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Has anyone combined S2D (Storage Spaces Direct) with Data Deduplication?

Is this even possible or recommended practice?

Please elaborate on why this is a good idea or not.

EDIT: Just stumbled across this article https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2016/01/05/new-support-for-windows-server-data-deduplication-in-limited-local-hyper-v-configurations/ in regards to Server 2012 R2. It does mention Server 2016, but at the time it wasn't fully released. There's also more info on S2D as well as Data Deduplication on Server 2016 - here https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage but not much information on using the two together. It seems based on the first url that they have limited functionality when used at the same time.

Paul Masek
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  • No but I've had a lot of experience of Storage Spaces with Dedupe on 2012R2 - works a charm, not sure what's so different with S2D that would worry you. – Chopper3 Jan 31 '17 at 16:09
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    I'm not worried at all. Just wondering if it's been done before and if it's recommended practice or not. Thanks for the input. I know that it would obviously negatively impact IO performance with the gain of capacity. – Paul Masek Jan 31 '17 at 16:22
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    There's a bug in WS2016 dedupe engine so best thing is - don't use dedupe at all up to a point MSFT will come up with a fix. https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-replication-f2/corrupted-files-on-win2016-deduplication-t40406.html – BaronSamedi1958 Feb 01 '17 at 16:13
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    If I'm not mistaken, the link to the fix is in forum thread you shared: https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-replication-f2/corrupted-files-on-win2016-deduplication-t40406.html#p226833. Which is KB 3216755 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011347/windows-10-update-kb3216755. – Paul Masek Feb 01 '17 at 20:10

3 Answers3

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Agreed with Chopper, with Storage Spaces dedupe working as it should be. I'm not sure about S2D right now because it is raw. Microsoft improving S2D day by day, so I think it should work. Improvements you can see from this topic. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2017/01/30/windows-server-2016-data-deduplication-users-please-install-kb3216755/

Stuka
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    Thanks for your input Stuka. I saw that post pop up in my rss reader yesterday. It's definitely a brand new offering and I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by seeing some wrinkles that need ironing yet. – Paul Masek Feb 01 '17 at 15:45
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    Use application level dedupe (Veeam?) or whatever your storage vendor has. ReFS is rumored to have in-line dedupe around 2018. – BaronSamedi1958 Feb 01 '17 at 16:14
  • In the case of using Storage Spaces Direct, Microsoft would be the storage provider. – Paul Masek Feb 01 '17 at 20:11
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This table straight from Microsoft answers my question.

enter image description here source:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/refs/refs-overview

Yes, you could pair S2D with NTFS, but Microsoft has made it pretty clear that ReFS would be the best choice for a S2D deployment.

From the same microsoft url:

"Storage Spaces Direct

Deploying ReFS on Storage Spaces Direct is the recommended setup for virtualized workloads:

Real-time tier optimization and the cache in Storage Spaces Direct deliver high performance and capacity-efficient storage. The introduction of block clone and sparse VDL dramatically accelerates .vhdx file operations, such as creation, merge, and expansion. Built-in checksums, online repair, and alternate data copies enable ReFS and Storage Spaces Direct to jointly to detect and correct corruptions within both metadata and data. ReFS provides the functionality to efficiently scale and support massive data sets."

Paul Masek
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  • Tiny update: ReFS can do dedupe now with the most recent updates and WS2019. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/07/13/announcing-windows-server-insider-preview-build-16237/ – NISMO1968 Jun 03 '18 at 10:06
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ReFS already has block duplication. On DPM backup it saves everything from 0-80% if your backup is identical. As far as I know dedupe will not be on ReFS for a while. And I would highly recomend running ReFS with S2D (Storage Spaces Direct).

JT

BaronSamedi1958
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Jan-Tore Pedersen
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