Question
You plan to deploy an Azure virtual machine that will run Windows Server. The virtual machine will host an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain controller and a drive named F: on a new virtual disk.
You need to configure storage for the virtual machine. The solution must meet the following requirements:
* Maximize resiliency for AD DS.
* Prevent accidental data loss.
How should you configure the storage? To answer, select the appropriate options in the answer area.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Hot Area:
Explanation
Volume for the AD DS database: F — The AD DS database (NTDS.dit), its log files, and SYSVOL must be placed on a dedicated Azure data disk, which is the new virtual disk mounted as F:. C: is the OS disk and is not the supported location for the directory database on an Azure domain controller, and D: in an Azure VM is the temporary (ephemeral) local disk whose contents are lost on deallocation, host maintenance, or resize — placing the database there would guarantee eventual data loss rather than prevent it.
Caching configuration for the volume that hosts the database: NONE — Azure host caching must be set to None on the data disk holding the AD DS database and logs, because AD DS relies on write-through semantics and forced-unit-access writes to guarantee transaction durability, and host-level write caching can acknowledge or reorder writes in a way that corrupts the ESE database after an unclean shutdown. READ/WRITE is the specific configuration Microsoft warns against for domain controllers, and even READ caching is not the supported setting for the volume hosting the database, since only NONE preserves the durability guarantees AD DS expects.
