Help Center/ Elastic Volume Service/ Getting Started/ Quickly Buying an EVS Disk and Using It on a Windows Server
Updated on 2024-08-21 GMT+08:00

Quickly Buying an EVS Disk and Using It on a Windows Server

Scenarios

EVS disks can be used as system disks or data disks. System disks are purchased together with servers, while data disks can be purchased together with servers or separately. If you buy data disks separately, you must attach and initialize them before they can be used.

This section describes how to buy a non-shared data disk on the EVS console, attach it to a Windows server, and initialize it on the server. Table 1 shows the example configuration.

Table 1 Example configuration

Item

Example Configuration

Cloud server

OS: Windows Server 2019 Standard 64-bit

EVS disk

Function: non-shared data disk

Capacity: 100 GiB

Initialization

  • Disk name: Disk 1
  • After the initialization:
    • Partition name: New volume (D:)
    • Partition style: GPT
    • File system format: NTFS

Operation Process

Procedure

Description

Making Preparations

Sign up for a HUAWEI ID, enable Huawei Cloud services, and top up your account.

Step 1: Purchase an EVS Disk

Buy a data disk on the EVS console.

Step 2: Attach the EVS Disk

Attach the data disk to a Windows server.

Step 3: Initialize the EVS Disk

Initialize the data disk on the server.

Making Preparations

  1. Register with Huawei Cloud.
  2. Top up your account.
    1. To learn more about EVS pricing, see Billing.
    2. To top up an account, see Topping Up an Account.
    3. Buy a cloud server.
  3. Buy a cloud server.

Step 1: Purchase an EVS Disk

  1. Go to the Buy Disk page.
  2. Configure mandatory parameters based on Table 2 and retain the default settings for other parameters.

    Figure 1 Configuring parameters
    Table 2 Disk creation parameters

    Parameter

    Example Value

    Description

    Region

    CN South-Guangzhou

    Resources are region-specific and cannot be used across regions through internal network connections. For low network latency and quick resource access, select the nearest region.

    AZ

    AZ1

    You can only attach EVS disks to servers in the same AZ. After a disk is created, its AZ cannot be changed.

      

    Later

    • Now: If you select this option, you need to select a server to attach the disk. The billing mode of the disk will be the same as the selected server.
    • Later: When no server is available, you can select this option to create the disk first and attach the disk after the purchase.

    Billing Mode

    Pay-per-use

    For EVS pricing details, see Billing.

    Data Source

    Not configured

    If you want to create an empty data disk, do not configure a data source.

    Disk Specifications

    Disk type: Ultra-high I/O

    To learn more about disk types, see Disk Types and Performance.

    Capacity: 100 (GiB)

    You can only create data disks on the current page. The disk capacity ranges from 10 GiB to 32,768 GiB.

    Disk Name

    volume-0001

    • If you create a single disk, the name you entered will be used as the disk name.

      The name can contain a maximum of 64 bytes.

    • If you create multiple disks in a batch, the name you entered will be used as the prefix of disk names. An actual disk name will be composed of the name you entered and a four-digit number.

      The name can contain a maximum of 59 bytes.

    Quantity

    1

    The preset disk quantity is 1, which means only one disk is created. You can create a maximum of 100 disks at a time.

  3. Click Next.
  4. Go back to the disk list page. When the status of the volume-0001 disk changes to In-use, the disk is successfully created.

Step 2: Attach the EVS Disk

EVS disks cannot be used alone. You need to attach them to cloud servers first. In the following example, the volume-0001 disk is attached to an ECS running Windows Server 2019.

  1. In the disk list, find the volume-0001 disk and click Attach in the Operation column.
  2. Attach the volume-0001 disk to your desired server. Ensure that the server and disk are in the same AZ.

    Figure 2 Attach Disk

  3. Click OK to go back to the disk list page. When the status of the volume-0001 disk changes to In-use, the disk is successfully attached.

Step 3: Initialize the EVS Disk

After attaching the volume-0001 disk, you need to initialize it before it can be used. In the following example, the disk is formatted into a 100 GiB GPT partition with the NTFS file system.

  1. On the desktop of the server, click the start icon in the lower left corner.

    The Windows Server window is displayed.

  2. Click Server Manager.

    The Server Manager window is displayed.

    Figure 3 Server Manager

  3. In the upper right corner, choose Tools > Computer Management.

    Figure 4 Computer Management

  4. Choose Storage > Disk Management.

    Disks are displayed in the right pane. If there is a disk that is not initialized, the system will prompt you with the Initialize Disk dialog box.
    Figure 5 Disk list

  5. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, the to-be-initialized disk is selected. Select a disk partition style and click OK. In this example, GPT (GUID Partition Table) is selected.

    Figure 6 Computer Management

    The maximum disk size supported by MBR is 2 TiB, and that supported by GPT is 18 EiB. Because an EVS data disk currently supports up to 32 TiB, use GPT if your disk size is greater than 2 TiB.

    If the partition style is changed after the disk has been used, all data on the disk will be lost, so take care to select an appropriate partition style when initializing the disk. If you must change the partition style to GPT after a disk has been used, it is recommended that you back up the disk data before the change.

  6. Right-click the unallocated disk space area and choose New Simple Volume from the shortcut menu.

    Figure 7 New Simple Volume Wizard

  7. Click Next to go to the Specify Volume Size page.

    Figure 8 Specify Volume Size

  8. Specify the volume size and click Next. The system selects the maximum volume size by default. You can specify the volume size as required. In this example, the default setting is used.

    Figure 9 Assign Drive Letter or Path

  9. Assign a drive letter or path to your partition and click Next. The system assigns drive letter D by default. In this example, the default setting is used.

    Figure 10 Format Partition

  10. Specify format settings and click Next. The system selects the NTFS file system by default. You can specify a file system type as required. In this example, the default setting is used.

    Figure 11 Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard

    The partition sizes supported by file systems vary. Choose an appropriate file system format based on your service requirements.

  11. Click Finish.

    Wait for the initialization to complete. When the volume status changes to Healthy, the initialization has succeeded.
    Figure 12 Disk initialized

  12. After the volume is created, click on the task bar and check whether a new volume appears in the File Explorer. In this example, New Volume (D:) is the new volume.

    If New Volume (D:) appears, the disk is successfully initialized and no further action is required.
    Figure 13 File Explorer

After initializing the disk, go back to the disk list page. After the disk status changes to In-use, you can use the disk.