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 -

In a recent blog article, I highlighted how Seagate Technology is now offering Windows Storage Server 2012 on its new Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS. In this post, I’d like to share the perspective of Mark Song, Director of Product Line Management for Business Storage at Seagate Technology, who we recently interviewed about the company’s decision to add Windows Storage Server to its line of business storage solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs):

What types of customers do you focus on, and what types of needs and/or opportunities do you see within that segment of the storage market?

We’re focused on network storage for professionals, small businesses, and medium-sized businesses. Within that customer base, we see three primary trends:

• Continued growth in data volumes, along with the need to be able to cost-effectively store, protect, access, and share that valuable data.
• The need to integrate more deeply with existing IT infrastructures, the cornerstone of which is based on Windows Server for the majority of our customer base.
• A desire to easily and securely access data from not only PCs, but also from other devices such as tablets and smartphones—including both remotely and on-premises.

Why did you add an offering based on Windows Storage Server to your product portfolio?

Windows Storage Server enabled us to deliver native support for Active Directory—and thus integrate more seamlessly with Windows Server-based IT infrastructures that dominate the SMB space. Even with the prospect of Samba 4 in the future and domain controller-capable Linux boxes, Windows Storage Server offers the best integration with Active Directory, along with a unique combination of other enterprise-class features. By delivering native support for Active Directory, we’re enabling our customers to more easily add new storage, and to more easily secure, access, and manage that storage after it’s been deployed.

What makes this new Seagate solution special or different?

We’re one of the only Windows NAS providers that provides our own software add-on—namely, Seagate System Monitor. It provides a single point of access for all of the device’s features, including comprehensive hardware monitoring as well as contextual links to many Windows Storage Server management tools. Customers benefit from instantaneous monitoring, as well as faster and easier access to the set of storage management tools built into Windows Storage Server. Other areas where the Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS differentiates itself from the competition include the use of Seagate NAS-optimized hard drives and 100GB of free EVault Offsite Cloud Backup. Finally, we’re one of the first to offer a built-in Universal Storage Module (USM) slot which, when combined with Windows Server Backup, provides a powerful yet simple means of data protection. We set out to make enterprise-class storage more affordable for a broader audience, and our new NAS based on Windows Storage Server 2012 is enabling us to do just that.

Which storage features in Windows Storage Server are you particularly excited about?

Windows Storage Server 2012 includes the latest network protocol implementations such as SMB3, NFSv4, and a built-in iSCSI Target. Together, these features enable us to support a broader range of storage needs and successfully compete with other NAS products in the market, many of which are significantly more expensive. We also see great value in other Windows Storage Server features such as BitLocker Drive Encryption, as a means of protecting sensitive business information, as well as the storage virtualization features provided by Storage Spaces. These are all examples of how Windows Storage Server is enabling us to bring enterprise-class storage features to the SMB space, at a price point they can afford.

How has the market reacted to your new offering, and what’s coming next?

The market is excited since this product unifies three big names—Intel, Microsoft, and Seagate—into a single offering. Everyone understands that this first product based on Windows Storage Server is only the beginning and can't wait to see what’s coming next. Looking forward, we’re working with partners to further enrich our products in areas such as remote access and private cloud, and are further strengthening our relationship with Microsoft in product development and technology enablement.

Well folks, it looks like Seagate is doing some great things with Windows Storage Server and I’m excited to start playing with these new NAS devices. Special thanks to Mark Song for this interview and happy holidays to everyone that reads this post!

Scott Johnson
Senior Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
@supersquatchy

Hi Folks –

Windows Server 2012 introduced advanced storage capabilities that lower the cost of storage and give customers options to reduce their infrastructure costs. Windows Storage Server 2012 gives customers the option of working with partners to purchase an appliance solution from a partner. One example of such a solution is the Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS, based on Windows Storage Server 2012.

