Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 has been released to our OEM manufacturers!  In my opinion, this OEM platform is by far the best value for your money for a network-attached storage (NAS) appliance operating system. Our OEMs tell us that they prefer a solution that integrates flawlessly into an Active Directory, supports that latest storage management applications, plays nice with industry standards and has an easy to use interface that IT pros understand. Buying industry standard servers running Windows Storage Server is 4x less expensive than buying a proprietary appliance and the features people want most are included without paying more later. In addition to the cost savings, the new release scales very well to accommodate many more users accessing files than those proprietary appliances.

In today’s IT environment, people expect great features like fast file protocols with distributed namespaces, file replication, data deduplication, iSCSI Targets, volume snapshots and support for the latest security, anti-virus, and backup applications. They want the ability to do storage reporting and enact automated policies based on the business value of their data. If something goes wrong, they want on-site support staff with teams of people available to resolve issues and answer questions. Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 is built on the award-winning Windows Server 2008 R2 codebase and contains some awesome features for NAS solutions. OEMs will be offering great storage solutions and best in class support for these mission-critical systems over the next decade.

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 based storage appliances are delivered by Microsoft partners with the same management and protection tools that are deployed across the rest of their customer’s Windows infrastructure.  Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 enables simplified and rapid deployment of highly available file or iSCSI-based block servers without the user ever going to the second node to configure the cluster. 
 

Three New Editions to Savor:

• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Standard
• Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Workgroup

There are a ton of new things you can do with Windows Storage Server appliances. Let’s look at the key scenarios and uses.

Key Scenarios:

1. File Server – Access files over the network using SMB and NFS protocols. SMB 2.1 is super fast and Windows 7 clients can speak it natively. SMB 2.1 combined with the new networking and storage stacks in Windows has proven to almost double the SMB file-protocol performance on identical hardware by moving from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2-based file servers. You also get all the benefits of the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) with quotas, file screens and storage reporting. FSRM includes the incredible File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) that enables you to classify every file in your organization and perform specific actions you choose. For example, you can scan all files for credit card or social security numbers and automatically protect them. You could prevent deletion of time-bound data, expire, delete, RMS protect, or move files to SATA drives when they get old. Just about anything you can dream up can be done with FCI; you could build a simple little HSM solution in just a few minutes!
    
2. Branch Office Server – Windows Storage Server is the ultimate branch office OS. Take advantage of Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) to authenticate the branch users. Use Distributed File System (DFS) to publish a company-wide namespace and DFS Replication to do two-way synchronization of branch office servers to the home office. You can make DFS replicas read-only and take advantage of SIS to deduplicate files in the branch. You can sync each user’s data to the corporate site and offer them offline files and folder redirection so they can work on multiple computers or while they are mobile/offline. Standard and Enterprise storage servers can also run DNS and DHCP so you can consolidate infrastructure in the branch. In a large branch, or if downtime isn’t cool, then use a pair of storage servers in a 2-node cluster. Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Enterprise adds BranchCache to save massive amounts of bandwidth over the WAN back to your corporate headquarters.
    
3. Block Storage Server –iSCSI storage for application servers like SQL Servers, Exchange Servers or Hyper-V. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target supports SCSI-2 and SCSI-3 persistent reservation commands so you can use it for shared cluster storage.
    
4. Unified Storage Server – Serve blocks and files from the same storage server.
    
5. iSCSI Boot Server – Boot support for diskless servers and clients.
    
6. iSCSI Boot for HPC Clusters - Deploy and boot hundreds of diskless HPC cluster nodes in minutes using differencing virtual hard disks (VHDs) that build off a common “golden master” image. We have been able to simultaneously boot hundreds of HPC compute nodes off of a single iSCSI Target in just a few minutes.
    
7. Gateway to a SAN – Front-end your storage area network (SAN) storage so you can leverage those disks for storing files.
    

Deployment Modes:

1. Standalone Storage Server – Windows scales up well with fast drives, networking cards, and processors.
    
2. Highly Available Storage Server – Use Failover Clustering to create iSCSI or file server solutions with no single points of failure. Multipath I/O (MPIO) can be set up on the network paths as active-active (round-robin load balance for maximum throughput and redundancy) or active-standby (only used in case of a failover).
    

iSCSI Storage Topologies Tested at Microsoft:

1. Hyper-V host (iSCSI initiator) using an iSCSI LUN as a volume for the virtual machines. In this topology, the Hyper-V host uses an iSCSI initiator to connect to an iSCSI target. The host formats the LUNs with its own file system (NTFS) and creates .vhd files to be used by the virtual machines.
    
