Dell Compellent Storage Center

Dell Compellent Storage Center Windows Server 2012 Best Practices Guide Dell Compellent Technical Solutions Group July, 2013

THIS BEST PRACTICES GUIDE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Dell, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft and Windows are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. ii

Table of Contents 1 Preface... 1 1.1 Audience... 1 1.2 Purpose... 1 1.3 Customer Support... 1 2 Introduction... 2 2.1 Dell Compellent Storage Center Overview... 2 2.2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Overview... 2 2.3 New Features in Windows Server 2012... 3 3 Multipath I/O... 3 4 Hyper-V... 3 5 Windows Failover Clustering and SMB 3.0... 4 5.1 Windows Failover Clustering Overview... 4 5.2 Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 Overview... 4 5.2.1 Scale-Out File Server and Continuous Availability... 5 5.3 Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs)... 5 5.3.1 Adding a CSV to a Windows Failover Cluster... 5 5.3.2 Creating a Scale-Out File Server with a Continuously Available File Share.... 8 5.4 SMB Multichannel and SMB Direct... 16 5.4.1 SMB Multichannel... 16 5.4.2 SMB Direct... 16 6 Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)... 17 7 Thin Provisioning and Trim/Unmap... 17 8 Resilient File System (ReFS)... 18 8.1.1 Using ReFS on Dell Compellent Volumes... 18 8.1.2 Adding a New ReFS Volume... 18 8.1.3 Formatting an Existing Volume with ReFS... 23 9 Windows Storage Spaces... 25 9.1.1 Compatibility... 25 10 Data Deduplication... 25 10.1 Installing the Data Deduplication Feature... 26 10.1.1 Server Manager GUI... 26 iii

10.1.2 PowerShell... 29 10.2 Enable Data Deduplication... 29 10.2.1 Server Manager GUI... 29 10.2.2 PowerShell... 32 10.3 Viewing Deduplication Statistics... 33 10.3.1 Server Manager... 33 10.3.2 PowerShell... 34 11 Windows PowerShell 3.0... 35 12 Conclusion... 36 13 Additional Resources... 36 iv

Document Revisions Date Revision Author Comments 01/18/2013 1.0 Kris Piepho Initial Release 07/23/2013 1.1 Kris Piepho Corrected grammatical error v

1 Preface 1.1 Audience The audience for this document is storage and systems administrators who are responsible for the setup and maintenance of Windows servers and associated storage. Readers should have a working knowledge of Windows Server 2012 and the Dell Compellent Storage Center. 1.2 Purpose This document provides an overview of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and introduces best practice guidelines when integrating Windows Server 2012 with the Dell Compellent Storage Center. Please note that the information contained within this document provides general recommendations only. Configurations may vary based upon individual circumstances, environments, and business needs. 1.3 Customer Support Dell Compellent provides live support 1-866-EZSTORE (866.397.8673), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. For additional support, email Dell Compellent at support@compellent.com. Dell Compellent responds to emails during normal business hours. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 1

2 Introduction 2.1 Dell Compellent Storage Center Overview The Dell Compellent Storage Center is an enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) that significantly lowers capital expenditures, reduces storage management and administration time, provides continuous data availability and enables storage virtualization. Storage Center s Fluid Data Architecture manages data dynamically at the block-level, maximizing utilization, automating tiered storage, simplifying replication and speeding data recovery. 2.2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Overview Microsoft has gained expertise from years of building and operating some of the largest cloud applications in the world, and has combined this expertise with their experiences in delivering market leading enterprise operating systems, platforms, and applications to develop a platform. This platform, which Microsoft calls the Cloud OS, addresses the technology and IT trends discussed above. The Microsoft Cloud OS delivers a modern platform of products and services that helps enterprises transform their current infrastructure to a highly elastic, scalable, and reliable infrastructure; quickly and flexibly build and manage modern applications across platforms, locations, and devices; unlock insights from volumes of existing and new data; and support user productivity wherever and on whatever device they choose. Microsoft uniquely delivers the Cloud OS as a consistent and comprehensive set of capabilities that span on-premises, service provider, and Windows Azure datacenters, enabling enterprises to improve scale, elasticity, and availability of IT services. The heart of the Microsoft Cloud OS is Windows Server 2012, which delivers upon the promises of a modern datacenter in four ways: It takes you beyond virtualization: Windows Server 2012 offers a dynamic, multitenant infrastructure that goes beyond virtualization to provide maximum flexibility for delivering and connecting to cloud services. It delivers the power of many servers with the simplicity of one: Windows Server 2012 offers excellent economics by integrating a continuously available and easy-to-manage multiple-server platform with breakthrough efficiency and ubiquitous automation. It opens the door to every app on any cloud: Windows Server 2012 is a broad, scalable, and elastic server platform that gives organizations the flexibility to build and deploy applications and websites on-premises, in the cloud, and in a hybrid environment, using a consistent set of tools and frameworks. It enables a modern workstyle: Windows Server 2012 empowers IT to provide users with flexible access to data and applications from virtually anywhere, on virtually any device, with a rich user experience, while simplifying management and helping maintain security, control, and compliance. Source: Microsoft July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 2

