New poster for Cloud Ecosystem: Microsoft Azure, Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2

For those who enjoy the Server Posterpedia posters, there is a new one that just became available for download. It’s called the "Cloud Ecosystem: Microsoft Azure, Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2" poster and it depicts both public and on-premises cloud technologies. Here’s a little thumbnail to give you an idea of … Continue reading New poster for Cloud Ecosystem: Microsoft Azure, Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2

PowerShell script for Storage Cluster Health Test published to the TechNet Script Center

I just published a PowerShell script to check the health and capacity of a Storage Cluster based on Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Servers. It assumes a specific configuration for Private Clouds using the solution described at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn554251.aspx. It performs specific health checks for Failover Clustering (Cluster, Resources, Networks, Nodes) Storage Spaces (Physical Disks, … Continue reading PowerShell script for Storage Cluster Health Test published to the TechNet Script Center

How the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 script checks for Storage Cluster health

I recently published the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 script to the TechNet Script Center, which checks for the health and capacity of a Storage Cluster based on Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Servers. This blog post explains the portion of the script that checks for Storage Cluster health, which is labeled “Phase 1”. To assess health, the … Continue reading How the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 script checks for Storage Cluster health

Updated Links on Windows Server 2012 R2 File Server and SMB 3.02

In this post, I'm providing a reference to the most relevant content related to Windows Server 2012 R2 that is related to the File Server, the SMB 3.02 features and its associated scenarios like Hyper-V over SMB and SQL Server over SMB. This is what some like to call a "Survival Guide" for SMB 3.02. … Continue reading Updated Links on Windows Server 2012 R2 File Server and SMB 3.02

Demo details for my TechEd 2014 presentation on File Server Networking

During my TechEd 2014 presentation on File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 R2, I did a demo showing a Scale-Out File Server Cluster. The demo consisted of showing the networking details of this cluster, looking both from the cluster perspective and the client side. I was asked after … Continue reading Demo details for my TechEd 2014 presentation on File Server Networking

Building your schedule for TechEd 2014? Here are some Storage-related sessions!

  TechEd NorthAmerica 2014 is just a few weeks away and it’s a sold-out event now. If you’re attending and you haven’t yet started building your schedule, you can consider yourself officially late. 🙂 If you’re focused on Private Cloud Storage and High Availability, let me suggest a few Breakout Sessions, Instructor-Led Labs (ILL) and … Continue reading Building your schedule for TechEd 2014? Here are some Storage-related sessions!

Step-by-Step for Mirrored Storage Spaces Resiliency using PowerShell

 0 - Overview  This blog post is a walkthrough of the resiliency offered by Storage Spaces when using mirrored spaces.For this exercise we have a single virtual machine with multiple data disks used to create the spaces.The idea is to simulate a number of different failure and recovery scenarios, reviewing the behavior.It includes the procedure … Continue reading Step-by-Step for Mirrored Storage Spaces Resiliency using PowerShell

Deploying a Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Server Cluster using Azure VMs

0) Overview In this document, I am sharing the steps I used to create a Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Server Cluster environment using only Azure VMs, for demo, test or development purposes. This includes a few important tips and tricks to install Active Directory and Windows Server Failover Clustering in an Azure VM … Continue reading Deploying a Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Server Cluster using Azure VMs

TechEd 2014: File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure

Just a reminder that I will be delivering a session at TechEd 2014 in Houston, Texas. Here are the details:   Code   DCIM-B337 Title   File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 R2 Date   Tuesday, May 13 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM Track   Datacenter and Infrastructure … Continue reading TechEd 2014: File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure

SMB Direct and RDMA performance demo from TechEd (includes summary, PowerShell scripts and links)

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 ---------------- Overview   My last TechEd demo showed some interesting performance data for SMB3 over RDMA (SMB Direct), including the latest small IO improvements in Windows Server 2012 R2. Since I … Continue reading SMB Direct and RDMA performance demo from TechEd (includes summary, PowerShell scripts and links)