2. Hyper-V host (iSCSI initiator) using an iSCSI LUN as a pass-through disk to the virtual machines. The Hyper-V host uses the iSCSI initiator to connect to an iSCSI target. The host doesn’t format the LUN and just passes it through to the virtual machines.
    
3. Hyper-V virtual machine using the iSCSI initiator. The virtual machine uses the iSCSI initiator to connect directly to an iSCSI LUN being hosted by an iSCSI target.
    
4. Boot and Data disks for a Hyper-V host. The iSCSI target can provide a LUN to a Hyper-V host for boot disks or data disks for the Hyper-V virtual machines in all three of the above topologies. If you boot from the disk described in the “Hyper-V virtual machine using the iSCSI initiator” topology, it enables diskless iSCSI booting.
    
5. Clustered Application Servers. This configuration uses clustered physical servers or clustered Hyper-V guest virtual machines that use the iSCSI target for their shared storage. Many application servers like Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server are clustered to provide maximum uptime.
    
6. Clustered Hyper-V host for Live Migration and CSV. This configuration creates a failover cluster with two Hyper-V host machines using the iSCSI target. A Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) will be created on the storage provided by the iSCSI target and the guest virtual machine configuration and disk files is created on the CSV. Hyper-V live migration enables the entire virtual machine to quickly move from one host to another.
    

Components Unique to Windows Storage Server 2008 R2:

1. Single Instance Storage (SIS) – This file system filter driver transparently removes duplicate files from a volume to save space without impacting server performance. As duplicate files are detected the files are moved to a central store and replaced with a 4KB reparse point. The new version of SIS was written to use the mini-filter model. SIS supports 128 volumes on a single server and includes a full set of new Windows PowerShell cmdlets to control SIS. SIS is fantastic on a build server (I’ve seen > 70% storage savings) and useful on home/group/user folders (I usually see ~15% storage savings). SIS adds 2-3 milliseconds to the I/O read-path and it does not significantly impact the performance of a file-server. SIS works great on failover clusters too!
    
2. New! Cluster-Ready OOBE – This customizable Out-Of-Box-Experience (OOBE) includes Windows Welcome and the Initial Configuration Tasks (ICT) applications. The OOBE can be used in standalone or clustered configurations and it enables OEMs to brand, customize and pre-load storage appliances with a custom image for their server hardware and attached storage. Users can enjoy a two-node failover cluster setup without ever going to the second node. Imagine setting up a highly-available iSCSI Targets or file services in just 15 minutes!
    
3. Web RDP Management – Get full-screen management from any Windows system (ActiveX) or any non-Windows client (Java RDP) Just visit http://servername/desktop for complete full-screen UI management in any IT environment, including a Linux system running Firefox. Windows-based storage servers support NFS and iSCSI protocols for a complete remote-storage solution on application servers running just about any platform.
    
4. iSCSI Software Target 3.3 – This new version of the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 includes Windows PowerShell cmdlets and differencing virtual hard disk support for HPC boot scenarios. See the Six uses for iSCSI blog for an outline of the many ways to use an iSCSI target. The test and development scenarios are especially awesome when you can’t afford an expensive SAN for each developer.
    
5. iSCSI Software Target 3.3 Hardware Providers – New versions of the iSCSI Software Target VDS and VSS hardware providers for Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 (where iSCSI initiators are running) and a new HPC hardware provider (x64 only for Windows HPC Server 2008 R2) to automatically set up hundreds of differencing virtual hard disks to support booting hundreds of diskless HPC nodes.
    
6. Branding and Licensing Packages. Used by OEMs to build a Windows Storage Server appliance. The EULA for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 doesn’t allow you to run regular Line of Business or server applications on Windows Storage Server, but it does offer a complete storage solution for just about any storage workload.
   

Edition Breakdown:

I am really looking forward to seeing the new hardware that will come out with WSS in the next few months. Check back here for a new series of blogs on WSS we have planned.