According to Seagate’s press release, this latest addition to the company’s Business Storage product line:

• Integrates seamlessly with Windows IT infrastructures
• Provides up to 16 TB of centralized storage, secure collaboration and file sharing, and centrally hosted PC backups for small and medium-sized offices or workgroups
• Includes several useful extras, including Seagate System Monitor software, 100GB of free EVault offsite cloud backup for the life of the NAS, and a built-In Universal Storage Module (USM) slot
   

Powerful Features for Small/Medium Businesses

With the Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS, you get several key features and benefits that you get from an appliance based on Windows Storage Server. These include:

• The ability to easily expand into a branch office or add to an existing Windows IT infrastructure
• The advantages that come with Windows Server built-in functionality such as Storage Spaces storage virtualization, which gives you configurable levels of data protection and BitLocker Drive Encryption
• Affordable performance that comes with features such as iSCSI Target capabilities that are built into Windows Storage Server and deliver reliable storage and broad compatibility for virtualized environments
• Support for Windows Server-compatible software (such as antivirus or backup solutions)

Options and System Specifications

Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS appliances are offered in four configurations:

• Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS 4TB – Model # STDM4000100
• Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS 8TB – Model # STDM8000100
• Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS 12TB – Model # STDM12000100
• Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS 16TB – Model # STDM16000100

A data sheet for the Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS can be found here.

The following technical specifications (taken from Seagate’s website) apply to all models:

Several Useful Extras

The Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS also comes with several useful extras:

• Seagate System Monitor.

Windows Storage Server is designed for ease of management. Built-in Seagate System Monitor software builds on that functionality to allow for comprehensive hardware monitoring, as well as quick access to key system administration and management features built into Windows Storage Server.

• Free EVault Offsite Cloud Backup. Windows Storage Server includes Windows Server Backup to help you keep your data safe. Seagate builds on this by providing 100GB of business-class offsite cloud backup from EVault, which is free for the life of the product and can be centrally managed via a Web browser.

• Built-In Universal Storage Module (USM) Slot. The Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS also includes a SATA Universal Storage Module (USM) slot, which enables you to easily and quickly transfer your data to a portable drive.

You can learn more about USM by reading this Seagate marketing bulletin or this Seagate-sponsored IDC whitepaper.

Final Thoughts

Windows Storage Server is a trusted foundation for a NAS appliance that assures easy integration with your existing Windows-based IT infrastructure. Seagate Business Storage hardware combines Windows Storage Server technology with additional performance, data protection, simplified management, and cost-effectiveness for small and medium-sized businesses. It includes:

• Up to 16 terabytes of storage
• A powerful management interface
• A USM slot that makes data easily portable and can serve as an offsite backup

Windows Storage Server in a NAS appliance – that’s what I call affordable storage!

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

Hi Folks –

In my last blog article on improvements to Failover Clustering and Hyper-V, I briefly covered the new shared virtual hard disk feature, which enables you to use a virtual hard disk file (VHXD file) as shared storage for a virtual machine failover cluster (also known as a guest cluster). This can help you protect the application services running inside your VMs.

This is my favorite new “timesaver” feature because it eases deployment of cluster configurations and it offers a way to quickly use resilient SMB shares for storage rather than FibreChannel or iSCSI.

The VHDX file:

• Can be used like it is sitting on a SAN. It supports persistent reservations, which enables multiple cluster nodes to coordinate ownership of storage and it can transfer the storage LUN and VHDX file from one node to another if the first node stops functioning.
  
  
• Can be housed on a continuously-available SMB share on a Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 failover cluster.

In my opinion the ability to store the VHDX on a SMB share is the best part. Not only does it enable the shared VHDX file to reside on cost-effective storage instead of a more expensive SAN, but it also enables you to leverage SMB Direct (RMDA) and SMB Multipath to get great reliability, excellent bandwidth, and low CPU overhead for those SMB shares, which further contribute to reliable, low-cost, easy-to-manage storage.

This article on TechNet provides a great overview of virtual hard disk sharing, and this article by Brien Posey (a Microsoft MVP) explains shared VHDX files and their benefits.
 

