Windows Server Storage Sessions from TechEd Europe 2014 (includes links to recordings and slides)

This blog post includes a list of the Storage-related sessions from TechEd Europe 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. You can use it as an easy reference to the Storage sessions, including links to the recordings and the slides for each one. Day Time Code Title (with link to recording and slides) Speaker(s) Tue 8:30 AM … Continue reading Windows Server Storage Sessions from TechEd Europe 2014 (includes links to recordings and slides) →

Storage Quality of Service Guide Released for Windows Server Technical Preview

As part of the Windows Server Technical Preview released a few weeks ago, we announced the evolution of the Storage Quality of Service (Storage QoS) feature. Now, in addition to that TechNet page with an overview, we released the Storage QoS Step-by-Step Guide. An Overview of Storage QoS Storage Quality of Service … Continue reading Storage Quality of Service Guide Released for Windows Server Technical Preview →

SmbStorageTier.ps1: A simple way to pin files to tiers in Scale-Out File Servers

Storage Spaces Tiering Storage Spaces has an interesting new feature introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2: you can create a single space using different types of disk (typically HDDs and SSDs) and it will automatically move hot data to the fast tier and cold data to the slow tier. You can read more … Continue reading SmbStorageTier.ps1: A simple way to pin files to tiers in Scale-Out File Servers →

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

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 you run these tests?” or “What tools do you use to generate IOs for your demos?”. While it’s always best to use a real workload … Continue reading DiskSpd, PowerShell and storage performance: measuring IOPs, throughput and latency for both local disks and SMB file shares →

Adding Storage Performance to the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 script

A few weeks ago, I published a script to the TechNet Script Center that gathers health and capacity information for a Windows Server 2012 R2 storage cluster. This script checks a number of components, including clustering, storage spaces, SMB file shares and core storage. You can get more details at http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2014/07/27/powershell-script-for-storage-cluster-health-test-published-to-the-technet-script-center.aspx From the beginning, … Continue reading Adding Storage Performance to the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 script →

Don’t miss the SNIA Storage Developer Conference 2014

It must be September once again… We are only a couple of weeks away from the Storage Developer Conference (SDC) hosted by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The event will happen at the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) on the week of September 15th. As usual, We’ll also have the … Continue reading Don’t miss the SNIA Storage Developer Conference 2014 →

Using file copy to measure storage performance – Why it’s not a good idea and what you should do instead

1. Introduction Every once in a while I hear from someone that they believe they have a performance problem with their Scale-Out File Server. When I dig a little further, it’s very common to find that file copies are being used as the mechanism for measuring storage performance for all kinds of scenarios. This blog … Continue reading Using file copy to measure storage performance – Why it’s not a good idea and what you should do instead →

Understanding the files collected by the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 PowerShell script

I recently published a PowerShell script to check the health and capacity of a Storage Cluster based on Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Servers. You can find details about this script (including the download link) in this blog post: PowerShell script for Storage Cluster Health Test published to the TechNet Script Center. This script, … Continue reading Understanding the files collected by the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 PowerShell script →

SMB3 PowerShell changes in Windows Server 2012 R2: SMB1 can now be completely removed

Introduction Windows Server 2012 R2 introduced a new version of SMB. Technically it’s SMB version 3.02, but we continue to call it just SMB3. The main changes are described at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831474.aspx. With this new release, we made a few changes in SMB PowerShell to support the new scenarios and features. This includes a few new … Continue reading SMB3 PowerShell changes in Windows Server 2012 R2: SMB1 can now be completely removed →

SMB3 PowerShell changes in Windows Server 2012 R2: SMB Delegation