Cheers,
Scott M. Johnson
Program Manager 
Windows Storage Server

Hi Folks –

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m working my way through the list of my top 10 new features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2. In this post, I’ll examine how we made it even easier to cost-effectively scale your storage capacity. This is enabled through enhancements in two key areas:

• Storage Spaces
• Data Deduplication

Let’s take a closer look at each of these technologies and the new enhancements in the latest release of Windows Server 2012 R2.

Storage Spaces

Storage Spaces, a technology introduced in Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Storage Server 2012, enables you to virtualize storage by grouping industry-standard disks into storage pools, and then create virtual disks (called storage spaces) from the available capacity in those storage pools. Storage Spaces is manageable through the Windows Storage Management API and Windows PowerShell, and through the File and Storage Services user interface in Server Manager. Storage Spaces is completely integrated with Failover Clustering for high availability, and it is integrated with CSV for scale-out deployments.

Enhancements to Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 R2 (and Windows Storage Server 2012 R2) include:

• Storage tiers, which enables the creation of virtual disks comprised of two tiers of storage: a solid state disk (SSD) tier for frequently accessed data, and a HDD tier for less-frequently accessed data. Storage Spaces transparently moves data at a sub-file level between the two tiers based on how frequently data is accessed. As a result, storage tiers can dramatically increase performance for the most used (“hot”) data by moving it to SSD storage, without sacrificing the ability to store large quantities of data on inexpensive HDDs.
  
  
• Write-back cache, which improves performance by buffering small random writes (which often dominate common enterprise computing workloads) to existing SSDs in a storage pool before writing them to traditional HDDs.
  
  
• Parity space support for failover clusters, which enables you to create parity spaces on failover clusters. (Parity spaces are recommended for sequential writing operations and archival data.)
  
  
• Dual parity, which stores three copies of your data on a parity space, helping protect you from two simultaneous disk failures.
  
  
• Faster storage space rebuilds, which reduces the time it takes to rebuild a storage space after a disk failure by using spare capacity in the pool instead of a single hot spare.

I predict that Storage Spaces will be very popular. As I mentioned in a previous blog, it’s one component of a great recipe for cost-effective, highly available storage. When you combine Storage Spaces with Clustering and certified JBODs, you get a dynamic, self-healing data storage solution that’s easy to deploy and manage.

My ideal scenario is to use a Windows Storage Server cluster-in-a-box to host the disks, and to make that storage accessible to Hyper-V hosts and SQL Server using the SMB 3.0 protocol. This is compelling because it’s super-easy to setup and leverages my existing investments in IP and Ethernet-based network infrastructure.

More information on Storage Spaces can be found here.

A list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) on Storage Spaces can be found here.

You can find a list of certified JBODs under the Storage Spaces Category in the Windows Server Catalog.

Data Deduplication

Data Deduplication, which was introduced in Windows Server 2012 (and Windows Storage Server 2012), has quickly become one of its leading features—and a “standard consideration” when deploying file servers. After all, who doesn’t want the option to store more raw data in the same physical space by simply flipping a switch?

In various deployments, we saw decreases in required disk space of up to 90 percent. Some sample results for specific workloads include:

• A 30-50 percent increase in storage efficiency when deduplicating home directory shares.
• Up to a 50 percent increase in storage efficiency when deduplicating group file/collaboration shares.
• Up to a 70 percent increase in storage efficiency when deduplicating software deployment shares.
• Up to a 90 percent increase in storage efficiency when deduplicating VHD libraries.

In Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, we made Data Deduplication even more powerful and useful by supporting a key new scenario:

• Deduplication of live VHDs for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) workloads, which enables the use of Data Deduplication to optimize virtual disks for running VDI workloads—provided that the storage and compute nodes for the VDI infrastructure are connected remotely via the SMB protocol.

To enable support for VDI workloads with adequate performance and availability, we made several lower-level improvements related to Data Deduplication:

• Support for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs), as required to support the Scale Out File Server (SoFS) architecture recommended for highly available storage of server application data—including VDI.
  
  
• Deduplication of open files — In Windows Server 2012, Data Deduplication focused on files at rest and would skip any file that was in active use. To enable deduplication of live VDI VMs, Data Deduplication in Windows Server 2012 R2 now supports open files, with negligible impact to read/write performance.
  
  
• Faster and more efficient deduplication, which enables the storage server to keep up with the I/O patterns for VDI workloads, as compared to traditional file share workloads. Informal internal testing at Microsoft shows that deduplication is now 33-50 percent faster, depending on the specific I/O patterns.
  
