Windows Storage Server Overview
Applies To: Windows Storage Server 2012, Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012
This topic describes Windows Storage Server including supported roles and features, practical applications, the most significant new and updated functionality in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2012, hardware and software requirements, and application compatibility.
.jpeg)
|
Did you know that Microsoft Azure provides similar functionality in the cloud? Learn more about Microsoft Azure storage solutions. Create a hybrid storage solution in Microsoft Azure: |
Did you mean…
File and Storage Services Overview
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2
Product description
A computer that runs Windows Storage Server is referred to as a storage appliance. Windows Storage Server is based on the Windows Server operating system, and it is specifically optimized for use with network-attached storage devices. Windows Storage Server offers you a platform to build storage appliances that are customized for your hardware.
In addition, iSCSI Target Server enables you to offer customers block-level storage services, and it operates with a wide range of iSCSI initiators. iSCSI Target Server is included with all editions of Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 including Windows Storage Server editions.
Windows Storage Server editions
Storage appliances are available with the following editions of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2012:
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Workgroup
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard
Windows Storage Server 2012 Workgroup
Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard
The following roles and features are supported in each edition of Windows Storage Server.
Role/Feature |
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Workgroup
|
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard
|
|---|---|---|
Active Directory domain controller |
No |
No |
Domain join |
Yes |
Yes |
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) |
Yes |
Yes |
Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) |
No |
No |
Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) |
No |
No |
Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) |
No |
No |
BranchCache™ Peer to Peer |
Yes |
Yes |
BranchCache™ Hosted cache |
No |
Yes |
Failover clustering |
No |
Yes |
Data Deduplication |
No |
Yes |
Virtualization (Hyper-V® host or guest support) |
No |
Yes, 2 VMs |
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) |
No |
Yes |
DNS |
No |
Yes |
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) |
No |
Yes |
Application Server |
No |
No |
Network Policy |
No |
No |
Desktop Broker |
No |
No |
Windows Deployment Server (WDS) |
No |
No |
Fax Server |
No |
No |
Note
When configuring Windows Storage Server for failover clustering, we recommend that you have separate network interfaces for cluster communications and public communications. When configuring Windows Storage Server for failover clustering with iSCSI Software Target, you can take advantage of multiple network interfaces by using Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) or Load Balance and Failover (LBFO) to provide load balancing and path redundancy.
Hardware features supported in Windows Storage Server
The following hardware features are available in each edition of Storage Server.
Hardware feature |
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Workgroup
|
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard
|
|---|---|---|
Architecture |
x64 |
x64 |
CPU Sockets |
1 |
2 per license |
Random access memory (RAM) |
32 gigabytes |
Unlimited (2 TB on Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard) |
Disks (number / interfaces / RAID type) |
6/Non-external SAS/Any |
Any/Any/Any |
Concurrent Server Message Block (SMB) connections |
250 |
Unlimited |
Maximum number of users |
50 |
Unlimited |
Practical applications
This section discusses the following practical applications for new and enhanced capabilities of Windows Storage Server 2012:
Reduce storage costs, and increase cost efficiency for file storage
Use iSCSI storage devices to serve remote disks as though they were local
Reduce storage costs, and increase cost efficiency for file storage
Use Storage Spaces to provide cost-effective, highly available and scalable storage using industry-standard disks In Windows Storage Server, you can use Storage Spaces to provide enterprise-class storage using industry standard SAS or SATA disks, either internally or in JBOD enclosures. This provides a high level of performance and availability without the added cost of Fibre Channel components and RAID adapters. For details, see Storage Spaces Overview.
Store your Hyper-V virtual machines and Microsoft SQL Server databases on SMB file shares In Windows Storage Server you can leverage the high-performance and high-availability features of SMB 3.0 for application-based file shares for SQL Server and Hyper-V. SMB Direct and SMB Multichannel on a file server hosting VDX drivers for a Hyper-V cluster approach the performance of local storage on Hyper-V guest operating systems. And you get the resiliency of failover and cluster-aware updating to maintain service during planned updates or failures. For details, see Server Message Block Overview.
Use DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication to replicate folders across multiple servers and sites Enhancements to DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication in the File and Storage Services role improve performance and efficiency and reduce administrative overhead when replicating folders across multiple servers and sites. For details, see DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication Overview.
