New PowerShell cmdlets in Windows Server 2016 TP2 (compared to Windows Server 2012 R2)

  1. State the problem   With the release of Windows Server 2016 TP2 a few weeks ago, I was wondering what new PowerShell cmdlets are now included (when you compare to Windows Server 2012 R2). However, the list of cmdlets is so long now that it is hard to spot the differences by hand. … Continue reading New PowerShell cmdlets in Windows Server 2016 TP2 (compared to Windows Server 2012 R2)

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 PowerShell equivalents for common networking commands (IPCONFIG, PING, NSLOOKUP)

Network troubleshooting is part any System Administrator’s life. Maybe you need to check the IP address of a machine or test if its networking connection is working. Maybe you need to see if DNS is properly configured or check the latency between two hosts. If you have been in this field long enough, you probably … Continue reading Windows PowerShell equivalents for common networking commands (IPCONFIG, PING, NSLOOKUP)

New version of the Storage Spaces physical disk validation PowerShell script

The Storage Spaces team has just published a new version of the Storage Space disk validation script written in PowerShell. This script makes sure that the physical disks in a system have everything that is needed by Storage Spaces. That includes checking functional requirements and performance characteristics. In the same way that we ask you … Continue reading New version of the Storage Spaces physical disk validation PowerShell script

Using PowerShell to select Physical Disks for use with Storage Spaces

  1. Introduction   If you use PowerShell to configure Storage Spaces, you probably noticed that selecting physical disks is an important part of the process. You must select disks to create a pool and you might also need to do it also when you create a virtual disk using a subset of the disks. … Continue reading Using PowerShell to select Physical Disks for use with Storage Spaces

Windows Server Technical Preview – Storage Survival Guide (links to articles, blogs, downloads)

This blog post offers a collection of links to the publicly available content for those experimenting with the Windows Server Technical Preview, with focus in Storage.   Blog posts about the Windows Server Technical Preview An early look at the future of the datacenter from Microsoft Storage Replica Guide Released for Windows Server Technical Preview … Continue reading Windows Server Technical Preview – Storage Survival Guide (links to articles, blogs, downloads)

Testing Windows Server and the Scale-Out File Server – What should your lab look like?

  With the release of Windows Server Technical Preview, a common question comes to the surface again. What kind of lab hardware do I need to play with it? Ideally, you would get one of those new Cloud Platform System (CPS) racks with a 32-node Hyper-V cluster, a 4-node Scale-Out File Server and 4 JBODs … Continue reading Testing Windows Server and the Scale-Out File Server – What should your lab look like?

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