Windows Storage Server 2003 R2

Technical Overview
L300
David Salman
Senior Infrastructure Consultant
hp
[email protected], [email protected]
Agenda
Overview
Features of R2
Comparison with Windows Server 2003 R2
Appendix: HP Storage mirroring – NSI
double take
Storage Server Technical Overview

Overview

Features of R2

Comparison with Windows 2003

R2
Storage Challenges
Current trends:

Storage growth estimates: 60-100% per year

for organizations
Costs of managing storage can be 10x the
cost of storage
Process of consolidating file servers and
storage servers is complicated
Storage Challenges
Drawbacks to adding more DAS
Limits to Growth
Limited storage capacity
Scaling constraints emerge as data assets grow
Exponential Management Complexity
More hardware and software needed to meet increased storage
capacity needs
More administrators needed to configure and maintain IT
assets
Limited or laborious access to shared data, especially data
shared between company workgroups, departments, and
branches
Constraints to Data Protection
Data is scattered across network
Poor or inconsistent protection of data on client desktops and
laptops
Temporary or permanent loss of data resulting from hardware
failures, data corruption, or user error
Storage Challenges
NAS appliances are a cost-effective solution
Organizations need to consolidate existing
storage and grow future storage in a
manageable way
Windows-based NAS appliances provide
industry-standard storage solution
Supported by numerous Tier-One vendors
50-90% less expensive than non-Windows-based
solutions*

* Source: 2004 D.H. Brown Associates study

Windows Storage Server
Roadmap

R2

Windows Windows Windows Windows Windows

Storage Storage Storage Longhorn Longhorn
Server Server Server Storage Storage
2003 2003 R2 2003 R2 Server Server R2
OOB

Windows Storage Server Philosophy

Leading Edge Storage Features
Flexible release schedule
Benefits of WSS 2003 R2
Single instance storage (SIS) ISV utility support
Searching and indexing Robust security
Ease of deployment Server fail over
Improved, simplified Improved performance
management Windows SharePoint
Services
Dependability
WebDAV
Enhanced data protection
Backup
Load balancing and robust
Antivirus
file replication
New in WSS 2003 R2
SIS
Built-in performance enhancements
Full text search
File Server Resource Manager
quotas
file screening
Storage Manager for SAN
Improved branch office support
New DFS-N console
New DFS-R console
Windows SharePoint Services
Exchange Feature Pack
New in WSS 2003 R2
Includes all improvements in Windows Server
2003 R2
Includes network file system (NFS)
improvements
Performance optimization built in
New in WSS 2003 R2
New UIs:
All UIs created as Microsoft
Management Console (MMC)
snap-ins
Based on File Server
Management (FSM) Console
Snap-ins include:
Storage Manager for SAN
File Service Resource Manager
New DFS/FRS console
Print Management
New in WSS 2003 R2
OEM specific customization MMC
Storage Server Technical Overview

Overview

Features of R2

Comparison with Windows 2003

R2
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Overview – What is SIS ?
SIS is a Windows technology that consolidates
duplicate files within a volume
By removing duplicate files, SIS reduces the amount
of storage that is required by the system
SIS will not be bundled with Windows Server 2003
SIS is a differentiating feature that will GA in Windows
Storage Server 2003 R2 SE and EE
SIS was previously only available with RIS
SIS is a proven technology that has been deployed in
large enterprise environments
SIS functionality is compatible with most backup
applications
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Benefits of SIS functionality
MS-IT saved 14 TB (60%) on MS products shares
SIS works automatically without user involvement
Once it has been enabled,
SIS is transparent to the end user and applications
Backup API support
Backup apps may use the SIS API (sisbkup.dll) to determine
if a file has been added to the SIS common store.
Backup files from SIS only once.
Restoring files to SIS common store – else the volume may
run out of space
SIS is supported in Microsoft cluster (MSCS)
environments
the “groveler” must be manually restarted after a failover
The new “sisadmin.exe” application simplifies
administration
Single Instance Storage - SIS
SIS Results in MS-IT
Server Type Number of Average Space Savings Total Space
Servers Savings (GB)
% GB