Key Deployment Scenarios

Using a shared virtual hard disk is ideal for many workloads. This article on TechNet discusses the two main deployment scenarios:

1. Scenario 1: Hyper-V failover cluster using Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) on block-level storage. In this scenario, all virtual machine files, including the shared VHDX files are stored on a CSV that is configured as shared storage for a Hyper-V failover cluster.
   
   
2. Scenario 2: Hyper-V failover cluster using file-based storage in a separate Scale-Out File Server. This scenario uses Server Message Block (SMB) file-based storage as the location of the shared VHDX files.

Deployment diagrams for these two scenarios can be found here.

Configure a Shared Virtual Hard Disk in Just a Few Minutes

Configuring a shared VHDX is easy; inside the Hyper-V Manager UI, you will see this new option for virtual hard-disk sharing:

Figure 1. Virtual hard disk sharing can be configured using Hyper-V Manager, which is installed along with the Hyper-V role.

Figure 2. You can use SCVMM to provision shared virtual hard disk files remotely.

If you prefer a command-line interface, as I often do, you can simply use Windows PowerShell commands to provision a shared VHDX across the cluster nodes and you will save a bunch of time.

New-VHD -Path C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Shared.VHDX -Fixed -SizeBytes 30GB

Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName Node1 -Path C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Shared.VHDX –ShareVirtualDisk

Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName Node2 -Path C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Shared.VHDX -ShareVirtualDisk

More information on using PowerShell to create a shared VHDX can be found here.

The same article mentioned above also provides a step-by-step overview of the deployment process.

Try it Yourself!

With Windows Server 2012 R2, you can deploy a Hyper-V guest failover cluster that is no longer bound to your storage topology—and shared VHDX files make the process easier than ever. If you’re interested in learning more, this blog article by Jose Baretto shares all the steps required to create a file server demo or test environment, so you can experiment with shared VHDX files and other new features.  Enjoy!

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

Hi Folks –

In my list of top 10 new features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, I included two areas of functionality that make it faster and easier to deliver continuous availability:

• Improved Failover Clustering
• Enhanced support for Hyper-V

Both technologies play essential roles in Microsoft's high-level architecture for a cost-effective, resilient compute and storage infrastructure. Under that architecture:

• Hyper-V VMs running application workloads use SMB 3.0 to store data on a cluster of storage servers.
• The clustered storage servers are connected to a shared SAS JBOD array.

This architecture delivers great scalability and availability, and the latest improvements to Failover Clustering and Hyper-V make things simpler and provide better ways to keep your business up and running. Of course, both technologies also apply to Windows Server 2012 R2 as well.

Now let’s take a closer look at what is new or improved in Failover Clustering and Hyper-V…

Improved Failover Clustering – Robust Business Continuity and 24x7 Services

Failover clustering technology can run on physical or virtual servers to provide high availability and scalability for many server applications and workloads. In a failover cluster, if one or more of the clustered servers (nodes) fails, the workload on that node will transparently fail over to one of the other nodes in the cluster, which take over that workload and automatically attach to the shared storage resource. The use of Failover Clustering with Hyper-V, SMB 3, and Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) creates a really powerful combination. You can now have multiple SMB Server instances per node, which improves resiliency, performance, and scalability by providing independent processes and queues for regular file server traffic and inter-node traffic, like cluster heartbeats and live migrations.

Figure 2. Multiple SMB Server instances per cluster node improves resiliency, performance, and scalability.

Transparent Failover is one of the key features in this scenario. We introduced it in Windows Server 2012, at the same time we introduced support for storing live production server application data (including VM files and SQL databases) on Windows file shares. These server applications often require uninterrupted access to storage, and transparent failover enables them from encountering issues such as IO errors or unexpected handle closures. Transparent failover also enables administrators to perform hardware or software maintenance on any cluster node without interrupting the server applications that are storing their data files on these file shares.

