This guide covers server storage Windows Server 2016 step by step, with every setting in the order you will use it. Windows Server 2016 offers a modern, software-defined storage layer: Storage Pools and Storage Spaces. Instead of configuring a hardware RAID controller, you combine raw disks into a pool and carve out virtual disks (spaces) with the resiliency you want per workload. This is the storage model the 70-740 exam tests and a great lab exercise.
dns LAB TOPOLOGY & PREREQUISITES
# example values used while writing and testing this guide
LAB VM
WINDOWS BUILD
VALIDATION
01constructionServer storage: Concepts First
- Storage Pool: a group of physical disks (any mix) treated as one flexible resource
- Storage Space (virtual disk): carved from the pool with a resiliency layout: Simple (striped, no resiliency), Mirror (two or three copies — like RAID 1/10), Parity (like RAID 5, space-efficient resiliency)
- Tiering: a space can automatically move hot data to SSD and cold data to HDD
- Thin provisioning: a space can be bigger than the pool’s current capacity and grows on demand
02downloadStep 1: Create a Storage Pool
In Server Manager → File and Storage Services → Storage Pools (or PowerShell). Disks must be raw and unformatted; right-click and add them to a new primordial pool → New Storage Pool:
New-StoragePool -FriendlyName "LabPool" -StorageSubSystemFriendlyName (Get-StorageSubSystem).FriendlyName -PhysicalDisks (Get-PhysicalDisk -CanPool $true) In short, server storage works best when you follow the order above and verify each step.
03usbStep 2: Create a Storage Space
From the pool, create a virtual disk choosing the layout and provisioning. Examples:
New-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName "Data01" -StoragePoolFriendlyName "LabPool" -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -Size 200GB -ProvisioningType Thin
Mirror for important data, parity for large read-mostly shares (documents, backups), simple only for scratch space you can afford to lose.
04terminalStep 3: Create and Use the Volume
The new virtual disk appears as a disk: initialize it, create a volume, and share it as a folder. Users see an ordinary file share — all the resiliency machinery stays underneath.
05settings_ethernetMaintenance Notes
Watch pool capacity: thin spaces can outgrow the physical pool, and writes fail hard at 100%. Add disks to the pool online when needed. Pair this with data deduplication for maximum efficiency, and compare with traditional disk and volume configuration. In short, server storage works best when you follow the order above and verify each step.
Related Content
How to Implement Data Deduplication in Windows Server 2016
Finish this lab, then continue down the track. Each guide builds on the one before it.