Hi folks, here are some great links on TechNet to help OEMs and end-users with Windows Storage Server 2008 and the iSCSI Software Target.

Windows Storage Server 2008

1. Storage Server Overview:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573315(WS.10).aspx
2. Getting Started Guide:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573323(WS.10).aspx
3. Known Issues and Updates:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd904408(WS.10).aspx

iSCSI Software Target

1. iSCSI Target Overview:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573326(WS.10).aspx
2. Getting Started Guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573325(WS.10).aspx
3. Known Issues and Updates:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd904411(WS.10).aspx
4. New!   Interoperability page for the iSCSI Target: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee621808(WS.10).aspx 
   This outlines the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.1 and 3.2 Interoperability with Third-Party iSCSI Initiators.

Cheers,

Scott

Here it is! The iSCSI Target team has compiled a great FAQ to kick off the new release.  Checkout these entries and if you have additional questions click the little link below to send me a message and we will continue to build on the FAQ. We hope you are enjoying the nirvana of Windows Storage Server appliances and the iSCSI Software Target! I am forgetting why people ever put hard disks into application servers.

Product Documentation

Q: Where can I find the documentation for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2?

A: iSCSI Software Target 3.2 documentation is available through OEMs with the purchase of an appliance running Windows Storage Server 2008 and the iSCSI Software Target 3.2 (an optional add-on). Or, checkout the new TechCenter for Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2 here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd573326(WS.10).aspx

Product Availability

Q: Where can I buy Microsoft iSCSI Software Target?

A: iSCSI Software Target 3.2 is available through OEMs with the purchase of an appliance running Windows Storage Server 2008. Developers and IHVs who are interested in evaluation versions of Windows Storage Server 2008 and Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2 can obtain them from one of the following locations:

· Embedded Licensing Products Evaluation Registration Site

· MSDN and TechNet subscription sites (you can find out more on Jose Barreto’s blog)

Using iSCSI Software Target on Failover Clusters

Q. How do I create iSCSI targets on a failover cluster?

A. Step-by-step instructions are provided in the iSCSI Software Target help file, which is available from the Help menu in the iSCSI Software Target snap-in. Begin with the topic titled “Configuring iSCSI Storage for High Availability.” Your OEM may have provided additional documentation specific to your appliance configuration.

Q: Why do I see DNS Failure on the iSCSI network name cluster resource?

A: The default network properties will force the Network Name resource to attempt to register itself with a DNS Server. This may result in slower than expected iSCSI resource group movement between Windows Storage Server 2008 cluster nodes. The recommendation is to remove the DNS registration requirements by adjusting the appropriate network properties.

1. Open the Network Sharing Center on one of the Windows Storage Server 2008 systems.

2. Select Manage network connections.

3. Select Properties for the iSCSI Network.

4. Select Properties for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).

5. Select the Advanced tab.

6. Select the DNS tab.

7. Deselect the Register this connection’s addresses in DNS.

8. Close the Properties for the iSCSI Network.

9. If there are any additional iSCSI networks, repeat Step 3 to 8 for each one.

Q: Why does my DHCP assigned public network automatically get assigned to my clustered iSCSI Target?

A: This is the default behavior of the High Availability wizard. We recommend that you use Failover Cluster Manager to delete the resources for DHCP IP addresses that are not required to support iSCSI target access.

Q: Can I use Failover Cluster Manager to edit or delete the iSCSI target and VHD resources that are automatically created by the iSCSI Software Target snap-in?

A: No, do not use Failover Cluster Manager for this purpose. Editing or deleting these resources can lead to unpredictable results. All management of the iSCSI target and VHDs should be done using the iSCSI Software Target snap-in.

Q: I created iSCSI target and VHD resources using Failover Cluster Manager, but they are automatically deleted. Why?

A: iSCSI Software Target automatically deletes these resources. You should never create them directly using Failover Cluster Manager. Instead, use the iSCSI Software Target snap-in.

Q: I just used Failover Cluster Manager to create a highly available server instance (resource group) for use with an iSCSI target. However, when I try to create an iSCSI target using the ISCSI Software Target snap-in, the wizard states that I do not have an eligible resource group, even though I just created one. Why?

A: The newly created resource group may be owned by a different node than the one on which you are running the snap-in. You can check the current owner in Failover Cluster Manager (under Services and Applications, click the resource group and look for Current Owner).

If the current owner is not the node on which you are running the iSCSI Software Target snap-in, you will need to do one of the following tasks:

· Move the resource group to the current node using the Failover Cluster Manager snap-in. Just right-click the resource group and then click Move this service or application to another node and select the desired node.

· Switch to the node that’s the current owner and launch the iSCSI Software Target snap-in to create the iSCSI target.

