70-410 To RAID or to Storage Pool, to diskpart or not to diskpart!

I'm soon going in for my second attempt at 70-410, but I'm really confused regarding the exams stance on raid vs storage pools. For instance, I had a question referring to having 4-5 different types and sizes of disks, you had to provide xTB of space for user files and there were various options.

I whittled down the answers to creating a RAID5 volume out of three GPT disks, but there was also an option there to create a storage pool on to of the GPT disks. I'd immediately think they were after you answering storage pools but I was totally unsure, in the real world, even though it uses an extra disk I'd go for RAID5.

So my question really is, when in the exam would you specify RAID over storage pools? If I see a choice between a RAID5 set, mirrored volume or storage pool, even though the storage pool is a new feature do I assume because it hasn't been stated that the storage pool is in fact non-redundant so I prefer RAID5 or a mirrored volume?

Edit - Similar to this is diskpart, computer management/disk management and share and storage manager coming up against server manager when creating or administering VHDs. I know I can create a VHD in computer management and diskpart but I can do the same in Server Manager?! So which would be considered correct.The more I study for this exam the more confused I get, not because I don't know how to get to the end goal of the question... but what they're expecting me to answer in the first place!

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Comments

MSSoftie

Try this article - it helped me understand

Windows Server 2012 Storage Virtualization Explained - Yung Chou on Hybrid Cloud - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

zombiescrumper

MSSoftie wrote: »

Try this article - it helped me understand

Windows Server 2012 Storage Virtualization Explained - Yung Chou on Hybrid Cloud - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Thanks it's a good article and I do grasp the context of the storage pools, but I'm still confused as to how I should answer given the typical chose 2 out of 5 answers when there are 3 correct ones.

For instance:-

Option 1 - Create a disk pool out of disk 1 and 2
Option 2 - Create a raid5 set out of disk 1, 2 and 3
Option 3 - Create a mirrored volume out of disk 2 and 3

Essentially, all of the above will work should I be favouring specifying RAID still as I genuinely would in the real world, or should I be favouring Option 1 and 3 given storage pools appear to be the MS flavour of the month!

kriscamaro68

If it talks about your disks being different sizes then I would always pick a storage pool as it is suppose to be able to handle different sizes and make 1 giant pool without basing the size off the smallest disk. If you did a raid 5 it would only allow the size of the smallest disk to be used making all that extra space from the other disks unusable.

For the other question I have never seen MS give an answer where you accomplish the same task in the cmd and gui but you need to pick between the to. I have seen where they offer both up but one will end up not doing what you need in the end or the gui can't do what needs to be done and the cmd can. It has always been one or the other in my experience but its always a very subtle hint that I find in the answer or question that allows me to determine which. However if they are the exact same then it may be a question where is says select the 2 correct answers or choose all that apply or something like that.

iond

In that question, is there any reference to whether one of the disks should fail? If yes, then the mirrored volume would be the solution.

zombiescrumper

iond wrote: »

In that question, is there any reference to whether one of the disks should fail? If yes, then the mirrored volume would be the solution.

For that specific one yes, I'd assume option 2 would meet the criteria as well though hence my confusion, do you select the answers based on what uses the least resource though?

The DiskPart / Server Manager /Share & Storage Manager / Computer Management thing is driving me around the bend too. I now know that in 2012R2 you can create VHD files within server manager. With this in mind I also know VDS, Share & Storage Manager, Computer Management and Diskpart have all be flagged as soon to be deprecated. If the 3 options pop up are you safe going with server manager? I can't seem to find a decent answer to that one in particular?

lucio

I had the same problem. There are many questions with different options of answers (5 options). In this example has all answer, but the correct answer I don't know.

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