New features for Failover Clustering in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 include the following:

• Shared virtual hard disk (for guest clusters) (New), which eases deployment of guest cluster configurations by enabling you to use a virtual hard disk file (in the .vhdx file format) as shared storage for a virtual machine failover cluster (also known as a guest cluster).
  
  
• Virtual machine drain on shutdown (New), which improves availability by helping to ensure that a server shutdown (or any action that shuts down the Cluster service) does not cause unplanned downtime for running virtual machines.
  
  
• Virtual machine network health detection (New), which increases the availability of virtual machines when a network disconnection occurs on a protected virtual network by enabling the cluster to automatically live migrate the affected virtual machines to a host where that external virtual network is available. For this to occur, there must be multiple network paths between cluster nodes.
  
  
• Deploy an Active Directory-detached cluster (New), which enables you to deploy a failover cluster without dependencies in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for network names. The cluster network name and network names for any clustered roles with client access points are registered in Domain Name System (DNS). However, no computer objects are created for the cluster in AD DS.
  
  
• Dynamic witness (New), which reduces the risk that a cluster will go down because of witness failure. This is achieved by dynamically adjusting the witness vote based on the number of voting nodes in current cluster membership if the cluster is configured to use dynamic quorum (the default).
  
  
• Force quorum resiliency (New), which enables automatic recovery in the case of a partitioned failover cluster (also known as a split cluster or a "split-brain" cluster) where a subset of nodes was started by forcing quorum.
  
  
• Tie breaker for 50% node split (New), which enables one side of a cluster to continue to run in the case of a cluster split where neither side would normally have quorum. This functionality works seamlessly with dynamic witness. 
  
  
• Configure the Global Update Manager mode (New), which helps the cluster to continue to function if there is a delay with one or more nodes or when a state change occurs, such as when a cluster resource is taken offline. This is achieved by enabling you to configure how the Global Update Manager manages global updates. 
  
  
• Turn off IPsec encryption for inter-node cluster communication (New), which improves availability by helping prevent a cluster from being affected by high latency Group Policy updates that may cause Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to become temporarily unavailable.
  
  
• Cluster dashboard (New), which eases management of multiple failover clusters by providing a convenient way to quickly check the health of all managed failover clusters in Failover Cluster Manager.

Improved features for Failover Clustering in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 include the following:

• Optimized CSV placement policies, which automatically distributes and rebalances CSV ownership evenly across failover cluster nodes. This functionality is useful for a Scale-Out File Server that uses Storage Spaces because it ensures that Storage Spaces ownership is distributed.
  
  
• Increased CSV resiliency, which improves availability through multiple Server service instances per cluster node and CSV monitoring of the Server service.
  
  
• CSV cache allocation, which improves performance by enabling you to increase the amount of RAM that you can allocate as CSV cache (which in turn enables the server to use system memory as a write-through cache.) This can be especially useful and deliver large performance gains for Scale-Out File Servers, which are not typically memory constrained.
  
  
• CSV diagnosis, which enables you to optimize your cluster configuration by easily determining the state of a CSV on a per node basis. For example, you can see whether I/O is direct or redirected, or whether the CSV is unavailable. If a CSV is in I/O redirected mode, you can also view the reason.
  
  
• CSV interoperability, which adds CSV support for other Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 features such as Resilient File System (ReFS), Data Deduplication, Parity storage spaces, Tiered storage spaces, and Storage Spaces write-back caching.
  
  
• Quorum user interface improvements, which enable you to easily view the assigned quorum vote and the current quorum vote for each node in the Failover Cluster Manager user interface (UI). Also, quorum mode terminology in the UI has been simplified.
  
  
• Cluster node health detection, which increases resiliency to temporary network failures for virtual machines that are running on a Hyper-V cluster by increasing the heartbeat threshold—the number of heartbeats that can be missed before failover occurs.

All of these features were developed based on direct customer feedback and when you combine them all together you can see how they simplify IT administration and give people confidence in their Windows clusters.