2.3 New Features in Windows Server 2012 Along with a new user interface, Windows Server 2012 includes a host of new and improved features. As they relate to integration with Dell Compellent Storage Center, the following new features and improvements will be covered throughout this document: Hyper-V Clustering SMB 3.0 Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) Thin Provisioning and Trim Support Resilient File System (ReFS) Windows Storage Spaces Data Deduplication PowerShell 3.0 For a complete list of new features and improvements in Windows Server 2012, please refer to the references listed at the end of this document under Additional Resources. 3 Multipath I/O Windows Server 2012 natively supports Multipath I/O (MPIO) by way of a Device Specific Module (DSM). MPIO is setup as a feature in the OS and must be enabled to work with the specific volumes that have multiple paths to the SAN. The process is very straightforward and simple to implement. The main purpose of Multipath I/O is to provide redundant paths for a server to access storage. With multipath, if one path goes down, another path is able to provide connectivity to prevent a service outage. MPIO also allows for load-balancing so that the I/O is spread across the available paths. For more information on how to install and configuring MPIO on Windows Server 2012 and Dell Compellent SAN volumes, please refer to the Dell Compellent Storage Center Microsoft MPIO Best Practices Guide, located on Knowledge Center. 4 Hyper-V Hyper-V is a layer of software that sits between the physical server s hardware layer and the Hyper-V guest virtual machines (VMs). Hyper-V presents hardware resources in a virtualized manner from the host server to the guest VMs. Hyper-V hosts (also referred to as nodes or virtualization servers) can host multiple Hyper-V guest VMs, which are isolated from each other but share the same underlying hardware resources (e.g. processors, memory, networking, and other I/O devices). Microsoft Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 contains numerous new features and improvements from the July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 3

previous version in Window Server 2008 R2. Some of the new features include a new virtual hard disk format (VHDX), virtual fibre channel support, support for guest VMs on shared file storage, Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) support, live migration of multiple guests, live storage migration, 150 built-in PowerShell Cmdlets, and better guest resource allocations. For detailed information on Dell Compellent integration with Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, please refer to the Dell Compellent Storage Center Best Practices Guide for Microsoft Hyper-V located on Knowledge Center. 5 Windows Failover Clustering and SMB 3.0 5.1 Windows Failover Clustering Overview Window Server 2012 Failover Clustering provides the capability to tie multiple servers together to offer high availability and scalability for business-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Hyper-V, Microsoft SQL Server, and file servers. Clustering is designed to maintain data integrity and provide failover support. Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering can scale up 64 nodes in a single cluster. Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering includes new and changed functionality from the prior release included in Windows Server 2008 R2. This functionality supports increased scalability, continuously available file-based server application storage, easier management, faster failover, and more flexible architectures for failover clusters. For a complete list of changes and new features included in Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering, please refer to Microsoft TechNet. Failover Clustering is included in both the Standard and Datacenter versions of Windows Server 2012. 5.2 Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 Overview One of the biggest improvements/updates in Windows Server 2012 is SMB 3.0. SMB is a Microsoftdeveloped file sharing protocol. Compared to the previous version (2.1, included in Windows Server 2008 R2), SMB 3.0 offers improved performance, fault tolerance, scaling, backup and restore, and PowerShell integration. The majority of improvements and new features in SMB 3.0 are fully utilized on a failover cluster. For instructions on how to setup a Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster with Dell Compellent Storage Center, please refer to the How to Setup a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster Guide located on Dell Compellent Knowledge Center. Note: A non-clustered Windows 2012 server running the File Server role can host file shares and utilize some of the new features of SMB 3.0. Note: SMB 3.0 connections can only be established between Windows 2012 servers, or between a Windows 8 client and Windows 2012 server. For SMB version and compatibility information, please refer to this article. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 4

