Drive Performance Report Generator – PowerShell script using DiskSpd by Arnaud Torres

Arnaud Torres is a Senior Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft in France who sent me the PowerShell script below called "Drive Performance Report Generator".He created the script to test a wide range of profiles in one run to allow people to build a baseline of their storage using DiskSpd.EXE.The script is written in PowerShell v1 and … Continue reading Drive Performance Report Generator – PowerShell script using DiskSpd by Arnaud Torres →

What’s new in SMB 3.1.1 in the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2

1. Introduction Every new version of Windows brings updates to our main remote file protocol, known as SMB (Server Message Block). If you’re not familiar with it, you can find some information in this previous blog post: Windows Server 2012 R2: Which version of the SMB protocol (SMB 1.0, SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1, SMB … Continue reading What’s new in SMB 3.1.1 in the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2 →

The Deprecation of SMB1 – You should be planning to get rid of this old SMB dialect

I regularly get a question about when will SMB1 be completely removed from Windows. This blog post summarizes the current state of this old SMB dialect in Windows client and server. 1) SMB1 is deprecated, but not yet removed We already added SMB1 to the Windows Server 2012 R2 deprecation list in June 2013. … Continue reading The Deprecation of SMB1 – You should be planning to get rid of this old SMB dialect →

Windows Server 2012 R2: Which version of the SMB protocol (SMB 1.0, SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1, SMB 3.0 or SMB 3.02) are you using?

Note: This blog post is a Windows Server 2012 R2 update on a previous version focused on Windows Server 2012. 1. Introduction With the release of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, I am frequently asked about how older versions of Windows will behave when connecting to or from these new versions. Upgrading … Continue reading Windows Server 2012 R2: Which version of the SMB protocol (SMB 1.0, SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1, SMB 3.0 or SMB 3.02) are you using? →

Windows Server 2012 File Server Tip: Disable 8.3 Naming (and strip those short names too)

This has been a performance tip for File Servers for some time now: disable short names. There are big performance savings in disabling 8.3 naming and also for removing existing short names on a volume. Here’s a diagram from a presentation I delivered last year: The old “8dot3 naming” convention has been obsolete for a … Continue reading Windows Server 2012 File Server Tip: Disable 8.3 Naming (and strip those short names too) →

TechEd 2011 demo install step-by-step (Hyper-V, AD, DNS, iSCSI Target, File Server Cluster, SQL Server over SMB2)

1. Introduction 1.1. Overview As I explained in a previous blog post, I delivered a presentation this week as part of the Microsoft TechEd 2011 event. The presentation was titled “Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation - Technology Update”. It included two demos that showed several Windows Server 2008 R2 features and also a … Continue reading TechEd 2011 demo install step-by-step (Hyper-V, AD, DNS, iSCSI Target, File Server Cluster, SQL Server over SMB2) →

TechEd 2011 Session WSV317: Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation – Technology Update

This week at TechEd 2011 I will be delivering a presentation about “Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation - Technology Update”. If you’re attending the conference in Atlanta-GA, this is session WSV317 on Wednesday at 10:15 AM, plus a repeat on Thursday also at 10:15 AM. The presentation is divided into 5 main topics: Overview … Continue reading TechEd 2011 Session WSV317: Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation – Technology Update →

File Server Team sessions at TechEd 2011 this week

If you're attending TechEd 2011 this week, here are sessions from the File Server team: WSV313 - Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Application Storage, Diskless Boot, and More!Speaker(s): Jian (Jane) YanTuesday, May 17 at 5:00 PM, room: B101 http://northamerica.msteched.com/topic/details/WSV313 WSV317 - Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services Consolidation: Technology UpdateSpeaker: Jose BarretoWednesday, 5/18 at … Continue reading File Server Team sessions at TechEd 2011 this week →

Diskless server boot using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and a regular network card

The new Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 is commonly deployed to provide data storage for servers that boot from a local hard drive. However, there are interesting cost savings and management advantages in deploying servers that have no local disk at all and get their syste and boot volumes from the iSCSI target. The iSCSI … Continue reading Diskless server boot using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and a regular network card →

Using 4k sector and advanced format drives in Windows. HotFix and support info for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

If you work with storage, you probably already heard about the “4K Sector Drives”, “Advanced Format Drives” and “512e drives”. These new “4K sector drives” abandon the traditional use of 512 bytes per sector in favor of a new structure that uses 4096 bytes. The migration to the new formats is eased by the use … Continue reading Using 4k sector and advanced format drives in Windows. HotFix and support info for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 →