Use BranchCache with Server Message Block (SMB) to optimize performance over the WAN In hosted branch caching if identical content exists in a file – or across many files on the content server or hosted cache server – BranchCache stores only one instance of the content, reducing storage costs. In addition, client computers at office locations download only one instance of duplicate content, saving additional wide area network (WAN) bandwidth. Windows Server 2012 streamlines deployment of BranchCache and introduces significant improvements in scalability, security, performance, and manageability. For more information, see BranchCache Overview.
Provide highly available storage through clustering You can provide continuous availability, with transparent server-side failover, for applications deployed in Network File System (NFS) version 3 or NFS version 2. For continuous availability in heterogeneous environments, you can deploy iSCSI target servers in failover clusters. For more information, see Failover Clustering Overview.
Use NFS as backend storage for your VMware environment Enhancements to NFS improve the experience of running your VMware ESX and VMware ESXi virtual machines from file-based storage. You can deploy NFS servers in a failover cluster for continuous availability; improvements in failover clustering make the NFS server fail over much faster than in earlier versions of Windows Server. Starting in Windows Server 2012, both the NFS server and the NFS client run on top of a new, scalable, high-performance RPC-XDR runtime infrastructure. For more information, see Network File System Overview.
Store more data in less space Use Data Deduplication to store more data in less space. The goal of data duplication is to save disk space by segmenting files into small, variable-size chunks, identifying duplicate chunks, and maintaining a single copy of each chunk. When integrated with BranchCache, Data Deduplication provides faster download times and reduced bandwidth consumption over a WAN. For more information, see Data Deduplication Overview.
Use iSCSI storage devices to serve remote disks as though they were local
The iSCSI Target Server role service lets you use Server Manager to quickly create and share iSCSI LUNs over the network. Virtual hard disk (VHDx or VHD) files appear as locally attached hard drives. Application servers running just about any workload can connect to the target using an iSCSI initiator.
The following are a few of many practical uses for iSCSI Target Server.
Consolidate storage for multiple application servers with diverse storage requirements Applications running just about any workload can connect to the target using the iSCSI initiator. Interoperability with non-Windows applications makes this particularly useful.
Set up an iSCSI SAN for a Windows Server-based failover cluster You can use Windows Storage Server as inexpensive SAN storage for a failover cluster using the iSCSI protocol instead of SMB if your applications don’t support SMB fail over.
Create inexpensive development and test environments Using iSCSI Target Server, you can create inexpensive development and test environments for complex scenarios such as clustering, live migration, SAN transfer, and Storage Manager. For example, you can set up an iSCSI SAN for a clustered SQL Server instance on a single computer. For more information, see the blog entry Six Uses for the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target and iSCSI Target Server Overview.
Offload printing to your storage server
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2012 includes the Printer Server role. This is especially useful for branch offices, which can now manage printing on the same server that provides infrastructure services and file and storage services, including iSCSI SAN management.
Storage management for complex applications
Migrate existing data for complex applications, such as hierarchical storage management (HSM) and medical applications, to new storage.
Programmatically control highly sensitive files for LOB applications Take advantage of improvements to File Classification Infrastructure (FCI) features of File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) to programmatically control highly sensitive files for your line-of-business (LOB) applications. With FCI, you can classify files by defining automated rules, and then programmatically perform tasks on those files based on their classification. For example, to access high-business-impact (HBI) data, you might require that a user be a full-time employee, obtain access from a managed device, and log on with a smart card.
The Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system introduced the Microsoft Data Classification Toolkit, which reduced administrative overhead by defining a basic set of classification properties related to common compliance requirements. However, the classifications were local to each file server, which meant the administrator had to ensure that the same classification properties were used on all file servers. Starting in Windows Server 2012, the classification properties are managed centrally in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), making the classification properties standard on all file servers.
For more information, see the blog entry Protect everything: using FCI to protect files of any type with Windows Server 2012.
Improved scalability and performance for branch offices
Windows Storage Server can provide comprehensive infrastructure services for the branch office. Use DNS and WINS for server address identification. Use your storage server as your primary DHCP server or as a DHCP failover target if the primary DHCP server goes offline.
New options for storage through SMB 3.0
The introduction of the Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol opens new storage options and capabilities, and simplifies storage management in a heterogeneous environment. These include the following capabilities. For more information, see What's New in SMB in Windows Server.
