Lesson 11

Maintaining Windows Server 2008 File Services

Shadow Copies of Shared Folders is based on the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and allows users to access and recover previous versions of files in the event that they are accidentally deleted or overwritten. Shadow Copies of Shared Folders is enabled at a volume level and affects all shared folders on a particular volume. A maximum of 64 shadow copies can be stored on a particular volume. The Restore Previous Versions functionality lessons the dependant on admin to recover files allowing users to access and restore their own Shared Copies of Shared Folders snapshots without requiring administrative intervention.

Disk Quota is a limit on the disk space a user is permitted to consume in a particular volume or folder. These quotas are based on file ownership. Windows automatically makes a user the owner of all files that he or she creates and tracks this and adds up all their sizes. When the total size of a given user’s files reaches the quota specified by the server administrator, the system takes action.

The three types are as follows:
• Hard quota stops the user from creating past their quota.
• Soft quota sends a notification to Admin.
• Threshold quota sends notifications when a certain percentage has been reached prior to the hard quota.

Windows Server Backup is new in Windows Server 2008 which uses VSS to back up servers at the volume level. It supports two types of backups:
• Manual backup
• Scheduled backup

Restore Windows 2008 can be performed by using the Windows Server Backup MMC snap-in, as well as the wbadmin command-line utility. You can also perform a bare-metal restore of a server that has experienced a hardware failure by using the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), a special boot mode that provides a centralized platform for operating system recovery.