Introduction to the new features of Vista five storage

Microsoft has made a big step back, so Vista can take a big step forward. The new storage features in the upcoming Vista operating system reflect Microsoft's recognition that its Windows operating system lags behind other competitors ' platforms in storage management features. The new Vista has improved file systems, locally supported hybrid disk drives (H-HDD), split volumes, extended I/O prioritization, and drive encryption features.

Memory I/O Leading analyst Greg Schulz these features as Microsoft has finally confessed to the reality that memory management is no longer outside the Windows operating system, but is actually part of its core system. Schulz cites Vistsa's new interactive file system as proof that Microsoft finally realizes the importance of memory. "A log file system can make vista more than just a platform to run games on," Schulz said.

Improvements to the file system

Vista's interactive NTFS, like Longhorn's TXF, allows users to completely save data in an environment that cannot be expected to be wrong. For example, if a computer fails when an application saves information to disk, the data can be corrupted because the save operation is only partially completed. To prevent this, TXF open the file in interactive mode and then put it into interaction after saving the file. If the system has an error while saving the operation, it can restore the file to its stored conditions, thus preventing data corruption.

The Vista file system also contains a large revision of the support for SMB (Server Message Block) 2.0 protocol. One of the more troubling areas of the SMB 2.0 address is the cumbersome SMB 1.0 protocol. According to Navjot Virk, a software design engineer at Microsoft, "SMB 2.0 supports random, scalable composite operations to reduce unwanted round-trip, making it less cumbersome than SMB 1.0." ”

Vsita also manages the file handle. SMB 2.0 increases the number of open file handles that a server can support, as well as the amount of allocated trees that a single server can allocate. SMB 2.0 also provides more durable file handles that prevent users from losing their connections to the server when some transient network failure occurs.

Is the use of SMB 1.0 or 2.0, depending on the negotiation phase between the customer and the service provider, and the customer will advertise to the service provider who understands the new SMB 2.0 protocol. "If the service provider understands the new SMB 2.0 protocol, it will be selected, otherwise it would be back to SMB 1.0, preserving Vista and the next level of compatibility, even though they give up the benefits of SMB 2.0," Virk said.

Hybrid drive Accelerated I/O saves battery

Another storage feature that Vista adds is its local support for H-HDD, which also gives users short-term and long-term benefits. Using flash and traditional hard disk space in their builds, Vista can tell Vista whether it is a h-hdd by sending an ATA command to H-HDD to identify a hybrid driver.

Mobile phone users will be able to see some of the immediate benefits of using the entire feature. "The first benefit for mobile phone users is to allow some random I/O flash devices instead of hard drives in a h-hdd-driven way, which can speed up 10 times times faster for those small chunks," said Matt Ayers, a project manager for the Windows Customer team.

Microsoft also believes H-HDD will be able to prolong battery and disk partition life. Just as Windows READYDRIVE,H-HDD cache disk reads and writes do not need to run through hard disk partitions. According to Hiroshi Sakakibara, a product manager for the Windows Customer team, this saves battery power on the machine and prevents disk errors that occur when you travel using a laptop. "Windows readydrive makes your laptop more durable, because it will make your disk less likely to keep running and not be too sensitive to read and write, causing damage," Sakakibara said.

Greg Schulz also believes that one of the long-term benefits that companies will achieve is that application programs can learn to take advantage of some of the application data that it is able to store in the H-HDD cache. "Aix has been able to connect to an IBM storage line and tell them which data remains in storage," Schulz said. I anticipate that Windows apps will eventually take advantage of this feature. ”

Split Volume

Another new feature of Windows Vista-split volumes-is a feature that users will at least ask how much value they can provide. A fragmented volume allows the user to reduce the size of a disk volume so that managers can redistribute existing space for other purposes. A System Manager at Carnegie Mellon University, and David Stevens, a windwos Vista beta tester, questioned whether the feature would be of great use to him. "From the perspective of huge reserves, this feature makes storage attached to the storage area network more difficult to handle, because it doesn't help me identify which logical unit number needs to be restored, and I'm probably not able to track which application is using which storage," Stevens said.

I/O Virtualization

The feature that gives priority to I/O in Vista is a Schulz interest. While Windows and domestic support for i/p prioritization, current achievements may result in blocking of some segment ends. Schulz analysis Road. "The problem is similar to the two cars moving at 40 meters per hour on the interstate." They are both first in the same place, but they also slow down the other person's speed. ”

Vista fixes this existing problem with Windows execution, and it can even get a high priority for low-priority related concatenation, allowing it to be added to the Task Queue Manager, and the Windows operating system can serve it on basic guidelines. This allows managers to set tasks to run in the background with low priority, such as disk rearrangement. Working in this way, they will not have an impact on other important applications, and Vista will not completely ignore these tasks.

Another I/O prioritization feature is that Windows Vista improves the ability to identify and manage streaming data. When retrieving data from disk is still in progress, media applications are usually able to start their tasks and compensate for missing or aborted packets. Vista coordinates these applications with the minimum and maximum amount of bandwidth that is preset for these applications within its I/O subsystem. These assured applications minimize the throughput required by streaming video and make no mistakes, allowing them to get extra data in advance when there is no other application running on the system and more bandwidth available.

Enhanced Storage security

Finally, Vista uses its new full volume disk encryption technology (BitLocker Drive encryption) to enhance security support for both fixed and removable media. The primary goal of this feature is to encrypt data on volumes in the Windows operating system hard disk partition to prevent unauthorized users from destroying Windows file and system protection on lost or stolen computers. There are two ways to encrypt data, one for a user-supplied personal identification number (PIN), and another to insert a USB flash drive that contains key content. All cryptographic keys are protected by the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2, which uses trusted hardware and security-licensed software, which makes security less vulnerable and protects against virtual or physical attacks.

If the user forgets his personal identification number or loses a USB flash drive, Vista still provides a way for the manager to regain the missing key. To do this, Russ Humphries, Microsoft's leading project manager, suggests that managers can help users use an Active Directory Group Policy object when setting up BitLocker functionality. This way, when a user enters a password or plugs into a USB device, the key that is reset is automatically conditionally entered into the Active Directory.

These new storage features contained in Windows Vista mean that Microsoft has finally realized that it must make improvements in storage to balance the resources of the entire operating system, Schulz said. "These new management features in Vista clearly show that when Microsoft designs its operating system, storage is no longer a minor problem on the surface, and it is already very close to its core," he concludes. ”