  
• Faster write performance for deduplicated files, which improves performance across all workloads.
  
  
• Faster and more efficient read performance for VDI files, as enabled by forced caching for Hyper-V I/O. For VDI workloads, this means that the use of data deduplication (and its associated chunk cache) can actually deliver better read performance than for non-deduplicated data.
  

When combined, these improvements to Data Deduplication enable massive storage cost savings for VDI deployments and makes it possible to leverage the superior I/O performance of solid-state drives (SSDs) without investing in massive storage arrays.

For more information on these enhancements to Data Deduplication and how to deploy it for VDI storage, see Matthias Wollnik’s blog articles here and here.

Final Thoughts

There is a great debate going on about the value and utility of Storage Spaces, as compared to traditional RAID systems. When you use Storage Spaces in high-throughput configurations, you will want to use mirrored configurations and fast SSD drives to absorb random writes. The cost of mirroring the drives might be more expensive than using a RAID adapter, but will probably be less than buying HBAs for each cluster node and a self-contained external RAID system.

When you use Windows Server 2012 R2 and implement Storage Spaces on an attached JBOD, you get great cost-efficiency. And when you turn on Data Deduplication, your data volumes will typically be reduced by 50 percent or more, which will mitigate the cost of additional drives for mirroring. Now you can get low cost, high density and high-performance at the same time—a great combination!

Cheers,
Scott M. Johnson
Senior Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
@supersquatchy

Hi Folks –

Most of us know the name Supermicro (a.k.a. Super Micro Computer), which designs, develops, manufactures, and sells a broad range of server systems, storage servers, high-end workstations, chassis, motherboards, and other server components. The company boasts more than $1 billion in sales per year, meeting the needs of both businesses and server OEMs who use Supermicro in their solutions.

Supermicro’s extensive market reach is a big reason why I’m very pleased to announce that the company is expanding its set of offerings based on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2. Even better, both of the company’s new solutions are part of the company’s Super Storage Bridge Bay (Super SBB) line of “cluster-in-a-box” (CIB) solutions for fully redundant, fault-tolerant storage. And while they’re not the first Super SBB models capable of running Windows Server, they are the first to be delivered as complete storage solutions—with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard preinstalled for rapid deployment. Supermicro formally announced these new offerings on March 6 and will debut them at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover, Germany (March 10-14).

Key benefits provided by Supermicro’s new CIB offerings based on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 include:

• Reliable, enterprise-grade storage at an affordable price.
   
• Delivered ready to deploy, with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard preinstalled and Failover Clustering preconfigured across the storage appliance’s two compute nodes.
   
• Native integration with Active Directory ensures fast and easy deployment in existing Windows Server-based IT infrastructures.

More information on Supermicro’s Super SBB line of Cluster-in-a-Box solutions running Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 can be found here, along with downloadable data sheets.

Capacity and Performance Options

Here are the basic specs on the new Super SBB models based on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard:

SSG-6037B-CIB032 — This high-capacity model is a 3U, 16-bay system that supports 16x 3.5" hot-swap drives (SAS1/SAS2) for a raw capacity of 64 terabytes (TB) when fully populated with 4TB 3.5” SAS drives. The high capacity provided by this model makes it ideal for workloads such as archiving or traditional file serving. (You can take advantage of Data Deduplication in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 to get even more out of available disk space!)         

Figure 1. SSG-6037B-CIB032 chassis and controller module (one of two).

The SSG-6037B-CIB032 is a preconfigured system, built to the following specifications. MSRP for this configuration at the time this blog was posted is $9,999 USD.

SSG-2027B-CIB020H — This high-performance model is a 2U, 24-bay system that ships with 20x 1TB 2.5” hot-swap nearline SAS drives and 4x 200GB SAS SSDs. It takes advantage of the new Storage Tiers feature in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 to provide 20TB of SSD-accelerated raw capacity. The high performance provided by this model makes it ideal for application workloads such as SQL Server or Exchange Server, which, thanks to the SMB 3.0 protocol in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, can benefit from SAN-like performance along with the simplicity of storing application data on SMB file shares.

Figure 2. SSG-2027B-CIB020H chassis and controller module (one of two).

The SSG-2027B-CIB020H also is a preconfigured system, built to the following specifications. MSRP for this configuration at the time this blog was posted is $14,999 USD.