· Use MMC to open a new copy of the iSCSI Software Target snap-in and remotely manage the other node.

Q: Can I turn on maintenance mode for shared disks that are hosting iSCSI Target VHDs?

A: No, iSCSI Target resource groups cannot function if their disks are in maintenance mode. If you need to perform maintenance on the cluster disks, you must first take the iSCSI Target resource groups offline.

General Support Questions

Q: Which initiators work with iSCSI Software Target 3.2?

A: We tested the following initiators:

· Microsoft iSCSI Initiator 2.07 and 2.08 in Windows Server 2003

· Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in Windows Server 2008 SP1

· Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in Windows Server 2008 R2 (beta version)

· Qlogic QLE4062C-SP, firmware 3.00.01.24

· RedHat Enterprise Linux v5

· SuSE Enterprise Linux v10

Q: What is the minimum volume size for storing virtual disks used by iSCSI targets?

A: Due to Volume Shadow Copy Service requirements, the minimum volume size is 300 MB. If you try to create a virtual disk on a volume smaller than 300 MB, you may see the following error:

The virtual disk cannot be created on the selected volume. The replication operation failed because a required parent object is missing.

The workaround is to extend the size of your volume (if possible) and then try creating the virtual disk again.

Q: Can I store iSCSI Target VHDs on FAT32 volumes?

A: No, only NTFS volumes are supported. If you use a FAT volume, you’ll get the following error:

The virtual disk cannot be created on the selected volume. The replication operation failed because a required parent object is missing.

Q: Can I shrink an iSCSI virtual disk?

A: No, the iSCSI Software Target does not provide a way to shrink iSCSI virtual disks. If you use an initiator to shrink a volume on an iSCSI virtual disk, the virtual disk itself does not shrink accordingly.

Q: Does the target support multiple connections per session?

A: No, but you can use MPIO for path redundancy.

Q: Does the target support persistent reservation SCSI commands?

A: Yes, iSCSI target handles SCSI-3 Persistent Reservation commands.

Troubleshooting

Q: I’m having difficulty getting the initiator to see my targets. What’s wrong?

A. There are three common causes:

· The initiator IQN identifier in the target has a typographical error. Check Target -> Properties -> Initiators. The foolproof method is to copy and paste the initiator IQN into the target’s identifier list.

· The initiator DNS name in the target is not being resolved correctly. This can fail in certain networking environments. See the next question in the FAQ for details.

· The target DNS name entered into the initiator resolves to the wrong IP. Verify that yourtarget.yourdomain.com resolves to the target’s IP address.

If you tried these steps and still can’t connect, check the following:

· Ensure that firewall ports and exceptions are correctly set. Your OEM may have done this at the factory, but if not, you can use the following netsh commands to open the necessary ports on the Windows Storage Server 2008 appliance hosting the iSCSI targets:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Service-TCP-3260" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3260

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Service-TCP-135" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=135

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Service-UDP-138" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=138

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Service" dir=in action=allow program="%SystemRoot%\System32\WinTarget.exe" enable=yes

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target Service Status Proxy" dir=in action=allow program="%SystemRoot%\System32\WTStatusProxy.exe" enable=yes

· By default, iSCSI Target does not listen to the auto-configured addresses 169.254.x.x. If you are using an auto-configured address, you’ll have to manually enable these by right clicking on the root node (“Microsoft iSCSI Software Target”) in the iSCSI Software Target snap-in and selecting Properties.

· One quick way to test remote connectivity from an initiator is to telnet to the Windows box using port 3260. If you can’t connect using telnet, then there’s something misconfigured external to the target (e.g., firewall, initiator config, etc).

Q: When I created my target, I assigned initiator access by using the initiator’s DNS name. Now my initiator can’t connect to the target. What’s wrong?

When configuring initiator access to a target, IQNs are the preferred method and will work regardless of DNS configuration. IQNs are the standard naming convention for identifying targets and initiators, and we encourage customers to use IQNs whenever possible.

For convenience, the option of specifying an initiator’s DNS domain name is built into the iSCSI Software Target snap-in. If you prefer to use DNS names, you can do so as long as DNS is configured correctly (including forward and reverse lookup zones) and you specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the initiator. If you have difficulty in connecting the target to the initiator after specifying the initiator FQDN, you should check that reverse lookup is enabled correctly by running the following command on the target server:

nslookup <InitiatorIP>

If the nslookup command fails, then DNS reverse lookup is not configured and you should reconfigure the target to use the initiator IQN.

Alternatively, you can specify a NetBIOS name of the initiator only if the following two conditions are met:

· No DNS reverse lookup zones are configured for the subnet used by the target, and

· Network Discovery or File Sharing is enabled on both the initiator and target servers

Q: My initiator is stuck in the “Reconnecting…” state. Why and how do I fix this?

