Kevin Remde's IT Pro Weblog
In Windows Server 2012 Microsoft includes many improvements, but also many new capabilities “in the box”. One of the new things we’re including is built-in support for data deduplication.
“Wait.. you mean like when a process makes more efficient use of the space used on a storage volume by finding all blocks of data that are the same, just one copy of what will be used for more than one file, thereby freeing up disk space?”
Congratulations. I couldn’t have said it better myself. But here’s an even better description of the feature from the TechNet page on the subject:
“Data deduplication involves finding and removing duplication within data without compromising its fidelity or integrity. The goal is to store more data in less space by segmenting files into small variable-sized chunks (32–128 KB), identifying duplicate chunks, and maintaining a single copy of each chunk. Redundant copies of the chunk are replaced by a reference to the single copy. The chunks are compressed and then organized into special container files in the System Volume Information folder.”
In today’s installment of our “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, we are fortunate to have our former teammate Chris Henley (currently of Veeam) doing the writing for us.
READ HIS ARTICLE HERE
In today’s installment of our "31 Days of our Favorite Things" in Windows Server 2012, Matt Hester summarizes the key benefits, plus a couple of really slick improvements available with PowerShell in its newest form. He specifically focuses on just a couple of his favorites: PowerShell History, and the new Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), and then concludes with some useful related resources.
CHECK OUT PART 3!
In Windows Server 2008 we introduced you to the notion of a “Core” installation. The idea with Server Core was that you had a minimal installation of a server workhorse that didn’t contain any of the extra fluff. And when I say fluff, I mean GUI / UI / Windows Explorer / IE / multimedia.. stuff. Things that you don’t really need or want on a server if you want to get the best performance, plus the benefit of a reduced attack surface for the sake of security.
“I like the idea, Kevin.. but Server Core is hard to administer."
Yeah.. but that greatly improved with Windows Server 2008 R2, and is even better now in Windows Server 2012. It’s so good, in fact, that the core installation is the default installation of Windows Server 2012.
“But if I install a Core of Server 2008 R2, I’m stuck with it. I’d really like to be able to add the GUI later. Or maybe install it as a Full installation, but then remove the GUI.”
You’re in luck. That’s what we’re allowing in Windows Server 2012. It is no longer a one-time decision when you’re doing the installation of the server. You can add or remove the UI features quite easily, either using the Add (or remove) Roles and Features wizard, or by using PowerShell.
In today’s entry for our “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, Keith Mayer will show off how you can choose and then change your choice between a Core install and a “Server with GUI” installation.
READ HIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE HERE
So you have files to secure…
“Yeah..”
And forever you’ve been using security groups in Active Directory, and file and/or share permissions in Access Control Lists (ACLs), right?
“Uh huh. What’s wrong with that?”
Nothing. But what if I were to tell you that you have some new and very flexible options available to you now in Windows Server 2012?
“I’m listening…”
In Server 2012 we introduce a capability called Dynamic Access Control. Basically, the idea is to give you the ability to grant or deny access based on more than just security groups and permissions. For example, your user accounts in Active Directory have details such as Department or Country, so why can’t you use those items to apply permissions?
And maybe there are certain aspects of some documents that we could dynamically detect, and assign usage rights to those documents based on those aspects. For example, a document that contains some set of numbers that looks like a U.S. Social Security number. Based on that, we would grant access to the document to only a very select set of individuals.
“That sounds very useful! Where can I go to learn more?”
I’m glad you asked. In today’s installment of “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, my friend and coworker Brian Lewis gives a good description of Dynamic Access Control in Windows Server 2012.
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Does Dynamic Access Control interest you? Are you going to start looking at file security in a more dynamic way now? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 include some really exciting and flexible new capabilities for moving virtual machines and their resources (storage) around from here to there – all without any virtual machine down-time. In today’s installment of our “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, my friend and coworker Keith Mayer contributes a very rich discussion of Live Migration (you VMware users call it “vMotion”), and even shows off his PowerShell prowess with some cool examples of driving migrations using PowerShell.
Check it out HERE!
Have you tried out Windows Server 2012 yet? What about Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
Yes, you read that subject line correctly. We’ve actually improved the volume error detection so much in Windows Server 2012 that you’ll rarely if ever have to run a CHKDSK command to fix it. And if you do, it will run fast and get out of your way.
In our 29th installment of “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, Matt Hester does an excellent job of summarizing how the new CHKDSK works so much better than in the past; even on very large volumes.
And he also describes the equivalent method of doing a CHKDSK using PowerShell. Do you want to take a guess at what the PowerShell cmdlet is?
“Um… ‘Check-Disk’?”
Nope. That would be a very good guess, though. However, I think because it’s really more of a repair than a simple check, and that we’re talking about volumes rather than disks.. the actual PowerShell cmdlet is “Repair-Volume”.
“Hey Kevin.. why do you have a photo of road construction barriers here?”
Matt shares an interesting analogy of disk repairs and road construction in his article. For all of the details on the new CHKDSK, as well as the road construction analogy, READ MATT’S EXCELLENT ARTICLE HERE.
Have you always wanted a faster way to repair a disk? Or wished that errors would happen less frequently? Me too.
Many of you reading my blog are responsible for not only your local users and network and IT infrastructure, but also for supporting those poor folks who work remote branch offices. And I say “poor folks” in the context of their access to the documents and applications that they would like quicker access to; because those are housed in the main office or at the corporate H.Q. Those poor people probably have a WAN connection over the Internet that connects them to the stuff they need to do. So.. even though they’re potentially working on the same web applications or the same documents as their local coworkers at the Scranton Branch, each time they have to work on that corp-based document requires the file to go across the slow WAN connection. And that takes time and wastes bandwidth.
But in Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft introduced technology called BranchCache. With it, your branch office workers are likely to have local, automatically cached copies of the documents or applications they frequently use. And it can be as automatic as using the PCs themselves to maintain the cached copies, or by setting up servers to maintain them. But in either case, your branch office users won’t have to know or care about that. All they’ll notice is that the file that usually took them 10-15 seconds to open is now there almost immediately.
Today’s “31 Days of our Favorite Things” author is Brian Lewis. He’s going to expand upon and explain BrancheCache, and how it has been improved upon in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.
READ HIS ARTICLE HERE.
Care to share your impressions of or experiences with BranchCache? Got a tip or a question? That’s what the comments are for.
“SMB? You mean Server Message Block?”
Yep.
“Better? It’s just the protocol for accessing files across a network, isn’t it?”
Yes. But can you use that file share storage for fast, highly available file access and use it for, say, a database file used by the database server? Or as the location for a virtual machine’s hard disks and configuration; even for a virtual machine running on a virtualization plaform on another server?
“No way! SMB could never support that kind of performance?"
Ah ha! Guess again! In Windows Server 2012 we have improved and included a new version of SMB: SMB 3.0. (Here is the SMB 3.0 Overview on TechNet, in case you’re interested.)
In today’s installment of “31 Days of our Favorite Things”, my good friend Matt Hester is going to share with you all the details.
Can you imagine what kinds of possibilities this is going to give you? It’s pretty exciting. Let’s discuss it in the comments…
I’m almost at the big THREE DIGITS in the number of people who “LIKE” my “Kevin Remde is Full of I.T.” Facebook page.
Go there, “like” the page, and push it over the top!
“Gee Kevin.. that was a bit gratuitous.”
Really? Do ya think so? Forgive me. I’m in a silly mood.