Category: Uncategorized

TechNet Radio series covers Windows Server 2012 File Server and SMB 3.0 scenarios

I have been working with Bob Hunt at the TechNet Radio team to provide a series of webcasts with information about SMB 3.0 and the File Server role in Windows Server 2012. These are fairly informal conversations, but Bob is really good at posing interesting questions, clarifying the different scenarios and teasing out relevant details … Continue reading TechNet Radio series covers Windows Server 2012 File Server and SMB 3.0 scenarios →

MMS 2013 Demo: Hyper-V over SMB at high throughput with SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel

Overview   I delivered a demo of Hyper-V over SMB this week at MMS 2013 that’s an evolution of a demo I did back in the Windows Server 2012 launch and also via a TechNet Radio session. Back then I showed a two physical servers running a SQLIO simulation. One played the role of the … Continue reading MMS 2013 Demo: Hyper-V over SMB at high throughput with SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel →

Slides for the Instructor-Led Lab on Windows Server 2012 Storage from MMS 2013

I delivered an instructor-led lab on Windows Server 2012 Storage at MMS 2013 yesterday (4/8), with a repeat scheduled for tomorrow (4/10) at 2:45 PM. You can find the details on this lab at http://www.2013mms.com/topic/details/WS-IL303 I used a few slides to comment on the contents of the lab, with an overview on the capabilities covered … Continue reading Slides for the Instructor-Led Lab on Windows Server 2012 Storage from MMS 2013 →

Q and A: I only have two NICs on my Hyper-V host. Should I team them or not?

Question via e-mail: I am using blade servers for my Hyper-V cluster and I can only have two NICs per blade in this configuration. I am considering two options on how to configure the NICs: 1)      Use one NIC for internal network and one NIC for external network, connected to the virtual switch2)      Team the two NICs … Continue reading Q and A: I only have two NICs on my Hyper-V host. Should I team them or not? →

Q and A: Can I use SMB3 storage without RDMA?

Question received via e-mail: Is it practical use SMB3 storage without RDMA or do we have a use case for production rather than development or test?I thought RDMA would be essential for production deployment of Hyper-V SMB storage. Answer:RDMA is not a requirement for the Hyper-V over SMB scenario.The most important things that RDMA can give … Continue reading Q and A: Can I use SMB3 storage without RDMA? →

Q and A: Is it possible to run SMB Direct from within a VM?

Question received via blog mail: Jose- I picked up a couple ConnectX-2 adapters and a cable off of ebay for cheap (about $300 for everything) to test out SMB Direct.  I followed your blog "Deploying Windows Server 2012 with SMB Direct (SMB over RDMA) and the Mellanox ConnectX-2/ConnectX-3 using InfiniBand – Step by Step" and … Continue reading Q and A: Is it possible to run SMB Direct from within a VM? →

SQLIO, PowerShell and storage performance: measuring IOPs, throughput and latency for both local disks and SMB file shares

IMPORTANT NOTE:SQLIO has been deprecated, as shown at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql_server_team/archive/2015/12/11/sqlio-disk-subsystem-benchmark-tool-is-being-retired.aspx DiskSpd is the suitable replacement for SQLIO. You can find details on that at http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2014/10/13/diskspd-powershell-and-storage-performance-measuring-iops-throughput-and-latency-for-both-local-disks-and-smb-file-shares.aspx ----------------   1. Introduction   I have been doing storage-related demos and publishing blogs with some storage performance numbers for a while, and I commonly get questions such as “How do … Continue reading SQLIO, PowerShell and storage performance: measuring IOPs, throughput and latency for both local disks and SMB file shares →

Increasing Availability – The REAP Principles (Redundancy, Entanglement, Awareness and Persistence)

Introduction   Increasing availability is a key concern with computer systems. With all the consolidation and virtualization efforts under way, you need to make sure your services are always up and running, even when some components fail. However, it’s usually hard to understand the details of what it takes to make systems highly available (or … Continue reading Increasing Availability – The REAP Principles (Redundancy, Entanglement, Awareness and Persistence) →

Hardware options for highly available Windows Server 2012 systems using shared, directly-attached storage

Highly available Windows Server 2012 systems using shared, directly-attached storage can be built using either Storage Spaces or a validated clustered RAID controller.   Option 1 – Storage Spaces You can build a highly available shared SAS system today using Storage Spaces. Storage Spaces works well in a standalone PC, but it is also capable … Continue reading Hardware options for highly available Windows Server 2012 systems using shared, directly-attached storage →