Windows Server 2016-store new features

This chapter introduces new features for storage in Windows Server 2016, as follows:

1. Storage Spaces Direct:

Storage Spaces Direct allows you to build high-availability and scalable storage by using servers that have local storage. This feature simplifies the deployment and management of software-defined storage systems and allows new disk devices, such as SATA SSDs and NVMe disk devices, to be used without the use of shared disks in the previously clustered storage space.

Value:

Spatial storage Passthrough enables service providers and enterprises to build high-availability and highly scalable software-defined storage using industry-standard servers with local storage. Using servers with local storage reduces complexity, enhances scalability, and allows the use of storage devices that were not previously possible, such as using SATA SSDs to reduce flash storage costs or using NVME solid-state disks for more performance.

Spatial storage Passthrough eliminates the need to share SAS structures, simplifying deployment and configuration. Instead of using the network as a storage structure, it uses SMB3 and SMB Direct (RDMA) for high-speed, low-latency CPU storage. To scale out, simply add more servers to increase storage capacity and I/O performance

This feature is a new feature of Windows Server 2016.

2. Storage copy:

Storage replicas Enable storage-agnostic block-level replication between individual servers or clusters for disaster recovery and failover cluster expansion across sites. Synchronous replication supports mirrored data in physical sites and volumes that are consistent at crash time to ensure that data loss at the file system level is zero. Asynchronous replication allows site extensions that are beyond the metropolitan range and that may have data loss.

value: Use storage replication to perform the following actions:

• Provides a single-vendor disaster recovery solution for planned and unplanned outages of mission-critical workloads.

• Use SMB3 transmission with widely acclaimed reliability, scalability, and high performance.

• Extend the Windows failover cluster to urban distances.

• Use end-to-end Microsoft software for storage and clustering (such as Hyper-V, storage replicas, storage spaces, clusters, scale-out file servers, SMB3, deduplication, and Refs/ntfs).

• can help reduce costs and complexity, as follows:

• Hardware-independent, there is no requirement for specific storage configurations such as DAS or Sans.

• Allows the use of commodity storage and networking technologies.

• The ability to easily graphically manage individual nodes and clusters through failover Cluster Manager.

• Includes comprehensive, large-scale scripting options through Windows PowerShell.

• Helps reduce downtime, increase reliability, and improve productivity within Windows.

• Provides support capabilities, performance metrics, and diagnostic capabilities.

This feature is a new feature of Windows Server 2016.

3, Storage Service quality:

You can now use storage quality of service (QoS) to centrally monitor end-to-end storage performance and create policies using Hyper-V and CSV clusters in Windows Server 2016.

Value: You can now create storage QoS policies on a CSV cluster and assign them to one or more virtual disks on a Hyper-V virtual machine. Storage performance is automatically re-adjusted to match the policy with workload and storage load fluctuations.

• Each policy can specify a hold (minimum) and/or limit (maximum) to apply to a collection of data flows, such as a virtual hard disk, a single virtual machine or a virtual group, a service, or a tenant.

• Use Windows PowerShell or WMI to perform the following tasks:

• Create a policy on a CSV cluster.

• Enumerates the available policies on a CSV cluster.

• Assign the policy to the virtual hard disk of the Hyper-V virtual machine.

• Monitor the performance of each stream and the state in the policy.

• If multiple virtual hard disks share the same policy, performance is fairly distributed, satisfying the requirements within the minimum and maximum settings for the policy. Therefore, policies can be used to manage a virtual hard disk, a virtual machine, multiple virtual machines that comprise a service, or all virtual machines owned by a tenant.

Different working principles:

This feature is a new feature of Windows Server 2016. Manage minimal reservations, monitor all virtual disk flows across clusters through a single command, and fail to implement centralized policy-based management in earlier versions of Windows Server.

4. Data deduplication:

Function	New feature or update feature	Description
Support for large volumes	has been updated	Before Windows Server 2016, you must specifically adjust the size of the volume to make the expected changes, and volumes larger than ten terabytes are not suitable for data deduplication. In Windows Server 2016, Deduplication supports a volume size of up to a maximum of terabytes.
Support for large files	has been updated	Before Windows Server 2016, files that were nearly 1 terabytes in size were not suitable for data deduplication. In Windows Server 2016, files up to 1 TB are fully supported.
Support Nano Server	New	Data deduplication is available in the new Nano Server deployment option in Windows Server 2016 and is fully supported.
Simplified backup support	New	In Windows Server R2, virtualized backup applications are supported through a series of manual configuration steps, such as Microsoft Data Protection Manager in Windows Server 2016, for virtualized backup applications A seamless deployment of program Deduplication adds a new default usage type of "backup".
Support for cluster operations System rolling Upgrade	New	Data deduplication fully supports the new features of Windows Server 2016 cluster operating system rolling upgrade.

5. Enhanced SMB connectivity enhancements for SYSVOL and NETLOGON:

In Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 client connections to the default Active Directory Domain Services SYSVOL and NETLOGON, shares on domain controllers now require SMB signing and mutual authentication (for example, Kerbe ROS).

Value: This change reduces the likelihood of a man-in-the-middle attack.

What is the difference in function?

If SMB signing and mutual authentication are not available, Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 computers do not process domain-based Group Policy and scripts.

Note: The registry values for these settings do not appear by default, but the hardening rules still apply until the Group Policy or other registry values are overridden.

For more information about these security improvements (also known as UNC hardening), see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 3000483 and ms15-011 & ms15-014: Hardening Group Policy.

6. Working folder:

Improves the work folders server that is running Windows Server 2016 and the work folders client is a change notification for Windows 10 o'clock.

Value:

For Windows Server R2, when file changes are synchronized to the working folder server, the client is not notified of this change and waits 10 minutes for the update. When you use Windows Sever 2016, the work folders server immediately notifies Windows 10 clients and synchronizes file changes immediately.

Different working principles:

This feature is a new feature of Windows Server 2016. This requires that the Windows Server 2016 working folder server and the client must be Windows 10.

If you are using an older client or a working folder server for Windows server R2, the client will continue to poll for changes every 10 minutes.

7. ReFS:

The next ReFS iteration provides support for large-scale storage deployments with a variety of workloads, providing reliability, resiliency, and scalability for your data.

Value: ReFS made the following improvements:

• ReFS implements new storage tier capabilities to help deliver faster performance and greater storage capacity. This new feature will enable the following:

• Use multiple resiliency types on the same virtual disk (for example, using the mirror in the performance layer and parity in the capacity layer).

• Improved responsiveness to deviations from the working set.

• SMR (Stacked tile magnetic recording) media support.

• The introduction of block clones greatly improves the performance of VM operations (for example,. VHDX checkpoint merge operations).

• The new ReFS Scan Tool supports the recovery of leaked storage and helps to reclaim data to avoid serious damage.

How it works: These features are new in Windows Server 2016.

Windows Server 2016-store new features