Getting started with Storage Replica in Windows Server Technical Preview

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Storage Replica (SR) is a new feature that enables storage-agnostic, block-level, synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability. Synchronous replication enables mirroring of data in physical sites with crash-consistent volumes ensuring zero data loss at the file system level. Asynchronous replication allows site extension beyond metropolitan ranges with the possibility of data loss.

Ned Pyle, the Product Manager for Storage Replica, has written a great “getting started” guide here:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/f843291f-6dd8-4a78-be17-ef92262c158d/getting-started-with-windows-volume-replication?forum=WinServerPreview

I got mine going after adding the Windows Storage Replication feature in Server Manager:

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It’s configured in Failover Clustering:

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I’m working with a customer who is really excited that in-box volume replication has come to Windows Server. It’s going to be interesting to discover best practices and ideal use cases for Storage Replica as we get closer to the final release.