Single Instance Storage (SIS) in Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 is starting to generate some buzz on other blogs . A blog reader asked us to explain SIS in more detail. Over the next couple days, I’ll publish a series of 4 posts covering SIS basics and...

This is a common topic in the DFS_FRS newsgroup . Customers will describe how some users are unexpectedly denied access to targets in the namespace whereas other users can access the targets without problems. Customers also ask whether there are DFS permissions...

Everything here also applies to Windows 8. These features were first available in the Windows Server “8” Beta & Windows 8 Consumer Preview releases. See this document for protocol level details of these features. 1 Encryption SMB...

Introduction The Vista and Windows Server 2008 Defragmentation UI was limited to essential information and controls. Based on user feedback it was found that the UI was too minimal. In Win7 the UI intends to make the defrag operations more transparent...

The DFS-N test team has completed some extensive Performance and Scalability testing and we wanted to share some of the results. To start, here is a comparison of the performance of adding links to a standalone namespace. It includes data for Windows...

New blog post covers Multi-NIC File Server configurations: When you set up a File Server, there are advantages to configuring multiple Network Interface Cards (NICs). However, there are many options to consider depending on how your network and services...

Hi, this is Sanjoy Chatterjee again. In this post I will cover how referral timeout works in DFS Namespaces. When clients receive referrals from the DFS server, they cache these referrals in what was called the PKT Cache. The current terminology for...

Are the Backups secured? Yes . The Complete PC Backup (CPC) or Windows Server Backup (WSB) can be only invoked by a user belonging to either Administrators or Backup operators Group. § Disk: Backups are ACLed to be accessible only for only Administrators...

You probably heard that Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM) last week. That means that the OEMs will soon deliver a new generation of Windows-based NAS appliances with a file server (SMB2, NFS) and an iSCSI Target ...

Windows Server 2008 R2 File Classification Infrastructure provides a built-in solution for file classification allowing administrators to automate manual processes with predefined policies based on the data’s business value. ( Windows Server 2008 R2 File...

The DFS Namespaces team is excited to announce upcoming support for domain-based namespaces that exceed the previous size recommendation of 5,000 folders with targets in a namespace. Starting in Windows Server 2008, you will be able to use the DFS Management...

A customer in the public Windows Vista newsgroups recently asked us about the –i and –w parameters in the command-line tool Defrag.exe. Georgi Matev provided some helpful answers below: The -i option means that unless the machine is idle, defrag.exe...

A reader asked us why restore points are so large in Windows Vista compared to Windows XP. He notes “The average XP restore point was around 50 MB. On Vista, restores points vary between 1 GB - 3 GB.” Why the big difference? Eduardo Laureano, the Program...

1 Introduction 1.1 Overview of Primary Computer feature In Windows Server “8” Beta, administrators can designate a set of computers, known as primary computers, for each domain user, which controls which computers use Folder Redirection...

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...

There are two new features introduced in Windows Server 2012 related to iSCSI: iSCSI Target Server and Storage Provider. My previous blog post discussed the iSCSI Target Server in depth, this blog post will focus on the providers. Introduction There are...

For an overview of File Classification Infrastructure, check Classifying files based on location and content using the File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) in Windows Server 2008 R2 Are your file servers full of stale data slowing down your...

I’ve seen three recent posts in our microsoft.public.windows.server.dfs_frs newsgroup from DFS Namespaces customers who are trying to determine why clients are being referred to unexpected targets. Here is one example: “We seem to having problems with...

Deciding between System State Backup and Allcritical Backup in Windows Server 2008: Which one is the right solution for my needs? (To learn more about System State Backups and how to run these in Windows Server 2008 please check http://technet.microsoft...

My previous blog post explained how to configure the DFS Replication management pack . The backlog monitoring feature of the management pack is disabled by default and requires some additional configuration. This blog post explains how to enable backlog...

9/11 Update:   The ICT configuration guide is now located here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj643306   Inside Windows Server 2012 there is a new feature called the OEM Appliance OOBE that enables OEMs and enterprise IT to rapidly...

In this article, we'll take a look at a new class of VSS writers enabled in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that lower the cost for applications to participate in backups. Before we get there though, let’s briefly recap the role of VSS writers in backups...

Identify, classify, and protect data across targeted file servers in your organization The Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce that the Data Classification Toolkit for Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available for download...

In this blog post, let me touch on a topic that I frequently get questions on from customers. Most namespace scalability questions are along one of the following lines: I want to put x number of DFS folders in one DFS namespace, does this work?...

Overview In this blog post, let me introduce you to the new DFS Namespaces (DFSN) Windows PowerShell cmdlets that we have added in Windows Server 2012. Windows PowerShell is designed for automation and complex scripting, in part due to its powerful pipelining...