A. If you have both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled, and your Windows Storage Server 2008 appliance is restarted, the initiator may hit a bug that causes the initiator to enter a looping Reconnecting state. Hotfix 970658 was released to address this issue.

Q: I have extended my VHD but the initiator still shows the old size. How do I fix this?

A. Use Disk Management on the initiator to rescan the disks.

Q: I took a snapshot on the target side but some files are missing. Why?

A. The iSCSI Target creates crash-consistent snapshots of virtual disks. For a virtual disk to be restored in a way that is application consistent, so that the server application recovers completely, the snapshots should be made from the iSCSI initiator. This functionality requires the use of the VSS Hardware Provider on the iSCSI initiator server.

VSS and VDS Hardware Provider Questions

Q. Do I need to install these providers before I can use iSCSI Software Target?

A. No, these providers are only needed in the following scenarios:

· You install the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target VDS Hardware Provider on each iSCSI initiator computer running a VDS-aware storage management application (such as Storage Manager for SANs).

· You install the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target VSS Hardware Provider when you want to create transportable snapshots of iSCSI virtual disks and create application-consistent snapshots. You install this hardware provider on the iSCSI initiator server and the server that is to perform backups. The backup software you use must support transporting snapshots.

Q. Where do I download or find the VSS and VDS hardware providers?

A. The VSS and VDS providers are provided as part of the iSCSI Software Target package that you received from the OEM. Typically the providers are either installed on the storage appliance or available as a download from the OEM.

Q. Do I need to open firewall ports for enabling VSS or VDS hardware providers on the initiator?

A. For the VDS hardware provider, you must run the following netsh command on the initiator:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Microsoft iSCSI Software Target VDS Hardware Provider" dir=in action=allow program="%SystemRoot%\System32\Wtvdsprov.exe" enable=yes

 

Best Wishes,
iSCSI Target Team

Dell has launched their new storage appliance that is powered by Windows Storage Server 2008!   This is a great example of what can happen with a partnership of Microsoft with a server manufacturer.  Windows Storage Server 2008 with a PowerVault!  Now that is a winning combination!

I love the clean messaging, “Built-in efficiency to manage both file and block data”

• Advanced software for more efficient data Sharing
• No time wasted to setup or manage
• Integration that adapts to your environment

I walked through the out-of-box-experience (OOBE) with Dell a few weeks ago and I was really impressed,  they have a great application that quickly gets users to their language of choice and does all the setup and configuration in a few simple clicks.  It really was less than 20 minutes and we were serving up NAS files using SMB or NFS or coughing up iSCSI LUNs to application servers.

Dell has embraced the industry leading file services features that started with Windows Server 2008, including Distributed File System (DFS), Network File System (NFS), easy management through the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) and the great performance advancements of SMB 2.0.  It would be a sweet solution with just those features, but then you tack on the Microsoft goodies that come in Windows Storage Server such as Single-Instance Storage (SIS) for data de-duplication, file-server optimization settings to speed up network and file access and the remote administration features make this a super-sweet solution.

 

The PowerVault^TM  NX3000 supports systems management with remote management through iDRAC and OpenManage 6.1including DMC (Dell Management Console), IT Assistant

Congratulations to Dell for coming out with what looks like a great storage appliance!!

I can’t wait to see the next appliance coming out of the factory and I’d love to hear from some end-users about their experiences with the new product!

 

Thanks for being a storage-loving web surfer!

Scott M. Johnson
Windows Storage Server

The first Windows Storage Server 2008- based products have just released from HP this week, here is an excerpt from their blog:

“The new HP StorageWorks X1000 and X3000 Network Storage Systems enable customers to easily manage and optimize their storage capacity by consolidating file and block data into a unified storage solution. These new solutions increase performance by up to 30 percent over previous HP file and unified storage solutions.  As a result, companies can reduce costs and simplify data management by improving capacity optimization of storage resources.”

The business-value tagline:  “Delivers Windows-powered unified network storage that is easy to install, easy to manage, and easy to expand to your small, medium, or workgroup IT environment.“

The X3000:     

 

HP has done a good job articulating the key benefits of their solution:

Get more for your money

• A single, centralized storage system
• Multi-protocol optimized file serving

Microsoft iSCSI Software Target included

• iSCSI target is included in every box, I think that is awesome!
• Host storage for applications like Microsoft Exchange and SQL, or for Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware deployments.

Storage-specific tools and features included

• Get Quotas, File Screening, Storage Reporting, Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots, and Distributed File System (DFS) Replication—all at no extra cost.

Print server support

• X1000 Network Storage Systems host print services too, offering consolidation benefits to your Windows print environment.