Localized Products 2 70.3 511.9 1023.8

Archived Products 2 64.3 1039.0 2078.0

Products\Public\Products 6 52.2 70.5 423.0

Streaming Media Master 1 44.4 71.5 71.5

DDS Hug 29 63.8 173.0 5,017.0

DDS Tail 110 54.4 20.6 2,266.0

GMAS 34 71.7 104.3 3,546.2

RIS 85 59.3 1.4 116.5

Total Savings 269 60.05 14,542.0

If storing this data on 36 GB drives, this is a hardware savings of up to $116,416.00

More importantly, it can help organizations save millions of dollars on management
Single Instance Storage - SIS
SIS Results in MS-IT
Ava ra ge Spa ce Sa ving - &

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

L o ca liz e d P ro d u c ts
P ro d u c ts \P u b lic \P ro d u c ts
0

A rc h iv e p ro d u c ts
S tre a m in g M e d ia M a s te r
DDS Hug
D D S T a il

S1
GMAS
T o ta l S a vin g

R IS

If storing this data on 36 GB drives, this is a hardware savings of up to $116,416.00

More importantly, it can help organizations save millions of dollars on management
Single Instance Storage - SIS
SIS Results in MS-IT
Tota l Spa ce Sa ving - GB

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

P ro d u c t s \ P u b lic \ P ro d u c t s

L o c a liz e d P ro d u c t s
S t re a m in g M e d ia M a s t e r

A rc h iv e p ro d u c t s
0
DDS Hug
D D S T a il

S1
GMAS
R IS

If storing this data on 36 GB drives, this is a hardware savings of up to $116,416.00

More importantly, it can help organizations save millions of dollars on management
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Overview – How does it work (1)?
SIS is enabled on a per volume basis (6 max)
Special backup API is used to identify and
archive SIS files
The “groveler” service looks and moves
duplicate files to the SIS “Common Store”
By using NTFS volume logs
Full scan of the volume – if NTFS journal is
truncated
Files that are >32KB
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Overview – How does it work (2)?
Duplicate files are moved & the file metadata
remains
The metadata is the size, ACLs, time stamp, etc
The metadata is associated with the links that
replaces the existing files
Sparse links remain in the original locations
When a file is recalled, the reparse point is
removed and the contents of the file are copied
back to the link
Special backup API is used to identify and
archive SIS files
Without this API the apps will backup \ restore
duplicate files
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Limitations to the current functionality (1):
SIS requires local NTFS
Not supported on system & boot drives
Remote drives are not supported
MSCS functionality has some restrictions
SIS must be restarted when MSCS is enabled, or a
failover occurs
File quotas do not take SIS into consideration
“sisbkup.dll” must be installed in order for restores
to work efficiently
Data Protection Manager is not SIS aware
multiple copies are made
Single Instance Storage - SIS
Limitations to the current functionality (2):
Quota is not SIS aware
Users can fool quota by making a duplicate of all their
files
The files are moved to the SIS common store
The user quota usages goes down as result
SIS doesn’t support EA (extended attribute) files
If NFS sets an EA on a file, it can’t become a SIS file
If a file is deleted from the SIS common store, all
instances will be lost
SIS can’t be turned off !!!
Backup and restore to another non SIS volume …
A volume level setting
 Performance Optimization
Out Of The Box
~15-20% file serving performance gain versus
non-optimized Windows-based file servers
OEM Interrupt affinity driver
NetBench benchmark of 4.11 gigabits/sec for
CIFS
SpecSFS benchmark of 22,416 ops/sec for
NFS

For full disclosure on this benchmark test, visit the

fourth-quarter 2005 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation SFS97_R1 results Web site at
http://www.spec.org/sfs97r1/results/res2005q4/
Performance Optimization
Fine tuning best practices