5.2.1 Scale-Out File Server and Continuous Availability New to Windows Server 2012, a Scale-Out File Server allows the storage of server application data, such as Hyper-V virtual machine files, on file shares. All files shares are online on all nodes simultaneously. This configuration is commonly referred to as an active-active cluster configuration. Note: Scale-Out File Server does not support the NFS protocol, Data Deduplication, DFS Replication, or File Server Resource Manager. A Scale-Out File Server allows for continuously available file shares. Continuous availability tracks file operations on a highly available file share so that clients can fail over to another node of the cluster without interruption. This is also known as Transparent Failover. 5.3 Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) were introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide common storage for clustered virtual machines. In Windows Server 2012, CSVs can provide storage for additional clustered roles. CSVs allow multiple nodes in the cluster to simultaneously access the same NTFS file system without imposing hardware, file type, or directory structure restrictions. Note: While not a requirement for a clustered file server, a CSV is required for a Scale-Out File Server with a continuously available file share. 5.3.1 Adding a CSV to a Windows Failover Cluster This section assumes that a Windows Failover Cluster has already been created, and at least one Storage Center Volume has been presented to all cluster nodes. Note: Volumes must be formatted with NTFS before they can be added to a Cluster Shared Volume. They do no need a drive letter assigned. 1. In Failover Cluster Manager expand the Cluster, expand Storage, right-click on Disks and select Add Disk. Figure 1: Add Disk July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 5

2. Select the disk(s) to add to the cluster and click OK. Figure 2: Add Disks to a Cluster 3. The disk now shows as Available Storage. Figure 3: Available Storage 4. Right-click on the newly added disk and select Add to Cluster Shared Volumes. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 6

Figure 4: Context Menu 5. The disk will now show as Assigned to Cluster Shared Volume. Figure 5: Assigned to CSV Note: CSVs are reflected as mount points, and show as links in C:\ClusterStorage\ on each node of the cluster. CSVs in this folder can be renamed. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 7

Figure 6: CSV link location 6. The newly added CSV can now be used as a resource for installed roles on the cluster. 5.3.2 Creating a Scale-Out File Server with a Continuously Available File Share. 1. In Failover Cluster Manager expand the Cluster, right-click on Roles, and select Configure Role. Figure 7: Context Menu 2. The High Availability Wizard appears. Click Next. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 8

Figure 8: High Availability Wizard 3. Select File Server and click Next. Figure 9: File Server selection 4. Select Scale-Out File Server for application data. Click Next. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 9

Figure 10: File server option 5. Enter a name for the file server. Click Next. Figure 11: Client access point name 6. Click Next on the confirmation screen. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 10

Figure 12: Confirmation 7. Click Finish on the summary screen. Figure 13: Summary 8. The newly created file server now shows in Failover Cluster Manager. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 11

Figure 14: New file server 9. Right-click on the file server and select Add File Share. Figure 15: Context menu 10. Select the SMB Share Applications profile for the share. Click Next. Figure 16: Select share profile 11. Select the CSV to store the share on. Click Next. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 12

Figure 17: Select server and path 12. Specify a share name. Click Next. Figure 18: Specify share name 13. Verify Enable continuous availability is checked. Click Next. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 13

Figure 19: Configure share settings 14. Specify permissions on the share. Click Next. Figure 20: Specify permissions 15. Confirm selections and then click Create. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 14

Figure 21: Confirm selections 16. Click Close when the share creation is complete. Figure 22: View results 17. In the Roles window, highlight the file server. In the bottom of the window, click the Shares tab. The new Continuously Available share shows. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 15

Figure 23: Continuously available file share 5.4 SMB Multichannel and SMB Direct 5.4.1 SMB Multichannel Portions of the following section were obtained from this Microsoft TechNet blog posting. SMB Multichannel allows multiple connections to a single SMB session over multiple NICs, enabling bandwidth aggregation of the multiple NICs and multiple CPUs involved. The result is greatly improved performance, giving SMB access comparable performance to directly accessed storage. SMB Multichannel provides the following capabilities: Increased throughput. The file server can simultaneously transmit more data using multiple connections for high speed network adapters or multiple network adapters. Network Fault Tolerance. When using multiple network connections at the same time, the clients can continue to work uninterrupted despite the loss of a network connection. Automatic Configuration. SMB Multichannel automatically discovers the existence of multiple available network paths and dynamically adds connections as required. SMB Multichannel is enabled by default. 5.4.2 SMB Direct SMB Direct allows for the use of RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) network interfaces for high throughput with low latency and low CPU utilization. This is particularly useful for Hyper-V and SQL server workloads that reside on remote file shares, as the file shares resemble local storage. SMB Multichannel is responsible for detecting RDMA capabilities of network adapters to enable SMB Direct. For more information on SMB Direct, please refer to Microsoft TechNet. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 16

