I would like to try the new windows 2016 storage spaces direct technology as a dedicated scale out file server cluster so i ordered 4 x mellanox connectx4 dual port 10 gbe nic for them.
Storage spaces direct server 2016 step by step.
Deploy windows server 2016 storage spaces direct s2d cluster in microsoft azure in this short video we ll walk through deploying a windows server 2016 storage spaces direct s2d cluster to a microsoft azure subscription using azure resource manager arm templates.
Drives s m a r t are green so i would like to utilize those servers as a highly available dedicated storage cluster.
Storage spaces direct is a new share nothing scale out storage solution developed by microsoft that will be soon available as part of windows server 2016.
For instructions to set up networking for storage spaces direct see windows server 2016 converged nic and guest rdma deployment guide.
The converged deployment option also known as disaggregated layers a scale out file server sofs atop storage spaces direct to provide network attached storage over smb3 file shares.
Storage and compute in separate clusters.
Storage spaces direct was designed for two distinct deployment options.
The following steps are done on a management system that is the same version as the servers being configured.
The process of configuring windows server 2019 storage spaces direct s2d in vmware vsphere was simpler that i thought it would be as i expected to see errors or other unexplained behavior.
To test this solution using windows server 2016 technology preview 5 i ve decided to run the entire solution.
Not sure how fast it will take off as they are a little late to the game but hats off to them for taking the step.
Great blog by the microsoft team about storage spaces direct in windows server 2016 the best part is that the video is based on dell poweredge r730xd servers.
If you want to learn more about it this one is a really good starting page.