Microsoft's storage partners—well-known companies such as EMC and Iomega
that serve small and midsized businesses—should pay attention to Microsoft's
new storage-related products and services, which are intended to affect the
competitive landscape of the storage market. For Microsoft's business customers,
the software giant's storage-related moves, coupled with the commoditization
of cheap, off-the-shelf storage devices, will lead to a new era of affordable
storage for all. This change in product offerings is beneficial for companies
that haven't invested heavily in storage solutions. Here's what you need to
know about Microsoft's storage product plans.
What's New in Windows Server 2003 R2
Although Windows Server 2003 and earlier versions include core storage technologies
such as Volume Shadow Copy (VSC), Virtual Disk Service (VDS), Encrypting File
System (EFS) and NTFS, and Automated System Recovery (ASR), the latest Windows
Server 2003 Release 2 (R2) includes a number of key improvements.
DFS replication. The Distributed File System (DFS) has been upgraded and renamed to DFS Namespaces.
The replication piece, previously handled through the File Replication Service
(FRS), has been significantly overhauled and renamed DFS Replication. DFS Replication
uses a multimaster replication model that lets it replicate DFS-based data more
efficiently over the network than FRS did. DFS Replication efficiency results
from a new technology called Remote Differential Compression (RDC), which replicates
only those parts of a file that have changed, dramatically decreasing load on
network bandwidth. This change makes remote storage access more efficient and
less expensive.
File Server Resource Manager (FSRM). FSRM is a set of tools designed
to help administrators set and manage storage quotas on a per-volume or per-folder
basis. When you launch FSRM, it automatically loads two snap-ins: Storage Resource
Management, which creates quotas and screens files to block users from saving
certain file types, and Scheduled Storage Tasks, which schedules storage reports
automatically and on demand.
Disk quota limits. Windows 2003 R2 lets you configure a hard or soft storage disk quota for each
user. If you configure a hard disk quota, when a user reaches the configured
disk storage quota the system generates a system log file entry and doesn't
allow the user to save additional files. With a soft quota limit, the system
sends a warning message to the administrator, but the user can continue saving
files to disk. An administrator can configure settings that cause the system
to automatically notify him or her when disk quotas for users reach a certain
percentage of full. Administrators can also set a quota template for a master
folder, and every folder that sits underneath this master folder inherits the
quota set in the template. The quota template is a useful feature for administrators
who want to create similarly configured disk storage quotas for a number of
users.
Storage Manager for SANs (SMfS, or "simple SAN"). SMfS is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in tool that makes
storage management easy. SMfS lets you discover Fibre Channel or Internet SCSI
(iSCSI)based SANs, including low-level SAN information called storage array
properties. You can create, delete, and expand storage array logical unit numbers
(LUNs), which identify storage allotments. You can also allocate LUNs to specific
servers on the SAN and monitor the status, health, and allocation of a LUN.
You can use simple wizards to configure most of the core SMfS functionality.
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2
Microsoft recently released Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 (WSS03 R2), which
is available only with new server appliance hardware or rack-mounted systems
from server hardware manufacturers. You can't purchase the Windows Server R2
software as a standalone item.
WSS03 R2 is interesting. Microsoft basically took Windows 2003 R2 and removed some of the non-storage-related capabilities, then optimized the system for file serving. The great thing: You can use tools you already have to manage your WSS03 device.
WSS03 R2 is a dramatic improvement over the previous version, thanks to three new features: Single Instance Storage (SIS) engine, a full-text search engine, and optimized low-level file server performance.
Single Instance Storage engine. SIS, which was available previously only for and with Remote Installation Services
(RIS), copies transparent duplicate files to a SIS Common Store and replaces
the originals with reparse points to reduce disk consumption. The concept is
similar to UNIX symbolic links.
Here's how it works. Say you have five duplicate files on a file server. SIS
replaces each of the five physical files with a separate shortcut that, to an
end user, resembles a normal file. If no one edits these files, only a single
physical version of the file is stored in the SIS Common Store. When a user
wants to edit one of the files, SIS leaves the original in the SIS Common Store
but places a copy of the original file in the directory that the user specified.
SIS lets users work in their usual manner while minimizing the amount of disk
space they use. Also, common backup solutions, such as Veritas's Backup Exec
and Computer Associates' (CA's) ArcServe Backup support SIS. Microsoft reports
that SIS can provide as much as a 60 percent savings in disk space.
Full text search engine. This search feature, which leverages
Windows 2000 Server's and Windows XP's indexing engine and client search features,
provides almost instantaneous results from network-based searches and searches
on network share directories. The indexing engine supports common file types
(such as Microsoft Office files) and various filters for other file types (such
as Adobe PDF, WinZip, Adobe Macro-media Flash, Corel WordPerfect, and MP3).
Optimized low-level file server performance. This preconfigured
performance feature makes the WSS03 R2 the fastest file server available. For
even faster performance, WSS03 R2 lets you disable 8.3-file-name generation
on XP clients. The optimized performance occurs at the configuration level,
not at a low level, which means that it's possible for Windows 2003 R2 users
to achieve similar performance levels if they know how to manually configure
the appropriate settings.
WSS03 R2 includes all the features in Windows 2003 R2, which means you get the benefits of that product's storage advances, including the new DFS Replication and FSRM functions.
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