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 →

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 →

Sample C# code for using the latest WMI classes to manage Windows Storage

This blog post shows a bit of C# code to use the Windows Storage Management API (SM-API) classes that were introduced in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. You can find a list of these classes at class described at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh830612.aspx, including MSFT_PhysicalDisk, MSFT_StoragePool or MSFT_VirtualDisk. I found a number of examples with the … Continue reading Sample C# code for using the latest WMI classes to manage Windows Storage →

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 →

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 →

PowerShell tips for building objects with custom properties and special formatting

I’ve been building a number of scripts that query information using PowerShell. To create those, I used some PowerShell tricks to make the output look just like I wanted. This post is a compilation of these tricks. The first few tricks are simple, but they grow increasingly complex towards the end. The examples here … Continue reading PowerShell tips for building objects with custom properties and special formatting →

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 →