Highly available shared data storage for SQL Server databases and Hyper-V workloads Scale-Out File Server, new in Windows Server 2012, lets you store server application data, such as Hyper-V virtual machine files, on file shares, and obtain a similar level of reliability, availability, manageability, and high performance that you would expect from a storage area network. All file shares are online on all nodes simultaneously. This is also known as an active-active cluster. For more information, see Scale-Out File Server for Application Data Overview.
Direct access to your Fibre Channel infrastructure Hyper-V virtual Fibre Channel provides direct access to Fibre Channel storage arrays by using Fibre Channel ports in the Hyper-V guest operating system. This enables you to virtualize workloads that require direct access to Fibre Channel storage and to cluster guest operating systems over Fibre Channel.
No application downtime for planned maintenance or unexpected failures With SMB Transparent Failover, file shares move transparently between file server cluster nodes with no service interruption on the SMB client.
Built-in data encryption for secure wire transfers SMB 3.0 performs transport-level encryption, and setting it up is as simple as selecting a single check box. You can configure a single share or an entire file server for SMB 3.0 encryption. Clients running earlier versions of SMB will not even see the shares.
SMB file share backup using the same backup solution used for local storage Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) now supports backup of remote file storage. Any third-party backup software that uses VSS can back up files, virtual machines, and databases stored on SMB file shares.
New and changed features in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 makes significant improvements throughout File and Storage Services, including to protocols, data access and replication, continuous availability, scalability, deployment and management.
Note
This table summarizes some of the most significant new and updated features of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2. For a complete list of new features available through File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2012 R2, see File and Storage Services Overview.
Feature/functionality |
New or updated |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
Storage protocols |
Updated |
|
Data access and replication |
New |
|
Data access and replication |
Updated |
|
Continuous availability |
Updated |
|
Scalability improvements |
Updated |
|
Deployment and management |
|
New and changed features in Windows Storage Server 2012
Improved processes and added capabilities throughout Storage and File Services in Windows Storage Server 2012 make significant improvements to security, performance, management, and scalability.
Note
This table summarizes some of the most significant new and updated features of Windows Storage Server 2012. For a complete list of new features available through File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2012, see File and Storage Services Overview and the Storage: Windows Server 2012 white paper.
Feature/functionality |
New or updated |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
Security improvements |
Updated |
Windows Storage Server 2012 provides multilayered security for your storage infrastructure:
|
Performance improvements |
Updated |
Changes throughout the File and Storage Services features of Windows Server 2012 enhance storage and network performance:
|
Simplified management |
Updated |
Management improvements enable you to manage more of a heterogeneous storage infrastructure centrally on the File and Storage Service pane of Server Manager or, alternatively, perform scripted and remote management using Windows PowerShell 4.0.
|
Scalability improvements |
Updated |
In Microsoft internal testing, file server scalability in Windows Storage Server 2012 increased 25 percent over Windows 7 client computers in Windows Server 2008 R2; throughput improved up to 40 percent on a 4-socket system. |
Hardware and software requirements
An appliance based on Windows Storage Server must meet basic system and hardware requirements of Windows Server.
For Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, see System Requirements and Installation Information for Windows Server 2012 R2.
For Windows Storage Server 2012, see Installing Windows Server 2012 and Windows Storage Server Getting Started.
For special requirements for individual storage features, see the feature overviews under File and Storage Services Overview.
Application compatibility in Windows Storage Server
Use the following guidelines to determine your applications’ compatibility with Windows Storage Server. For more information, see the Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Compatibility Cookbook.
Windows Storage Server and Windows Server are built on the same code base. Applications certified for Windows Server are expected to have the same application compatibility profile on Windows Storage Server.
Windows Storage Server and Windows Server have the same application frameworks, services, libraries, and tools to support running the full breadth of Windows-compatible applications.
Applications that rely on roles that are removed from Windows Storage Server 2012 - such as Fax Server, Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) - will not be able to leverage those roles.
Note
All versions of Windows Storage Server can be added to an Active Directory domain, but the server cannot function as a domain controller.
Ultimately, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) decide which versions and editions of the Windows operating system their products support. Customers should review ISV compatibility and support information before purchasing software for use on a Windows Storage Server appliance.
Windows Storage Server customers should review the End User License Agreement (EULA) to see the types of applications that are permitted for installation. After installation, you can find the license agreement in %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\license.rtf. Or, on the Start page, open Run, and enter winver.
You can run antivirus software on Windows Storage Server, just like on Windows Server.
See also
For additional related information, see the following resources.