Do more with fewer resources

• Be up and sharing storage in minutes, not hours
• The operating system is pre-installed and user storage is easy to provision with HP X1000 Automated Storage Manager, so you can add storage to your network quickly and safely.

HP X1000 Automated Storage Manager (HP ASM)

• Create, migrate, manage, and protect file shares (NAS) and application storage (iSCSI Target) without the need for storage expertise.
• Automated ‘best practice’ logic setup storage without your needing to know industry-established best practices. HP ASM is like having a storage expert in the box.

Spend less time and effort managing files

• A consolidated and unified shared storage system means you have one thing to manage, expand, and protect.
• Get more space using file deduplication:  Single Instance Storage (SIS) recovers up to 35% of disk capacity by reducing the number of redundant files.

Familiar management look and feel

• If you've used Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to manage a Windows server, you're probably already familiar with how to manage X1000 Network Storage Systems.

Protect and optimize your investment

• HP ProLiant platform
  Relax — your investment is protected because you're not locked into proprietary hardware. And you can take advantage of built-in functionality like Integrated Lights-Out2 that lets you manage and troubleshoot remotely. X1000 models integrate with HP SIM and support ProLiant Support Pack.

Industry-standard components and interconnects

• X1000 Network Storage Systems feature Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors, support for SATA or SAS internal hot plug hard drives, and easy external SAS expansion with HP StorageWorks MSA enclosures. There's also an X1000 BladeSystem storage solution (X1800sb).

Seamless integration into your environment

• They're running Windows, so they integrate natively (not by emulation) into your Active Directory and DFS environments, and run your favorite antivirus, backup, and storage management applications.

Optional data services that integrate with HP ASM

• Backup to disk, tape, or other removable media with Data Protector Express Software, and replicate data on a scheduled basis to another system using HP Storage Mirroring Software.

All I have to say is WOW!

They have done a great job with this new product and I think it will be a big hit. Having the iSCSI Software Target standard on every box is a game-changer! We did a research study around NAS appliances and most people (over 80%) bought a unified storage device when they purchased a NAS device, so in reality NAS = unified now and it is part of the standard offering for most appliances.  When I talk about Network Attached Storage (NAS), I can finally free my mind from thinking about “File” vs. “Block” storage.

We are going to see a bunch of solutions coming out with this new NAS platform and I will post links as soon as they are available.  If you know of a solution that just came out, drop me a line and I’ll post it!

Thanks,
Scott M. Johnson
Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
NAS Appliances

Wow!  It is finally here!  It has been a labor of love for me and I am very pleased to announce the availability of Windows Storage Server 2008. We have been working on the engineering to produce these editions of Windows for over two years and it is mind-boggling just how many details and thousands of hours of testing that go into it. This is going to be an exciting release and I can’t wait to see the new storage appliances rolling off the factory floors from our OEM partners.  The bits are available now for partners that build on top of the platform.  Next week we will release the RTM media to MSDN subscribers for evaluation and development.

Over the next few weeks, we will post a series of blogs highlighting the new features and some tips and tricks manufacturers can use to configure and get the system running at its full potential.

 

Here is quick rundown of the features that make appliances built on Windows Storage Server 2008 so compelling:

Single Instance Storage (SIS) v2
Reduce disk space consumption by eliminating duplicate files on data volumes. The savings that can be realized are completely based on the data on the volume, the quantity and size of the duplicates. I have personally seen savings from 7% all the way up to 70% for specific environments like build servers that hold hundreds of copies of the same file. The new version includes official support for 128 volumes (V1 was 6 volumes), a remote-able command-line interface, WMI support, improved clustering, ability to remove single instancing (without using xcopy) and improvements to make it more resilient to outages. We tested SIS on volumes with 5.6 million files and 2.3 million duplicates while simultaneously reading and writing 35,000 files. This is ready for prime-time. SIS has good read performance for a de-duplication product that works on primary storage and once somebody starts writing to their copy of the file, we create a new copy of the file automatically for them. The write performance has the same characteristics as a normal file after it is removed from the common store. If you use DPM 2007 to backup your Windows Storage Servers, the VSS support enables the backup to preserve the single instancing instead of trying to copy every file. Most people only use de-duplication in a backup environment, but with SIS, you can start saving space immediately. 

iSCSI Software Target 3.2
iSCSI is storage over Ethernet and it is a fantastic way to expand the reach and flexibility of your storage. The new iSCSI Software Target version 3.2 can optionally be installed on top of Windows Storage Server 2008, (Enterprise, Standard or Workgroup Editions). The improvements in this release include support for 2008 failover clustering, IPv6, Integrated UI with Server Manager, enhanced security for storing CHAP secrets, connection and session reinstatement is now fully ERL0 compliant and we’ve even added Поддержка русского языка (support for Russian language installations).  :)

