Loading a new storage driver during the Windows Server 2008 install

Seasoned Windows server administrators know to press [F6] to load a mass storage driver during the initial boot of the installation when booting from the install media. We are also quite familiar with forgetting to press [F6] and then getting a chance to do it again because setup could not find a storage controller if the device was not on the native driver list.

Windows Server 2008 introduces a new way that drivers are passed to the installation program during the installation process. The good news is that you don’t have to press [F6]; the bad news is that it is a completely different process. The textsetup.oem files are gone (these files have historically defined the storage driver that Windows setup would use during the installation process), and you now effectively use a wizard when the time comes to determine where Windows will be installed.

I had a chance to install Windows Server 2008 on a few test servers that were quite old but met the minimum hardware requirements. In this particular instance, the Dell PERC 3 RAID controller is not on the native hardware inventory for Windows Server 2008. Fortunately, Dell provides the driver for download from its support site. Once I downloaded the driver and made it available to the installation program, the driver picked up and continued with no issue. The installation program copies the storage driver files as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The new anatomy of the driver file to be processed relies on the .inf and .sys files, and any other files that are required by the driver (such as a .dll or .cat file). This simpler process saves you from having to press the silly [F6] key.

Issues may arise if you try to install Windows Server 2008 on an older server with a storage controller that is not on the native driver list and that has not had the Windows Server 2008 driver provided by the OEM. Most of the larger server brands will be current on this to a certain extent, but even for test systems, you should check driver inventories before embarking in any development effort for Windows Server 2008 migrations.

Use mount points if you run out of Windows drive letters

In order to get granular control of drives and their performance within Windows, admins usually separate Windows drive letter assignments by role for better performance. However, you can only do so much with the drive letters E: and higher.

If you’re running out of drive letters, one trick is to use a mount point for each logical drive that you are going to bring into Windows; this way, performance can be contained to a logical drive and still conform to your drive letter standards.

There are many scenarios in which you would want a large number of drives, such as multiple databases for Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange Server installations. Exchange databases are notorious for needing their own drives per mailbox store and, if you provision out well, you will quickly run out of drive letters. This can enable large numbers of drives to be available within one system.

Adding mount points in Windows Server 2008

With the disk available to the Windows Server 2008 operating system, right-click and select New Simple Volume. Specify the size as you would normally add a drive. Select Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path (Figure A).

Figure A

Perform the drive format and assign a label as normal. Once the New Simple Volume Wizard is completed, the drive will be inventoried in the list of disks. MountPoint3 has been added and now select Change Drive Letter And Paths (Figure B).

Figure B

When the Change Drive Letter And Paths option appears, point the drive to a path on the local filesystem. In this example, it is pointed to C:\MountPoints\MountPoint3. With this configuration, the path will use a different controller than the C:\ drive for the I/O operations across all drives. Figure C shows redirecting the drive to the MountPoint path.

Figure C

Once your configuration is complete, all of the mount points will appear in the subfolder you created. The “folder” icon for the mount points is a shortcut to a drive; the “folders” are redirecting the drive to the path on the parent drive. Figure D shows three mount points in one folder pulling in three different drives.

Figure D

Consolidating the drives, especially in shared storage configurations, can greatly simplify searching and organization for large systems on a Windows server. This functionality is not new to Windows, but it looks a little different now in Windows Server 2008.