More information on what’s new for Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 R2 (and Windows Storage Server 2012 R2) can be found here.

Hyper-V Enhancements Make Windows Storage Server a Great Storage Platform for VM Workloads

As I’ve often stated, Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 is a great way to provide storage for Hyper-V VMs. We began supporting this high-level architecture with Windows Storage Server 2012, delivering impressive performance through new features like SMB 3.0. We also delivered continuous availability through features such as transparent cluster failover and how Storage Spaces handles disk failures. Now that you can depend on Windows Storage Server to provide reliable storage for your application data, it will become a highly recommended deployment model for Hyper-V and SQL Server databases.

New features in Hyper-V make it easy to take advantage of SMB shares hosted on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, enabling you to consolidate storage for multiple Hyper-V workloads on a single storage infrastructure.

Here’s a list of the latest Hyper-V enhancements:

• Shared virtual hard disk (New), which makes it easier to build high availability infrastructures by enabling multiple clustered virtual machines to share the same virtual hard disk (VHDX) file.
  
  
• Storage Quality of Service (New), which enables you to manage storage throughput for virtual hard disks that are accessed by virtual machines.
  
  
• Virtual machine generation (New), which enables you to choose from two virtual machine generations when determining the virtual hardware and functionality presented to the virtual machine. Generation 1 provides the same virtual hardware to the virtual machine as in previous versions of Hyper-V. Generation 2 adds support for Secure Boot, boot from a SCSI virtual hard disk, boot from a SCSI virtual DVD, PXE boot by using a standard network adapter, and UEFI firmware support.
  
  
• Enhanced session mode (New), which supports additional redirection capabilities for local resources in a Virtual Machine Connection session.
  
  
• Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AMVA) (New), which lets you install virtual machines on a computer that is properly activated—without having to manage product keys for each individual virtual machine. (AVMA requires a virtualization server running Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.)

Improved features related to Hyper-V include:

• Resizing of virtual hard disks, which enables you to change the size of virtual hard disks while the associated virtual machine is online or the virtual hard disk data disk is in use. This capability is only available for VHDX files that are attached to a SCSI controller.
  
• Improved performance for Hyper-V live migrations, which is achieved by enabling you to select the optimal performance option when live migrating virtual machines to a different server. Options supported include TCP/IP, compression, and the SMB 3.0 protocol.
  
  
• Cross-version live migrations, which enables the migration of Hyper-V virtual machines running on Windows Server 2012 or Windows Storage Server 2012 to Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Storage Server R2.
  
  
• Integration services, which now include the ability to copy files to a running virtual machine without using a network connection. A Windows PowerShell cmdlet, Copy-VMFile, also has been added.
  
  
• Export, which reduces downtime by enabling you to export a Hyper-V virtual machine or a virtual machine checkpoint while the virtual machine is running.
  
  
• Failover Clustering and Hyper-V, which improves availability by helping protect against physical storage failures and network connectivity issues when using Windows Failover Clustering with Hyper-V.
  
  
• Enhancements to Hyper-V Replica, which include extended replication to a third server (the extended Replica server) and the ability to configure the frequency of replication.
  
  
• Improved Linux support, including Linux virtual machine backup and dynamic memory for Linux guest operating systems. (These capabilities are available for supported Linux operating systems that have updated integration services components.)
  
  
• Improved Management, as enabled by the ability to manage Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 or Windows Storage Server 2012 from Server Manager or the RSAT tools running on Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, or Windows 8.1.

More information on what’s new for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 (and Windows Storage Server 2012 R2) can be found here.

The new features in Hyper-V and Failover Clustering will make a lot of people very happy. We designed them to simplify management for IT pros, enabling them to more easily (and more confidently) deploy highly available storage.

In my next blog article, I’ll take a closer look at new Storage Spaces and Data Duplication functionality—enhancements that make it easier than ever to cost-effectively scale your storage capacity.

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