6 Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) is new feature developed by Microsoft for copying and moving SAN data. The work of copying or moving data is offloaded to the SAN, bypassing the need for Windows Server 2012 to handle the data movement. By offloading operations to the SAN, ODX can provide significant performance improvements for copy and read operations. ODX is enabled by default on Server 2012, and will work out-of-the-box with the 6.3.1 release of the Dell Compellent Storage Center OS. For more information, such as how enable or disable ODX, and how to establish performance benchmarks, please see this Microsoft reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200627.aspx 7 Thin Provisioning and Trim/Unmap Windows Server 2012 now automatically identifies thin provisioned LUNs and will reclaim unused space (aka trim) in real time. When files and folders are moved or deleted from a volume, trim automatically reclaims that space on the SAN. Thin provisioning and trim are enabled by default in Windows Server 2012. Dell Compellent Storage Center supports Trim/Unmap as of the 6.3.1 release of the Storage Center OS. With the Trim/Unmap feature, the Dell Compellent Server Agent will no longer be required to recover deleted disk space from server volumes and return it to the SAN s free disk space pool to be used elsewhere. The Dell Compellent Server Agent can still be installed on a 2012 Server, but the disk space recovery feature, since it is no longer needed, will be disabled by default. Trim/Unmap will be supported with the following types of volumes and disks: Dell Compellent SAN volumes mapped to physical 2012 Server hosts using iscsi or fiber channel, and to guest VMs as pass-through or direct-attached disks using iscsi or virtual fiber channel: o SAN volumes must be basic disks and formatted as NTFS (other formats such as FAT and ReFS do not support Trim/Unmap). Dell Compellent SAN volumes mapped to Server 2012 Hyper-V nodes as cluster shared volumes (CSVs): o CSVs must be basic disks and formatted as NTFS (the only supported format for CSVs is NTFS). Virtual Hard Disks: o The virtual hard disk must be formatted as a.vhdx file (dynamic or fixed). Trim/Unmap is not supported with the.vhd virtual hard disk format. o The guest VM OS must support Trim/Unmap. When the guest VM OS is Server 2012, July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 17

from the perspective of the guest, the VHDX must be a basic disk, formatted as NTFS. Trim/Unmap is not supported on a.vhdx when the guest VM s OS is Server 2008 R2 or earlier. 8 Resilient File System (ReFS) New to Windows Server 2012, ReFS is a file system that is specifically intended for managing extremely large data volumes. Using a new file system design, ReFS can auto-detect data corruption and automatically perform needed repairs without taking a volume offline. ReFS eliminates the need to run CHKDSK against large volumes. ReFS volumes can scale exponentially in size, and a single volume can store 18 quintillion (18 million million) files. 8.1.1 Using ReFS on Dell Compellent Volumes A Dell Compellent Volume mapped to a Windows 2012 Server can be formatted with ReFS. Things to keep in mind with ReFS: ReFS cannot be used on boot/os volumes. ReFS is not compatible with Windows Server 2012 data deduplication. Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) cannot be formatted with ReFS. ReFS does not support the following features (must use NTFS): o File Compression o Disk Quotas o EFS Encryption o Short Filenames o Object IDs o Named Streams o Extended Attributes o User Data Transactions o Hard links It is recommended to use ReFS on very large data volumes on Windows Server 2012 file servers. Because of the reduced feature set of ReFS, NTFS is recommended for all other applications. 8.1.2 Adding a New ReFS Volume To add a new ReFS volume to the server: 1. In Storage Center, create and map a volume to the server. 2. On the server, open disk manager (Start Run diskmgmt.msc) July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 18

Figure 24: Disk Manager 3. Click Action Rescan Disks to detect the new Dell Compellent volume. Figure 25: Action menu 4. The new volume will show as an offline and unknown disk. Figure 26: Offline volume 5. Right-click on the disk and select Online. Figure 27: Context menu 6. The new disk will now show as Not Initialized. Right-click the disk and select Initialize Disk. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 19