File Server Optimization
Optimized by default for the file server role for around 8% gain over standard settings. We remove file-system aliasing and the old-school 8.3 name creation routines that add overhead to the file-system drivers.  Using these settings along with the others in the Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 can lead to improved gains. OEMs that also set their Interrupt-Affinity Policy (download the IntPolicy tool from Interrupt-Affinity Policy Tool website) and also consider setting proper disk alignment so that writes efficiently use the disk sectors can expect to make a storage solution that can be over 27% faster than a general purpose server. See the DiskPart tool website for information about the align parameter (Expand DiskPart and look for Create partition primary)

Remote Administration in Heterogeneous Environments
This is a really cool feature that enables a full-screen remote-desktop by just going to http://server/desktop. Being able to remotely manage storage appliances like you are sitting at the keyboard makes doing those storage tasks from the beach a real option. In the Windows\WebRDP directory we have included a new Web RDP package that enables anybody running Windows and Internet Explorer (Using the Active-X control) or a Linux/Unix distribution running Firefox to instantly get a full-screen remote desktop. The new SSL-enabled Java remote administration applet was written by the Microsoft Terminal Services team and was tested with Red Hat and SUSE using a Java runtime and a Firefox browser.

Improved Failover Clustering
Failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 builds redundancy into your network and eliminates single points of failure.

Windows File Sharing
High-performance SMB 2.0 for Windows and all the improvements made by the remote file protocol and NTFS teams. Checkout this speed test by Tom’s Hardware for an understanding of just how much faster it is than SMB1.0

Network File System (NFS)
Improved performance, NFS and SMB interoperability.

File Server Resource Manager
Directory quota, file screening, and reporting.

DFS Namespace and DFS Replication
Efficient file replication over WANs.

BitLocker™ Drive Encryption
BitLocker prevents a thief from breaking system protections or performing offline viewing of the files stored on the protected drive.

Windows PowerShell™
A task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration. Control and automate the administration of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows.

Windows Server Backup
A basic backup and recovery solution to back up all volumes, selected volumes, or the system state. Perform a system recovery onto a new hard disk, by using a full server backup and the Windows Recovery Environment.

OOBE, MMC and Server Manager
Common user experience across Windows-based products

Full Text Search
Fast and effective search on remote network shares accessed using Windows XP and later. Windows Storage Server 2008 supports Search 4.0, which end-users can download and add to their storage appliances or just load SP2 for Windows Storage Server 2008 and the latest version is included.

Product Differentiation
Windows Storage Server branding and editions can be programmatically targeted.

Competitive Licensing
OEM Embedded licensing that includes great pricing and no CALs are required to deploy these servers in any environment.

Comprehensive Setup
OEM-extensible out-of-the-box experience to guide user through initial setup and configuration.

Here are the editions and features:

(1)Basic: WINS, MPIO and DFSR were cut from a server standard build
(2)Workgroup: WINS, MPIO were cut from a server standard build
(3)Standard: WINS was cut from a server standard build.
(4)Enterprise: WINS was cut from a server enterprise build.
All SKUS had Hyper-V removed.

Here are some links to launch information;

• We announced Windows Storage Server 2008 and the new site today.  You can check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/storageserver
• Beginning May 7th, you can learn more with the on-demand TechNet Webcast: “Introducing Windows Storage Server 2008”  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032410705
• See more of the community coverage on the STB Newsbyte Blog at: http://blogs.technet.com/stbnewsbytes/default.aspx
• Windows Storage Server 2008 partners: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/wss08/partners.aspx
• Windows Server blog: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2009/05/05/windows-storage-server-2008-is-here.aspx 
• Jason Buffington's blog: http://blogs.technet.com/jbuff/archive/2009/05/05/announcing-windows-storage-server-2008-waa-hoo.aspx
• Details on Single Instance Storage (SIS): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/WSS08/SIS.aspx
• Details on the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.2: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/WSS08/iSCSI.aspx
• Want to become an OEM?  See this site:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/solutions/specializedservers/
• OEMs, IHVs and ISVs can evaluate the product on MSDN or contact an account manager to get access to evaluations.

Well, I am sure glad we have released this product and I can’t wait until the next post for Windows Storage Server 2008. If you have any requests for blog posts or you have a feature wish, drop me a note and I’ll do what I can.

Cheers,
Scott M. Johnson
Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
Single Instance Storage
OEM Embedded NAS Appliances

Here is a very brief outline of the history of the Windows Storage Server product line and a feature breakdown for each edition.

 

Storage Server Release Timeline

Once upon a time, right around January 2002, Microsoft saw a trend that has yet to stop: the massive growth of electronic data, far from unlimited storage space and an ecosystem of proprietary management tools. Soon after that realization, we created the Enterprise Storage Division. This division took responsibility for testing and developing the storage version of Microsoft's Windows Server Appliance Kit (SAK), which was renamed Windows-powered NAS. 

