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I recently got a stream of e-mails and questions about the maximum number of cluster nodes you can have in a Scale-Out File Server cluster. For the record, we test and support up to 8 nodes per file server cluster. This is the case for both Windows Server 2012 (which introduced the Scale-Out File Server...

I was visiting the expo area at MMS 2013 earlier today and saw that Iron Networks was showing a private cloud pod there, complete with a set of well-matched layers of compute, storage and networking. They were demonstrating several of the latest capabilities in Windows Server 2012 and System Center...

Question via e-mail: I am using blade servers for my Hyper-V cluster and I can only have two NICs per blade in this configuration. I am considering two options on how to configure the NICs: 1) Use one NIC for internal network and one NIC for external network, connected to the virtual switch...

One smart MVP was doing some testing and noticed that SMB Multichannel did not trigger immediately after an SMB session was established. So, he asked: How much traffic needs to pass between the SMB Client and Server before Multichannel actually starts? Well... SMB Multichannel works slightly different...

Question from a user (paraphrased): When we access a local file via loopback UNC path, is this the same as accessing via the local path? I mean, is "C:\myfolder\a.txt" equal to " \\myserver\myshare\a.txt " or I'll be using TCP/IP in any way? Answer from SMB developer: When accessing files over loopback...

If you're an IT Administrator, you're likely to use the new SMB PowerShell cmdlets to manage your SMB 3.0 file shares. You can find details about those at http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2012/06/27/the-basics-of-smb-powershell-a-feature-of-windows-server-2012-and-smb-3-0.aspx However, if...

SMB Multichannel will let you use multiple network interfaces at once for added throughput and network fault tolerance. When using it with non-clustered file servers, you have the most flexible options, including using multiple NICs on the same subnet. In fact, you can have all the multiple NICs on the...

The new SMB Multichannel feature improves performance for network interfaces by using multiple TCP connections for a single network interface automatically. SMB will only do this if your network interface reports itself as RSS-capable, which means it can use Receive Side Scaling. You can check that with...

When you install a fresh copy of Windows Server 2012 and configure it with the File Server role, the default Power Setting balances power efficiency and performance. For this reason, even if you have a few high speed network interfaces and the fastest SSD storage out there, you might not be getting...

I’m always amazed by the vast amount of knowledge being posted online for free download. If you are an IT Professional who deals with Storage (or if you manage one of them), check out the high-quality tutorials just posted online by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). These peer...

1. Introduction I have been presenting our solution in Windows Server 2012 for File Storage for Virtualization (Hyper-V over SMB) and Databases (SQL Server over SMB) for a while now. I always start the conversation talking about how simple and easy it is for an IT Administrator or an Application...

I have three presentations lined up for the ComputerWorld/SNIA SNW Fall 2012 Conference, scheduled for October 16-19, 2012 in Santa Clara, California. Here are the details for each one, taken from the official event web site. Industry Perspective: High Throughput File Servers with SMB Direct, Using...

Outline 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview 1.2. Hardware 1.3. Software 1.4. Notes and disclaimers 2. Install Windows Server 2012 2.1. Preparations 2.2. Install the OS 2.3. Rename the computer 2.4. Enable Remote Desktop 3. Configure the Hyper-V Host 3.1. Install the Hyper-V role to the server 3.2...

1) Introduction We have covered the basics of SMB Direct and some of the use cases in previous blog posts and TechNet articles. You can find them at http://smb3.info . However, I get a lot of questions about specifically which cards work with this new feature and how exactly you set those up. This...

1) Introduction We have covered the basics of SMB Direct and some of the use cases in previous blog posts and TechNet articles. You can find them at http://smb3.info . However, I get a lot of questions about specifically which cards work with this new feature and how exactly you set those up. This...

1) Introduction We have covered the basics of SMB Direct and some of the use cases in previous blog posts and TechNet articles. You can find them at http://smb3.info . However, I get a lot of questions about specifically which cards work with this new feature and how exactly you set those up. This...

1) Introduction We have covered the basics of SMB Direct and some of the use cases in previous blog posts and TechNet articles. You can find them at http://smb3.info . However, I get a lot of questions about specifically which cards work with this new feature and how exactly you set those up. This...

1. Introduction Windows Server 2012 includes a new feature called SMB Multichannel, part of the SMB 3.0 protocol, which increases the network performance and availability for File Servers.   1.1. Benefits SMB Multichannel allows file servers to use multiple network connections simultaneously and...

We had a great time showing Windows Server 2012 at TechEd North America and I wanted to share that the recording for our team’s sessions are now publicly available. That includes our sessions on SMB 3.0 and a number of demos, many of them using one of the Cluster-in-box configurations we were...

The Microsoft TechEd 2012 North America conference is happening this week in Orlando, FL. As part of that event, a number of partners are showing their hardware and/or software at the exhibit area called the TechExpo. I have spent some time there and took a few pictures of a few partners that have...

This blog post is now obsolete. For the latest post on this topic, visit http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2012/07/31/deploying-windows-server-2012-with-smb-direct-smb-over-rdma-and-the-mellanox-connectx-2-connectx-3-using-infiniband-step-by-step.aspx 1) Introduction We have covered...

This blog post is obsolete. For the latest post on this topic, see http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2012/07/31/deploying-windows-server-2012-with-smb-direct-smb-over-rdma-and-the-intel-neteffect-ne020-card-using-iwarp-step-by-step.aspx 1) Introduction We have covered the basics...

If you’re reading up on Windows Server 2012, you probably saw that using file storage for your Hyper-V and SQL Server data is one of our key new scenarios. You can read more about this in the TechNet article called “High-Performance, Continuously Available File Share Storage for Server Applications”...

SNW Spring 2012 in Dallas is about a week away. Co-owned by Computerworld and Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), SNW is a conference focused on Information Infrastructure with tracks covering: Backup and Archiving in the Cloud Big Data Business Continuity Cloud Storage ...

Last month at the //Build/ conference we had a large number of presentations delivered and made available to download and stream. Several Microsoft Partners and Developers that are focused on Storage, Networking or Hyper-V have asked me for a list of links to help them find the Widows Server 8 sessions...