Formatting the volume for the average file size

Can cause issue with defrag support
Can increase the snapshots size
Disable file compression – if not 4k block
Increasing cache size
Disabling last access time
Disabling file server aliasing
Disabling 8.3 file name creation
Disabling sharing violation notification delay….
Decreasing TCP default acknowledgement frequency
Q889588 is a good starting point
Full Text Search
Expose the latent full-text search
Can search wide range of Microsoft and non-
Microsoft party file types
Scales to 3-4 million documents
Same security/access control list (ACL) semantics
as SharePoint Portal Server
Windows 2000 and Windows XP already have
the client UI
Windows SharePoint Services
SharePoint sites: File storage and collaboration
Team Collaboration
Event calendars
Contacts
Web links
Announcements
Web Parts
Data access
Web services
Other applications and content to SharePoint sites
Document Libraries
Store and retrieve files
File check-in and check-out,
Version history
Custom metadata
Managed through SharePoint Central
Administration Web interface
File Server Resource Manager
Storage Reports
Filesystem-related reports for tracking storage
On demand and scheduled reports
Quotas
Limits size of a volume or folder
Folder-based
Built-in reports
File Screening
Controls the type of data stored in a file or folder
Name-based screening of files
Allow/disallow file creation on specified folder
trees
Send alerts, notifications and maintain a list of
policy violations
File Serving across OS
Customer Situation
Need to share files and data between UNIX
systems and Windows systems
Unhappy with SAMBA for cross-platform file
sharing due to:
Poor performance
Lack of security (one-way authentication, signing)
Lack of support
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 provides
Seamless UNIX/Windows Interoperability
Authenticating users across platforms
File sharing across multiple operating systems
Tested and supported by Microsoft
File Serving across OS
NFS
NFS as a native Windows component
Installed by default
NFS will no longer be part of SFU umbrella
Key features
Includes NFS Server, NFS Client, User Name
Mapping components
Improved NFS/SMB interop, no more need for
nfsonly
Improved stability and robustness
Native 64-bit support for all components
Fully localized to all Windows Server languages
Improved Administration UI experience
Support for NFS special devices (MKNOD)
Storage Server Technical Overview

Overview

Features of R2

Comparison with Windows Server

2003 R2
What is unique in WSS 2003 R2?

There are three key differentiating features that are available

ONLY in Windows Storage Server 2003 R2:
Single Instance Storage
Index Based Search
File Server Performance Optimization
Available to OEMs only
NO CAL – Special license agreement
OEM branding and extensions)
On first entry, NAS GUIs are started, not Manage Your Server
File Server Role is enabled and components pre-installed
Optional Component Manager does not have components disabled by
license (examples: ADAM, SharePoint –depending on Windows Storage
Server edition)
Non-unique features
Available also in Windows 2003 R2
There are four additional key differentiating
features that are available in Windows Storage
Server 2003 R2:
Document Collaboration – the other WSS
Storage Management (MMC 3.0)
Terminal Services, Remote Desktop Admin
DFS (DFS-R, DFS-N, RDC)
NFS as an optional component
Summary
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2
SIS
Enhanced search and indexing
Improved performance and file serving
optimization
Better manageability of quotas
Better NFS experience
NO CAL !!! Free access
 © 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.
Appendix:
HP Storage mirroring – NSI double
take
HP Storage Mirroring
Replication / Failover
WAN

LAN New York

Washington DoubleTake

Used to replicate data between two WSS03 file servers

Replication for disaster recovery
Failover for business continuity
‘to anywhere, from anywhere, over IP’
HP Storage Mirroring
Centralized, and remote office back up
Seattle (HQ)

ta
Da
Windows Storage Server
with Storage Mirroring

WAN

New York
Data

Windows Storage Server

with Storage Mirroring

Washington

Great solution for remote office back up; automated

Data can be replicated from the remote office to a DC
WSS03 file servers can by backed up online
HP Storage Mirroring
Centralized, and remote office back up

Wizards to add source and target servers, folders, files

set replication parameters (schedule, bandwidth)
HP Storage Mirroring
Customer Benefits

Centralized backup solution

Comprehensive business continuity story
Geo clustering tool for failover across geographies
Cost effective solution
Works in intermittent and low bandwidth connections
Low TCO centralized back-up story