In April of 2003, Windows Server 2003 was released, and it quickly became one of the most widely used server operating systems in the world. In June of 2003, Microsoft announced a new, more powerful version of our NAS platform: Windows Storage Server 2003 which was built on the Windows Server 2003 foundation. 

In December of 2005, Microsoft announced a significant upgrade called Windows Storage Server 2003 R2. The release highlighted several key features, including Single Instance Storage (SIS), SMB and NFS improvements, Storage Manager for SANs, DFS Replication, an index-based full-text search engine, file-serving performance tweaks and a collection of MMC snap-ins to manage it all. It was all based on the award-winning Windows Server 2003 R2 upgrade. The release contained four editions (Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise), see below for a chart outlining which features are in each edition.

Shortly after this release, in early spring of 2006, Microsoft acquired String Bean Software, which included the WinTarget iSCSI software target.  We quickly repackaged the code into a new product from Microsoft called the iSCSI Target Application Pack. This could be optionally installed on Windows Storage Server and was available from our OEM partners under a separate license. The package also contained VSS and VDS providers that could be installed on application servers. The VDS providers allow application servers to carve up storage and map it to the server without having to go directly to the storage server to do the administration. Windows Storage Servers suddenly became popular for use as an a gateway to a SAN using the iSCSI Target (using the raw storage blocks on a shared SAN and serving them up as SMB or NFS file shares).

A few months later, we introduced an update to our management UI in a release called the Integrated Management Pack. This introduced a new initial configuration task interface with command-line support, a new Out of box Experience (OOBE), an updated share and storage provisioning console and a brand new Java-based Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) applet that gives Unix and Linux users a way to get a full-screen desktop of a Windows Server.  The new RDP client was a really cool addition and made managing Windows Storage a snap in non-Windows environments.

At the same time as the management pack was released we came out with a new product called Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003. This was a combination of the three previous releases; Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, the iSCSI Target, and the new management pack.

In August of 2007 we provided an update to the platform that we called the WUDSS Refresh, even though it actually applies to both WSS and WUDSS. This package contained several key features:

• iSCSI dual-active clustering
  This allows both nodes of a two-node cluster to actively serve up different LUNs at the same time. If one of the machines fail, those LUNs will fail-over to the other node. This gave the ability to have both servers active, instead of having one sit around doing nothing while waiting for a failure. 
  
  
• 16 Terabyte iSCSI LUNs
  We upped the maximum size of an iSCSI LUN from 2TB to 16TB.  This broke through the VHD file format barrier, but it also means that you could no longer mount these in a Hyper-V VM.
  
  
• OOBE customization
  We added flexibility and support for pre and post-task activities, so vendors could configure an array, or other machine-specific tasks before setting up clustering, etc
  
  
• Software RAID support
  The share and storage management interface now could be used without a vendor-specific VDS provider on directly attached storage. Users could now create many interesting form factors and configurations without a dedicated hardware RAID controller.

 

Edition Features

*WSS = Windows Storage Server 2003 R2      WUDSS = Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003

 

We are working hard on the next version of Windows Storage Server and I'll be outlining that product in a future blog.

Other Links and Resources

• Microsoft Storage - http://www.microsoft.com/storage
• Microsoft Storage Partners Extranet - http://www.microsoftstoragepartners.com/
• OEM Evaluation Software* - http://microsoft.download-ss.com/default.asp : this includes the new WUDSS Refresh update!
  *OEMs and prospective OEMs can join the OEM embedded program to download the evaluation software.
• Product Information from OEM Partners - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/storage/partners.mspx

 

Thanks for reading this far!   Next week, I'm going to do another post about Windows Storage Server.

Scott

Hi there! I'm Scott Johnson, Program Manager for the Windows Storage Server product line.  We have many cool things going on in the Windows Storage Server team that need to be talked about, so we decided to kick off this blog!   For starters, here is a rundown of the key features of a Microsoft Windows Storage Server. I will strive to post a new article every month. If you have a topic that you think needs to be covered, post a request and I'll see what I can do.

 

What are Windows Storage Servers?