Both models have two storage controller modules (one per node). Each controller supports and/or provides:

• 6x DIMM slots (max. 32 GB each), for a total capacity of 192GB
• 3x PCI-E 3.0 x8 slots
• A 6Gbps LSI 2308 SAS2 controller, which resides as a daughter-card on the motherboard
• Hot-plug JBOD expansion ports (the SSG-6037B-CIB032 has two and the SSG-2027B-CIB020H has one)

Thanks to inclusion of the JBOD expansion ports, both models can be expanded beyond their internal drive capacities by connecting them to up to four Super SBB JBODs (Supermicro P/N SYS-937R-E2JB, shown below), which each can support an additional 16x 3.5” SAS1/SAS2 drives. Imagine being able to expand your disk capacity by up to 384TB (when using 6TB nearline drives) all while the system is running!

Figure 3. Supermicro 937R JBOD front and rear views.

Continuous Availability Out-of-the-Box

As CIB solutions that are optimized for mission-critical, enterprise storage applications, both systems include:

• Hot-swappable modules for all active components, including storage controllers, power supplies, and disk drives.
  
• Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard preinstalled, with Failover Clustering preconfigured across the two compute nodes. This makes it possible to deploy one of these CIB solutions in as little as 30 minutes when installed in an existing Active Directory domain!
  
• A cable-free controller module design (shown in Figures 1 and 2), which further increases availability. (Components for the Super SBB line were originally developed for top-tier hybrid storage OEMs.)
  

Of course, both systems are Windows Server 2012 R2-certified, as listed in the Windows Server Catalog here and here.

Closing Thoughts

According to a recent conversation with Supermicro, their goal in developing these new solutions based on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 was to “offer continuously available storage that provides greater value and is priced for SMB and branch office budgets.” And in my opinion, they really delivered. Not only do you get the well-established quality of Supermicro engineering, but you also get all the latest storage innovations that are built into Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard. These include:

• Data Deduplication and Storage Spaces for maximizing and scaling your storage capacity.
  
• Storage Tiers, SMB Direct, SMB Multichannel, and NIC Teaming for maximizing performance.
  
• The latest enhancements to Failover Clustering and Hyper-V for maximizing reliability.
  
• SMB Transparent Failover, which helps make cost-effective systems like Supermicro’s new CiB offerings suitable for application workloads. (SMB Transparent Failover enables administrators to perform hardware or software maintenance on cluster nodes without interrupting server applications storing data on these file shares. Also, if a hardware or software failure occurs on a cluster node, SMB clients transparently reconnect to another cluster node without interrupting server applications that are storing data on these file shares.)
  

Of course, there’s a lot more in-the-box than just the above. For an overview of some of the other great innovations in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, check out my earlier blog article on my 10 Favorite New and Improved Features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2.

Cheers and congratulation to the SuperMicro team!  I can’t wait to get one in my local rack.

Scott M. Johnson   
Senior Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
@supersquatchy

Hi Folks –

Over the past few months, I’ve covered eight of the items on my list of Top 10 New and Improved Features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2. Here are the links to the entire blog series:

• What’s New for SMB and the iSCSI Target Server
  
• Work Folders and DFS Replication
  
• Failover Clustering and Hyper-V
  
• Storage Spaces and Data Deduplication
  

This sixth and final post in the series covers the last two items on my list, which are improvements we’ve made to further ease deployment and management. Unless otherwise noted, features discussed in this post are applicable to all editions of Windows Server 2012 R2 and both editions of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 (Standard and Workgroup).

OEM Appliance OOBE

In August 2012, I blogged about how the OEM Appliance OOBE (out-of-the-box experience) deployment tool, originally developed for Windows Storage Server, was being included in certain editions of Windows Server 2012—as well as both editions of Windows Storage Server 2012. At that time, it supported the deployment of standalone servers or 2-node failover clusters. This included selecting a language, keyboard and regional settings, server names, passwords, domain join, shared storage, and cluster creation. Clustered appliances built using the OEM Appliance OOBE can be deployed in about 30 minutes from a single pane of glass (i.e., a single application) running on any one of the cluster nodes.

In May 2013, we shipped an update to the OEM Appliance OOBE to support 4-node deployments on Windows Server 2012. This update was developed in partnership with Dell’s PowerEdge VRTX Cluster-in-a-Box (CiB) team, and I blogged about how it enabled Dell to deploy their 4-node cluster in about 45 minutes. The updated code was included in Windows Server 2012 R2, so the 4-node Windows package update (KB2769588) is not needed for Windows Server 2012 R2 deployments.

