New in Windows Server 2012 - Part 2: Storage
I present to you the translation of the second part of the article by Michael Pietroforte about innovations in Windows Server 2012. Michael is an MVP with 28 years of experience in system administration.
The original can be read here: New in Windows Server 2012 - Part 2: Storage Storage
management has undergone significant changes for the better in Windows Server 2012. Most attention is paid to SMB 3.0, which shows us a new level of use of shared resources.
The Server Message Block protocol used for file sharing on local networks has been completely redesigned, here is a short list of what is available to you: SMB for Server Applications (for example, SQL Server running in Hyper-V can store data on network shares ), SMB Scale-Out (manage the load on the local network in cluster solutions), SMB Direct (data exchange between servers, with direct access to memory), SMB Multichannel (with support for several network interfaces), SMB Transparent Failover (switching between cluster nodes remain invisible to applications are accessing shared resources), VSS for shared resources SMB (SMB now supports Windows Volume Shadow Copy), SMB encryption and SMB Directory Leasing (reducing latency across the WAN).
SMB 2.2 is now SMB 3.0
Windows Server “8” - Taking Server Application Storage to Windows File Shares
Storage and Continuous Availability Enhancements in Windows Server 8
Microsoft's cloud-based backup solution is still in beta and is only available in Windows Server 2012. We still cannot be sure if RTM will support other versions of Windows Server. Microsoft Online Backup can back up files only. Applications such as, for example, Exchange or SharePoint are not supported.
Microsoft Online Backup
I have already described Storage Spaces in my article on Windows 8 innovations : Storage spaces allow you to combine multiple disks into a single storage pool. This technology is comparable to RAID, but is more flexible and easy to configure. Its coolest feature is probably that the disks can be of different sizes and use various interfaces, such as USB, SATA, and SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). Storage pools support thin provisioning (physically free space is used only when necessary) and resiliency (mirroring for fault tolerance).
Virtualizing storage for scale, resiliency, and efficiency
Tim Warner wrote on his 4sysops blog about Microsoft's new ReFS file system . ReFS improves reliability and scalability and is backward compatible with NTFS.
Resilient File System (ReFS) in Windows Server 2012
Building the next generation file system for Windows: ReFS
BranchCache ships with Windows Server 2012 with relatively few enhancements, most of which are related to scalability. The main ones are the ability to deploy BranchCache on multiple servers and the use of Extensible Storage Engine (ESE). Management tools have also been improved. It is worth noting here that you can automatically configure clients and there is an opportunity to force the remote office to cache the content.
What's New in BranchCache
Highlighting BranchCache Hosted Cache Mode in Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 BranchCache Early Adopters Guide
Storage Management API (SMAPI) is a new WMI-based API for managing directly attached storage devices and external disk arrays. SMAPI supports SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative –Specification) and SMP (Storage Management Provider). The Management Service feature in Windows Server 2012 allows you to discover and manage SMI-S devices without installing additional software.
Windows Server 8: Standards-Based Storage Management
Resource Manager now supports the new Dynamic Access Control (which I will discuss in more detail in one of my next posts). Users can now manually set the level of access to files without the need to enter automatic rules for this; you can also configure the text of the “access error” message that appears when you try to open a file or directory to which the user does not have sufficient rights from a workstation with installed Windows 8.
What's New in File Server Resource Manager
Please let me know if I missed any of the innovations in Windows Server 2012 related to storage systems. In the next part I will talk about security updates in Windows Server 2012.
You can read the translation of the first part of the article here: New in Windows Server 2012 - Part 1: Server Management
The original can be read here: New in Windows Server 2012 - Part 2: Storage Storage
management has undergone significant changes for the better in Windows Server 2012. Most attention is paid to SMB 3.0, which shows us a new level of use of shared resources.
SMB 3.0
The Server Message Block protocol used for file sharing on local networks has been completely redesigned, here is a short list of what is available to you: SMB for Server Applications (for example, SQL Server running in Hyper-V can store data on network shares ), SMB Scale-Out (manage the load on the local network in cluster solutions), SMB Direct (data exchange between servers, with direct access to memory), SMB Multichannel (with support for several network interfaces), SMB Transparent Failover (switching between cluster nodes remain invisible to applications are accessing shared resources), VSS for shared resources SMB (SMB now supports Windows Volume Shadow Copy), SMB encryption and SMB Directory Leasing (reducing latency across the WAN).
SMB 2.2 is now SMB 3.0
Windows Server “8” - Taking Server Application Storage to Windows File Shares
Storage and Continuous Availability Enhancements in Windows Server 8
Microsoft Online Backup
Microsoft's cloud-based backup solution is still in beta and is only available in Windows Server 2012. We still cannot be sure if RTM will support other versions of Windows Server. Microsoft Online Backup can back up files only. Applications such as, for example, Exchange or SharePoint are not supported.
Microsoft Online Backup
Windows Server 2012 - Microsoft Online Backup
Storages Spaces / Storage Pools
I have already described Storage Spaces in my article on Windows 8 innovations : Storage spaces allow you to combine multiple disks into a single storage pool. This technology is comparable to RAID, but is more flexible and easy to configure. Its coolest feature is probably that the disks can be of different sizes and use various interfaces, such as USB, SATA, and SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). Storage pools support thin provisioning (physically free space is used only when necessary) and resiliency (mirroring for fault tolerance).
Virtualizing storage for scale, resiliency, and efficiency
Windows Server 2012 - Storage Spaces - Storage Pools
Resilient File System (ReFS)
Tim Warner wrote on his 4sysops blog about Microsoft's new ReFS file system . ReFS improves reliability and scalability and is backward compatible with NTFS.
Resilient File System (ReFS) in Windows Server 2012
Building the next generation file system for Windows: ReFS
Windows Server 2012 - Resilient File System (ReFS)
Branchcache
BranchCache ships with Windows Server 2012 with relatively few enhancements, most of which are related to scalability. The main ones are the ability to deploy BranchCache on multiple servers and the use of Extensible Storage Engine (ESE). Management tools have also been improved. It is worth noting here that you can automatically configure clients and there is an opportunity to force the remote office to cache the content.
What's New in BranchCache
Highlighting BranchCache Hosted Cache Mode in Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 BranchCache Early Adopters Guide
Windows Server 2012 - BranchCache
Storage Management API (SMAPI)
Storage Management API (SMAPI) is a new WMI-based API for managing directly attached storage devices and external disk arrays. SMAPI supports SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative –Specification) and SMP (Storage Management Provider). The Management Service feature in Windows Server 2012 allows you to discover and manage SMI-S devices without installing additional software.
Windows Server 8: Standards-Based Storage Management
File Server Resource Manager
Resource Manager now supports the new Dynamic Access Control (which I will discuss in more detail in one of my next posts). Users can now manually set the level of access to files without the need to enter automatic rules for this; you can also configure the text of the “access error” message that appears when you try to open a file or directory to which the user does not have sufficient rights from a workstation with installed Windows 8.
What's New in File Server Resource Manager
Windows Server 2012 - File Server Resource Manager
Please let me know if I missed any of the innovations in Windows Server 2012 related to storage systems. In the next part I will talk about security updates in Windows Server 2012.
You can read the translation of the first part of the article here: New in Windows Server 2012 - Part 1: Server Management