Figure 28: Initialize disk 7. The Initialize Disk wizard appears. Select GPT (GUID Partition Table) for partition style. Figure 29: Initialize disk wizard Note: The MBR (Master Boot Record) partition type will not allow a partition larger than 2.2TB. 8. The disk will now show as Unallocated. Figure 30: Unallocated disk 9. Right-click on the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 20

Figure 31: Context menu 10. The New Simple Volume Wizard appears. Click Next. Figure 32: New simple volume wizard 11. Specify the volume size and click Next. Figure 33: Specify volume size July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 21

12. Assign a drive letter if desired. Figure 34: Assign drive letter 13. Format the partition. Select ReFS as the File system. The Allocation unit size will automatically set to 64K. Assign a volume label and select Perform a quick format. Click Next. Figure 35: Format partition 14. Click Finish to complete the wizard. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 22

Figure 36: Complete wizard 15. The newly formatted disk with ReFS file system and drive letter assigned. Figure 37: Newly formatted disk 8.1.3 Formatting an Existing Volume with ReFS To format an existing drive with ReFS: 1. Open Computer (Start Computer). 2. Right-click the drive and select Format. Figure 38: Disk context menu 3. Select ReFS as the File System. The Allocation unit size dropdown will automatically switch to 64 kilobytes. Assign a Volume label, select Quick Format, and click Start. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 23

Figure 39: Format options 4. Click OK on the warning box. Figure 40: Warning window 5. Format complete. Click OK. Figure 41: Format Complete 6. Close the format volume window. For more information on ReFS please refer to the references listed at the end of this document under Additional Resources. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 24

9 Windows Storage Spaces Windows Storage Spaces is a new feature in Windows Server 2012 that provides storage virtualization capabilities. Storage Spaces allows for the creation of storage pools using two or more heterogeneous physical hard drives. A Storage Space (logical drive) can be created from a storage pool, which can be formatted, partitioned, and used just as a physical disk would be. A Storage Space can be assigned redundancy, such as mirroring or parity. Windows Storage Spaces is not a SAN replacement. Instead, it offers some SAN-like features using disparate disks in a JBOD configuration. 9.1.1 Compatibility Windows Storage Spaces is not compatible with SAN disks, and therefore not compatible with Storage Center. Mapped Storage Center volumes appear to Windows Server as logical disks. Windows Storage Spaces is compatible only with physical disks attached to the server. 10 Data Deduplication Previously only available with Windows Storage Server and known as Single Instance Storage (SIS), data deduplication is now included in Windows Server 2012. Data deduplication on Windows Server 2012 works at the block level, whereas SIS worked at the file level. According to Microsoft: Data deduplication involves finding and removing duplication within data without compromising its fidelity or integrity. The goal is to store more data in less space by segmenting files into small variable-sized chunks (32 128 KB), identifying duplicate chunks, and maintaining a single copy of each chunk. Redundant copies of the chunk are replaced by a reference to the single copy. The chunks are compressed and then organized into special container files in the System Volume Information folder. After a volume is enabled for deduplication and the data is optimized, the volume contains the following: Unoptimized files. For example, unoptimized files could include files that do not meet the selected file-age policy setting, system state files, alternate data streams, encrypted files, files with extended attributes, files smaller than 32 KB, other reparse point files, or files in use by other applications. Optimized files. Files that are stored as reparse points that contain pointers to a map of the respective chunks in the chunk store that are needed to restore the file when it is requested. Chunk store. Location for the optimized file data. Additional free space. The optimized files and chunk store occupy much less space than they did prior to optimization. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 25

10.1 Installing the Data Deduplication Feature Data Deduplication is not enabled by default on Window Server 2012. The feature can be installed on Windows Server 2012 through the GUI or through PowerShell. 10.1.1 Server Manager GUI 1. Open Server Manager. Figure 42: Server Manager 2. From the Dashboard, click on Add roles and features. Figure 43: Add Roles and Features Wizard 3. When the Add Roles and Features Wizard window opens, click Next on the Before you Begin screen. 4. Select Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 26

Figure 44: Role-based or feature-based installation 5. Choose the local server from the Select destination server screen and click Next. 6. Expand File and iscsi Services, and select Data Deduplication. Click Next. Figure 45: Select server roles 7. Click Next on the Select features screen (do not select any features to install). July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 27

