Norbert P. Kusters

Advances in Windows NT storage management

Windows NT 5.0 introduces fundamental changes to storage management. The new infrastructure in NT 5.0 can adapt to future changes in storage devices and media, brings a more powerful set of management mechanisms, and supports more base services within the system. Most of the changes are transparent to legacy applications and to users, but software producers who want to deploy advanced functionality should realize increased benefits from the underlying infrastructure. Windows NT now supports the dynamic plug-and-play of storage devices and the growth and mounting of storage volumes. It also frees the NT system from drive letter limitations and incorporates several new file system features to aid the development of enterprise-class storage management solutions. The article describes two new mechanisms present in Windows NT 5.0, the reliable change journal and the reparse points. It also presents storage management infrastructure subsystems and services that help administer storage. Both mechanisms are designed to facilitate the robust and efficient administration of an increasing volume of data whose lifetime grows over time.