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Hi folks, Ned here again with a quickie post. HP recently released their latest file server SMB testing results, where they used FSCT and IOMeter to collect performance and scalability data with Windows Server 2012 running on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage NAS servers. The whitepaper holds plenty of details...

Hi folks, Ned here again. With the massive growth of virtualization, odds are you want to safely and reliably run Distributed File System Replication on Hyper-V, Xen, KVM, or VMware – heck, you may already be doing so. With that in mind, I am here today to save your job! OK that might overstating...

Hi folks, Ned Pyle here again. Back at AskDS , I used to write frequently about DFSR behavior and troubleshooting . As DFS Replication has matured and documentation grew, these articles dwindled. Recently though, one of the DFSR developers and I managed to find something undocumented: A DFSR server upgrade...

With Windows Server 2012, Server manager includes simple and easy to use, user interface that enables management of Windows Storage Spaces and other Storage Subsystems such as EMC Clariion VNX and Dell EqualLogic (but not limited to these) storage arrays with supporting SMI-S and SMP based Storage provider...

Hi folks, Ned Pyle here. As promised when I left AskDS and MS Support for greener pastures, I’m still in the blogging game – I told you I’d be back! Let’s start things off talking about improvements in Windows Server 2012 and DFS Replication (DFSR). Windows Server 2012 DFSR...

Introduction Windows Server 2012 ships with a rich set of PowerShell cmdlets to perform most of the Server for NFS share management operations. Using these cmdlets as building blocks, administrators can easily build backup and restore scripts for the NFS share settings and permissions that best suits...

This post covers the Server for NFS PowerShell cmdlets in Windows Server 2012 with brief description about each of them. You can get Server for NFS PowerShell cmdlets by installing “Server for NFS” role service from the File and Storage Services or by installing “ Services for Network...

This document describes the selection, configuration and usage of the user and group identity mapping options available to Client for NFS available in selected versions of Windows 8 and to Server for NFS and Client for NFS available in selected versions of in Windows Server 2012 to assist an systems...

In this tutorial, I’ll discuss how to setup VMware vSphere virtual machines with Windows server 2012 Server for NFS cluster as backend storage. Background VMware has supported running virtual machines hosted by its ESX server over the NFS v3 protocol. In this configuration, virtual machines...

In this article, we will talk about how we evaluate client fencing for Server for NFS role in Windows Server 2012, from targeting client permission to calculating combined permission result. We will also cover the caching strategy we implemented and lookup mechanism for netgroups. Lookup data are located...

In this tutorial, we will provision NFS server provided by “Server for NFS” role in Windows Server 2012 for use with Linux based client with Kerberos security with RPCSEC_GSS. Background Traditionally NFS clients and servers use AUTH_SYS security. This essentially allows the clients...

Introduction Server for Network File System (NFS) provides a file-sharing solution for enterprises that have a mixed Windows and UNIX environment. Server for NFS enables users to share and migrate files between computers running the Windows Server 2012 operating system using SMB protocol and UNIX...

Get the most out of Windows Server 2012 with new features that help you to quickly identify, classify, and protect data in your private cloud ! The Data Classification Toolkit supports new Windows Server 2012 features, Dynamic Access Control, and backward compatibility with the functionality in the...

In this introductory NFS blog post, let me provide you with an overview of Server for NFS feature implementation in Windows Server 2012. Native NFS support with Windows Server started with Windows Server 2003 R2 and has evolved over time with continuous enhancement in terms of functionality, performance...

Let me touch on an interesting topic in this blog post: “dirty shutdown” recovery of DFS Replication (DFSR). A TechNet blog post reviewing “What is new in Windows Server 2008” includes a good description of DFS Replication dirty shutdown recovery process. Related system event...

All providers have slightly different installation procedures and characteristics. This information should help you get started using the EMC provider which can be downloaded from Powerlink (you will need an account). Make sure you download the latest version (currently 4.4). This information applies...

In my last blog, I discussed the industry standard Storage Management Initiative (SMI-S) in general terms. Microsoft started supporting SMI-S for storage provisioning in System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, released earlier this year. With the upcoming Windows Server 2012, SMI-S support will be...

Microsoft Research (MSR) and the Windows File Server team worked together to build a new Data Deduplication feature in Windows Server 2012 . This feature came from 2 years of collaboration with MSR on the design. The development of the architecture and the algorithms we use for deduplication was driven...

About ten years ago, a group of engineers from different storage companies got together to create a powerful management abstraction that would enable tools for centralized storage environments like storage area networks (SAN) to become less vendor-specific but still allow any vendor to fully surface...

Windows Server 2012 comes with a complete set of PowerShell cmdlets for iSCSI. By combining the iSCSI target, iSCSI initiator, and storage cmdlets, you can automate pretty much all management tasks. This blog post will provide you with some examples. If you want more information about iSCSI Target and...

Following the introduction to Dynamic Access Control , I’d like to give you a few practical examples of how you can utilize Dynamic Access Control in your File Server environment. For many IT and Security architects that we talked to about Dynamic Access Control, the first reaction has been...

Hello all, we just published a new post for Dynamic Access Control on the Windows Server Blog: Introduction to Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control Here’s an excerpt: These focus areas were then translated to a set of Windows capabilities that enable data compliance in partner...

The iSCSI Target made its debut as a free download for Windows 2008 R2 in April 2011, since then, there were more than 60,000 downloads. That was the first step to make it available for everyone. Now in Windows Server 2012, no more downloads and separate installation; it comes as a build-in feature....

Hi, this is Scott Johnson and I’m a Program Manager on the Windows File Server team. I’ve been at Microsoft for 17 years and I’ve seen a lot of cool technology in that time. Inside Windows Server 2012 we have included a pretty cool new feature called Data Deduplication that enables you to efficiently...

In previous releases of Windows, the server updating tools (e.g. WSUS) did not factor in the fact that a group of servers could be members of a highly-available cluster. As failover clusters are all about high availability of services hosted on the cluster, one would almost never patch all cluster nodes...