCISE 1.4: Converting a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
1. Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
2. Select Disk Management.
3. Right-click a basic disk that you want to convert and select Convert To Dynamic Disk.
4. The Convert To Dynamic Disk dialog box appears. From here, select all of the disks that you want to convert to dynamic disks. In this exercise, only one disk will be converted.
5. Click