The OEM Appliance OOBE is in Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Datacenter, as well as Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard and Workgroup. It supports the deployment of both storage server clusters and Hyper-V host clusters. It was designed for CiB appliances that are pre-connected via the appliance’s mid-plane, and it also works great on discreet servers that are cabled together.

Here are some additional resources on the OEM Appliance OOBE:

• The 4-Node Cluster + DC VM configuration guide is still relevant and can be found at:
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38766
  
• And the options that are available in the OEM Appliance OOBE Configuration Guide still apply: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj643306

New and Improved Functionality

New and improved functionality for the OEM Appliance OOBE in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 includes:

• Support for 4-node clusters. OEMs can now deliver intuitive cluster setup experiences for clusters with 2, 3, or 4 nodes. 5 or more nodes should work since the OOBE framework supports an index value; however, this has not been tested by Microsoft and is not officially supported.
  
  
• Initial Configuration Tasks (ICT). The OEM Appliance OOBE includes a WPF-based application—called Initial Configuration Tasks. This launch pad of tasks includes everything an administrator needs to do to configure the machine for an environment, including the setup of the storage and creating the cluster.
  
  
• Index-based tasks. An index-based task control enables OEMs to configure X number of tasks based on the index value supplied. So if you want to deploy an eight node cluster, the ICT application will show eight task links that enable you to configure each node separately.
  
  
• Windows Welcome. The screen you see when you boot a new Windows server for the first time is called Windows Welcome. The OEM OOBE records all of the selections made by the user, including the acceptance of the EULA (End User License Agreement), region, language, and keyboard settings. After Windows Welcome is completed, an XML file with the settings is created and copied to the registry of all the cluster nodes that were discovered by the IP address discovery process. The nodes are expecting this XML file and, when it arrives, the OOBE replays the selections on each node so you don’t have to login to each one and repeat your choices.
  
  
• IP address discovery. As soon as you finish Windows Welcome, the first node of the cluster tries to find the IP Addresses of all the other nodes on the internal heartbeat network, expecting to find as many nodes as you indicate in the registry key. If an incorrect number of nodes is discovered, the wizard will notify the administrator, who should check that all the cables are plugged in and all the nodes of the cluster are powered up, and then they can try to discover all the nodes again. All of the auto-configured IP addresses assigned by APIPA are discovered by the node you are working on and the IP Addresses are inserted in the registry so the OOBE can target the machines for automatic configuration.
  
  
• Domain controller setup. A simple domain controller setup process allows administrators to use an existing domain or to create a fresh domain controller in a local Hyper-V virtual machine that can be used to support the cluster. The wizard enables the administrator to specify a root domain name, static IP address of the domain controller, cluster management name, machine names, and passwords for all nodes in the cluster.

The Experience

Here are a few screen shots that illustrate the process:

When you run the OEM Appliance OOBE, you’ll see a link to the Domain Join wizard. After you provide the necessary inputs for the wizard, you’ll see this very long confirmation page, which provides status as the wizard executes. The entire automated process of creating the domain controller, promoting it, joining all the cluster nodes to the domain, and setting local and domain credentials takes about 15 minutes, which saves me about 2 hours on a 4-node cluster.

After a quick reboot, the administrator configures and formats the shared storage, and then prepares to build the new cluster. First the OOBE validates that each of the nodes were setup correctly and the domain controller is running:

After the cluster validation test completes, the cluster can be created:

The OOBE will then automatically:

• Prepare the domain controller’s CSV volume.
• Migrate the VM storage, create the file server instance.
• Update the machine pool (which is a list of all the servers that are monitored and managed via Server Manager).

Microsoft recommends that administrators setup a live replica of the DC VM, perform regular backups, and consider running a failover instance of Active Directory on dedicated hardware to prevent service interruption.

The OEM Appliance OOBE enables our storage partners to deliver a setup experience that automatically handles all the mundane tasks involved in setting up a cluster, while you enjoy a cup of coffee. And you won’t be sitting around enough for that cup of coffee to cool; within 30 minutes, your cluster can be configured, running, and delivering continuously-available services.

