Lab: Redundant file server

What you will learn in this TP

• Create a pool and a mirrored virtual disk
• Combine share and NTFS permissions
• Enable shadow copies and quotas

Introduction #

What you will learn in this section

• Create a pool and a mirrored virtual disk
• Combine share and NTFS permissions
• Enable shadow copies and quotas

Context. The accounting file server runs on a single disk. You replace it with a mirrored volume and a properly secured share.

Prerequisites: a Windows Server 2025 VM to which you can add 2 virtual disks of 20 GB (Hyper-V, VirtualBox or cloud)  ·  Estimated duration: 50 min

A mirrored S: volume, the \\server\Compta share, verified permissions and a simulated disk failure.

Setup #

Guided steps, with their solution.

1. 1. Add the disks

   Why? Storage Spaces needs blank, unpartitioned disks.

   Add two 20 GB disks to the VM (on Hyper-V, from the host), then check that they can be pooled.

2. 2. Pool and mirror

   Why? A two-way mirror survives the loss of one disk.

   Create the PoolFS pool, a two-way mirror virtual disk Miroir, then the NTFS volume S: labelled Partages.

3. 3. NTFS permissions

   Why? Breaking inheritance then granting rights to groups makes access predictable.

   Create S:\Compta, break inheritance, give Full control to Administrators and SYSTEM, and Modify to a local group Compta (or CORP\DL_Partage_Compta_M if you did the AD lab).

4. 4. Publish the share

   Why? Broad share, precise NTFS: the simplest rule to maintain.

   Share S:\Compta as Compta with access-based enumeration and SMB encryption, then test access as compta1.

5. 5. Shadow copies and quota

   Why? Previous versions avoid many restores; the quota avoids a full disk.

   Enable shadow copies on S:, create one, then install FSRM and set a 5 GB quota on S:\Compta.

6. 6. Simulate a failure

   Why? Checking that redundancy works before you need it.

   Remove one of the two disks (VM off or disk disconnected from the host), check that S:\Compta stays readable and the virtual disk is “Degraded”, then put the disk back and repair.

Difficulty level : ●●○○○ (2/5)