• Windows Storage Server (WSS) and Windows Unified Data Storage Server (WUDSS) are a family of storage-appliance operating systems from Microsoft.
• Server manufacturers, known as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), use the OS for server appliances that specialize in file, block and print workloads.
• Storage servers specialize in large multi-terabyte disk subsystems that typically use RAID technology to provide data redundancy, fault-tolerance and high-performance. Also included is support for a plethora of Directly Attached Storage (DAS) solutions using a multitude of interfaces, like ATA, SATA, or SCSI and more advanced storage fabrics using SAS, iSCSI or Fibre Channel. I like using the words plethora and multitude in the same sentence, I am hoping to get a triple word score.  :)
• These servers come in highly available configurations that are usually headless, easy to deploy, pre-configured by Microsoft’s OEM channel partners and only available pre-installed on the servers.
• These operating systems utilize Windows technologies and support the Windows ISV ecosystem, including backup and anti-virus applications.
• Windows storage servers do not require any Client Access Licenses (CALs) so this does not present a limitation for deployments.
• WSS and WUDSS are usually sold headless (without monitors, keyboards, etc) and are dedicated storage appliances. 
• Technical and licence restrictions exist that prevent users from using Storage Servers as a general server and it cannot run server applications like SQL or Exchange.

 

Key Features of Windows Storage Servers

1. SMB(CIFS) and NFS file protocols
   SMB is probably the most ubiquitous and widely used feature of Windows in a networked environment. Every time you use a UNC path, like \\Server\share, you are using SMB to communicate over the network. Most people take SMB for granted. When comparing SMB to other CIFS implementations, people really like the performance and features we have added to the original CIFS protocol, see this interesting white-paper on when CIFS performance matters. NFS support in Windows continues to get better, see the NFS performance data on a few OEM systems. On a single node system they were able to achieve around 38,000 SpecSFS, which is a pretty good number.
   
   
2. File-server performance optimizations 
   There are some settings in Windows Server 2003 that speed up network traffic and NAS operations, like removing file-system aliases, turning off 8.3 name creation, and setting the TCP ACK frequency to better utilize the network frame size and speed. See the performance tuning white-paper for more information. OEMs can also improve their performance by setting the interrupt affinity of NIC cards and making sure that proper disk alignment is considered when setting up the RAID array. See below for more information about both of these topics.
   
   
3. iSCSI Target
   The iSCSI Target enables application servers, like SQL or Exchange, to get access to raw storage blocks running on a remote system. iSCSI makes it possible for businesses to take advantage of existing network infrastructure to enable block-based Storage Area Networks (SAN) without having to invest in additional hardware. As far as the application servers are concerned, the storage looks like it is directly attached to the server. The iSCSI initiator runs on the application servers to make the connection.
   
   The iSCSI Target, which only runs on Windows storage servers, supports 16TB LUNs, dual-active clustering, VSS and VDS, it can do MPIO (Multi-pathing the network connections for fail over), it can integrate with iSNS servers, supports IPv6 and CHAP security.  Jose Barreto's blog has an awesome post on how to configure the iSCSI Target.
   
   The Microsoft iSCSI initiator is standard in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and it can be downloaded for free for Windows XP or Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003. The latest version is 2.7.
   
   
4. Single Instance Storage (SIS)
   SIS scans storage volumes for duplicate files, and moves the duplicate files to the common SIS store. The file on the volume is replaced with a link to the file, which has its own set of ACLs. This reduces the amount of storage space required, by as much as 40-70% depending on the amount of file-level duplication. Checkout Jose Barreto's blog on SIS for a nicely detailed overview and the Microsoft IT Showcase: SIS to see how Microsoft uses SIS to reduce storage.
   
5. Index-based search
   Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 provides an index-based, full-text search that is built on the indexing engine in Windows server. The updated search engine speeds up indexed searches on network shares by allowing partial matches to come back immediately. The Microsoft filter team provides filters in the box for searching many standard file formats, such as .zip, AutoCAD, XML, MP3, and .PDF, and the Microsoft Office file formats. The team just announced a new filter pack that is a free download a few months ago that enables searches of Microsoft Office 2007 documents. You will also need to install the Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 package to use these.
   
   
6. SharePoint Services
   Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 includes built-in support for Windows SharePoint Services and can be used to quickly setup a document repository or it can be upgraded to Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server to get support for collaboration, enterprise search and other advanced features.
   
   
7. Distributed File System Namespace (DFS-N)
   DFS allows multiple network shares to be aggregated as a virtual file system, so that all users in the company can remember a simple namespace, like \\contoso.local\accounting even though the files under these directories may be spread over hundreds of servers. An MMC snap-in can be used to centrally manage storage volumes, including DFS shares, on servers running Windows Storage Server 2003 R2.
   
   
8. Distributed File System Replication (DFS-R)
   The DFS-R service is a multi-master replication engine that is used to keep folders synchronized on multiple servers. Especially useful in a branch-office scenarios where replicating data to multiple servers increases data availability and gives users in the remote sites fast, reliable access to files. DFSR uses a compression algorithm called Remote Differential Compression (RDC). RDC is a "diff over the wire" protocol that can be used to efficiently update files over a limited-bandwidth network. RDC detects insertions, removals, and rearrangements of data in files, enabling DFSR to replicate only the changes when files are updated. If somebody changes the title of a 40MB Powerpoint file, it only has to sync a few kilobytes rather than the entire file. Checkout this DFSR FAQ on technet for some great information.
   