Figure 46: Select features 8. Click Install on the confirmation screen. Figure 47: Confirm installation selections 9. Click Close when installation has completed. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 28

Figure 48: Finished installation 10.1.2 PowerShell 1. Open an elevated PowerShell window 2. At the PowerShell Prompt, type in the following commands: a. Import-Module ServerManager <enter> b. Add-WindowsFeature name FS-Data-Deduplication <enter> c. Import-Module Deduplication <enter> Figure 49: PowerShell window 10.2 Enable Data Deduplication 10.2.1 Server Manager GUI 1. Open Server Manager. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 29

Figure 50: Server Manager 2. Click File and Storage Services, then click Volumes. Figure 51: Volumes 3. Right-click a volume and select Configure Data Deduplication. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 30

Figure 52: Context menu 4. Select the Enable data deduplication check box, enter the number of days that should elapse from the date of file creation until files are deduplicated, enter the extensions of any file types that should not be deduplicated, and then click Add to browse to any folders with files that should not be deduplicated. Figure 53: Deduplication settings 5. Click Set Deduplication Schedule. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 31

Figure 54: Deduplication schedule 6. Select the optimization options and schedule. Click OK. 7. Click OK to exit the Deduplication Settings window. 10.2.2 PowerShell The following example is to enable deduplication on the F: drive. 1. Open an elevated PowerShell window 2. At the PowerShell Prompt, type in the following command: a. Enable-DedupVolume F: <enter> Figure 55: Enable deduplication 3. Optional Set the minimum number of days that must pass before a file is deduplicated by typing in the following command: a. Set-DedupVolume F: -MinimumFileAgeDays 20 <enter> Figure 56: Set minimum days to dedupe Note: The default minimum number of days is 5. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 32

10.3 Viewing Deduplication Statistics Deduplication statistics can be viewed from Server Manager or PowerShell. 10.3.1 Server Manager 1. Open Server Manager. Figure 57: Server Manager 2. Click File and Storage Services, then click Volumes. Figure 58: Volumes 3. The volume s deduplication statistics are displayed: July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 33

Figure 59: Volume information 4. Deduplication statistics can also be viewed by right-clicking on the volume and selecting Properties. Figure 60: Volume Properties 10.3.2 PowerShell 1. Open an elevated PowerShell window 2. At the PowerShell Prompt, type in the following command: a. Get-DedupStatus <enter> Figure 61: Deduplication status 3. Detailed information about each volume can be attained by typing in the following command: July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 34

a. Get-DedupVolume format-list Figure 62: Detailed deduplication info For further information on Windows Server 2012 Data Deduplication, please refer to the references listed at the end of this document under Additional Resources. 11 Windows PowerShell 3.0 Included in Windows Server 2012 is PowerShell 3.0. PowerShell 3.0 delivers over 2300 cmdlets (up from 200 in Windows Server 2008 R2) that allow for easy automation. Just about every aspect of the system can be controlled and configured through PowerShell. For a complete listing of all PowerShell 3.0 cmdlets, please refer to Microsoft TechNet. Dell Compellent offers the Storage Center Command Set version 6.1 for Windows PowerShell. Available on Dell Compellent Knowledge Center, this free download contains over 60 cmdlets for streamlining SAN management, including administration, snapshot schedules and data recovery. Complete instructions for installing and using the Storage Center Command Set are found in the User Guide, included with the Command Set download. July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 35

12 Conclusion Hopefully this document has proved helpful and has accomplished its purpose by providing administrators with answers and best practices for many commonly asked questions associated with integrating Dell Compellent Storage with Windows Server 2012. As Dell Compellent and Microsoft introduce new features and updates, this guide will be updated accordingly. 13 Additional Resources Below are some links to additional resources: Microsoft TechNet Windows Server 2012 document collection: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/hh534429.aspx Install and Deploy Windows Server 2012: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831620.aspx What s New in Windows Server 2012: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831769.aspx Feature Comparison Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012: http://partnerdirect.dell.com/sites/channel/documents/windows-server-2012-feature-comparison.pdf Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) Users Guide for Windows Server 2012: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450 Offloaded Data Transfers (ODX): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200627.aspx SMB Direct Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134210.aspx Resilient File System (ReFS) Technical Details: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/16/building-the-next-generation-file-system-for-windowsrefs.aspx Windows Server 2012 Data Deduplication Overview: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831602.aspx Dell Compellent Documentation: http://kc.compellent.com July 2013 Windows Server 2012 Best Practices 36