https://www.udemy.com/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate/learn/v4/t/lecture/2483742?start=0

Main Menu

• Raid Acronym and Types
• When to use with AWS
• Create a Windows Instance w/5 drives
  • Configure Raid Array
• Taking a Snapshot
  • Problems
  • Solutions

RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks

• RAID 0: Striped, No Redundancy. Good Performance
  • One drive fails, all drives fail
• RAID 1: Mirrored, Redundancy
• RAID 5: Parity/Checksum. 3 Drives minimum.
  • Good Read performance, bad Write
  • AWS NEVER recommends using RAID 5 with EBS
• RAID 10: Mirrored & Striped (1 + 0). 4 Drives minimum
  • Good redundancy, good performance.

When to use RAID with AWS

• Correct drive size but need better performance (RAID 10)
• Max’d out drive space but need more capacity (RAID 0)

Create a Windows Instance

• single drive for OS
• Open Port 3389
• 4 Additional drives for the raid array
• Use the private key to get the password
  • Dashboard > Select Windows Instance > Actions > Get Windows Password
  • Paste your Private Key into the window and click [Decrypt Password]
• Log into Windows
• mstsc = Microsoft Terminal Services Client

Configure RAID Array in Windows

Win2016-supplemental-steps

• View all disks in File Explorer (D, E, F, G)
• Open Disk Management
  • Right click D-G and Delete Volumes
    • Warning, all data will be erased [Yes]
  • Right Click on an unallocated volume:
    • New Simple Volume
    • New Spanned Volume
    • New Striped Volume (RAID 0)
      • Add all available volumes to the array [Next]
      • Assign the drive letter to the array “D”
      • Format the Drive
        • NTFS
        • Quick Format
        • Volume Label (name) [Next>]
        • Warning – Will convert to dynamic disk [Yes]
      • Should now offer ~4x speed and 4x size.
    • New Mirrored Volume
    • New RAID-5 Volume

Taking a Snapshot of an Array

Problems

Problem – Take a snapshot excludes data held in the cache by applications and the OS.

• This is generally not a problem with single volume drives
• Using multiple volumes in a RAID array, this can be a problem due to interdependencies of the array.

Solution – Take an application consistent snapshot.

• Overview
  • Stop the applications from writing to disk
  • Flush all caches to the disk
• How?
  • A: Freeze the file system
  • B: Unmount the RAID Array
  • C: Shut down the associated EC2 instance. (Easiest, most common)