Storage Management API

Manufacturers building systems running Windows Server can use the Windows Storage Management API to manage a wide range of storage configurations, from single-disk desktops to massive external storage arrays. Similarly, storage subsystem manufacturers can support Windows-based storage management for their products by implementing a Storage Management Provider (SMP). For more information, see How to Implement a Storage Management Provider.

The Windows Storage Management API supersedes the Virtual Disk Service API beginning with Windows Server 2012. This new API is designed for WMI developers who use C/C++, Visual Basic, or other scripting language that can handle ActiveX objects.

After a Storage Management Provider is installed on the server, Windows Server Manager wizards can carve up LUNs from raw disk space, create storage pools, and create virtual disks that can be formatted using NTFS or REFS file systems. The same three storage wizards can be run from inside the OEM Appliance OOBE, as well.

SM-API Improvements for Windows Server 2012 R2 include:

• Up to 10x faster enumerations of physical disk resources.
• Cluster-awareness.
• Remote management for new Storage Spaces features like tiering and caching.

PowerShell

Windows PowerShell is a great way to manage storage on Windows Server 2012. Here is a list of all the PowerShell commands you can use: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848705.aspx

You should also check out Roiy Zysman’s blog on storage management, which links to this awesome laminate-worthy Storage and File Services PowerShell Cmdlets Quick Reference Card for Windows Server 2012 R2. It provides examples of commonly used PowerShell scripts for Storage, Data Deduplication, iSCSI Target Server, iSCSI Initiator, Failover Clusters, Shares, Work Folders, File Server Resource Manager, DFS Namespaces, and DFS Replication.

Final Thoughts

The deployment and storage management experiences for Windows Server 2012 R2 have taken a huge step forward. I encourage you to try out the new features and start building your own library of storage management commands. After you have a perfect set of scripts for a given deployment, you can whip up even the most complex cluster, share, and storage configurations from the beach while you enjoy your beverage and figure out what to do with that cute little paper umbrella that’s in your drink.

Cheers,
Scott M. Johnson
Senior Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
@supersquatchy

Guten Morgen from Germany! Joel Garcia blogging from TechEd Berlin, where we are announcing and showing off Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, the newest member of the Storage Server product family. The Windows Storage Server Blog lives here.

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials is part of the Windows Storage Server family, which is built upon the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system to provide a platform for network attached storage appliances. Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials includes storage technologies enabling you to grow with your storage requirements while providing an easy to use backup and recovery solution. Windows Storage Server Essentials is specifically developed to address the storage needs for small businesses up to 25 users without the need for specialized IT skills. Configuring Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials is easy: remove from box, connect to network, power up and access the device from a browser to configure it. The management dashboard makes it simple to manage, maintain and monitor the health of the Windows Storage Server Essentials device, and client computers.

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials as well as the rest of the Storage Server product family are available through hardware partners.

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials can be used as a new server for storage or to add additional storage capacity. For information on this please look at the SBS Blog.

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials addresses the requirements of small businesses with the following features:

Easy to use Backup and Recovery

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials helps protect business data by providing daily automatic and consolidated backup for your PCs, as well as Mac clients. Specialized IT skills are not required to manage the small business storage backup and recovery requirements. Users can easily perform recovery on individual files, folders, entire client PC or even the entire Windows Storage Server Essentials device.

Active Directory Domain Join

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials can easily integrate into the Microsoft identity infrastructure and that ensures that there is secure access for all the important small business data. This is done easily and through the management dashboard.

Management Dashboard

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials provides a dashboard that helps manage, maintain and monitor the health of the server, and client computers. Organizations can provision users, file shares and administer 3^rd party add-ins without the need for specialized IT skills.

Centralized Storage

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials provides storage to keep all your important documents in one place. Every member of the organization can access what they need in one centralized place from their PCs securely.

Plug and Play Storage and File Services

As a preconfigured appliance Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials is ready-to-go right out of the box. File services are pre-configured and deployment is quick and painless, just plug in power and Ethernet, then complete the simple setup from a client computer and you are done.

Remote Web Access

Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials lets small business users access their data securely from any common browser from almost any device. This will ensure that even when users are away from their business network that they have access to their important data.

Add-ins

Leverage the community of add-ins that help extend the storage and file capabilities of the Windows Storage Server Essentials device in the areas of management, data protection, and monitoring.

To see further information on how this release integrates in Microsoft’s SMB solution portfolio, please refer to today’s SBS Blog.