   
9. File Server Resource Manager (FSRM)
   FSRM delivers functionality to setup directory-based quotas and file screens. Windows storage servers come with five pre-made templates for quotas and file screens which have a good sample of typical quotas and screens and an IT administrator might deploy. OEMs or end-users can quickly add new templates to the system too.
   
   
10. Storage Server Out of the Box Experience (OOBE)
    There is a specialized application (storageoobe.exe) that runs the first time a user signs-in to the machine. This is used to configure the machine name, join a domain, set the time, setup clustering, etc. This application can be customized by an OEM by simply using an XML file to put in graphics or content to give the appliance UI a nice tie-in to the hardware.
    
    
11. Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
    VSS is a set of COM interfaces that implements a framework to allow up to 512 point-in-time volume backups to be performed while applications on a system continue to write to the volumes. VSS has the built-in capability to provide extremely fast recovery of lost data—recovery times can be dramatically reduced to minutes rather than the hours or days it can take to recover from tape. Shadow copies, also known as point-in-time images or data "snapshots," can be made as frequently as an administrator deems necessary. See the MSDN topic about VSS to see how it works.
    
    
12. Virtual Disk Service (VDS)
    VDS is a service to abstract all of the types or RAID adapters into a common API so that our management tools can work. A vendor-specific VDS 1.1 hardware provider is required to allow the UI, scripts and tools that leverage VDS APIs. VDS aims to unify volume and disk management and hardware RAID management under a single API. See the MSDN topic about VDS to see how it works.
    
    
13. Remote Administration Options
    A)  Terminal Shell
    A terminal emulation program such as HyperTerminal can be used with a serial cable, this is especially useful to set the IP address in non-DHCP environments. Command-line support is provided through the Special Administration Console (SAC), which is the primary Emergency Management Services command-line environment hosted by Windows Server 2003. You can add it to a given OS install by adding to bootcfg:
    bootcfg /ems on /port ComPort /baud BaudRate /id OSEntryLineNum
    Example:   bootcfg /ems on /port com1 /baud 115200 /id 2

    B)  Remote Desktop
    The Windows Terminal Services client works great when pointing to the storage server and it uses the well-known Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), or if you point a browser to: http://servername/admin, the server detects Windows and Internet Explorer and it will provide an ActiveX control, otherwise it will offer a special Java-based RDP applet that is only available in Windows storage server. This will give you the full windows desktop from any machine, including a Linux or Unix machine running the java runtime and a supported browser.

14. Multi-Language User Interface (MUI) Support
    Windows Storage Servers support the following single byte languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian and these double-byte languages:  Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified) and Chinese (traditional)

 

Important OEM customizations

1. Disk Alignment
   By applying the disk alignment command in diskpart.exe, you can avoid performance loss due to disk misalignment on disks with large track sizes and alignment optimizations.
   
   "The master boot record (MBR) limits the maximum number of hidden sectors to 63. This characteristic of the MBR causes the default starting sector for disks that report more than 63 sectors per track to be the 64th sector. As a result, when programs transfer data to or from disks that have more than 63 sectors per track, misalignment can occur at the track level, with allocations beginning at a sector other than the starting sector. This misalignment can defeat system optimizations of I/O operations designed to avoid crossing track boundaries. Additional disk-design factors make proper alignment even more difficult to achieve. For example, track information reported by disks is not always accurate. In addition, many disks have different numbers of sectors on different tracks (as might be the case with the outer bands versus the inner bands)."  *Excerpt taken from this article on technet, it is the most succinct description of the problem I have seen.
   
   Diskpart.exe, a program in Windows Server 2003 can be used to obtain and set partition information.   
   Solution Example:   diskpart> create partition primary align=64      (This example will make the partition start at sector 128)
   
   
2. Interrupt Affinity for Multi-processor / Multi-NIC systems.

   Interrupt affinity refers to the binding of interrupts from a specific device to specific processors in a multiprocessor server. Binding the network adapter to a processor or set of processors allows the system to process incoming packets (SMB requests, data, etc) and improve the system’s responsiveness and scalability. The Interrupt-Affinity Filter (IntFiltr) tool can change the CPU-affinity of the interrupts in a system. Directing a device's interrupts to a specific processor or set of processors instead of always sending interrupts to any of the CPUs in the system.

 

I hope this gives you an understanding of the Windows storage server product line and the cool features.  Coming next is a post about the history of releases and the features in each.

Thanks!
Scott Johnson
Program Manager
Windows Storage Server