Microsoft Adds Data Deduplication to NTFS in Windows 8

The next version of Microsoft Windows Server includes integrated data deduplication technology. Microsoft is positioning this as a boon for server virtualization and claims it has very little performance impact. But how exactly does Microsoft’s de-duplication technology work?

Flash Storage and Automated Storage Tiering

In recent years, a move toward automated storage tiering has begun in the data center. This move has been inspired by the desire to continue to drive down the cost of storage, as well as the introduction of faster, but more expensive storage in the form of Flash memory in the storage array marketplace.

What is VAAI, and how does it add spice to my life as a VMware admin?

I spent some days in Cork, Ireland this week presenting to a customer. Besides the fact that I’m now almost two months in to my new job, and I’m loving every part of it, there is one part that is extremely cool about my job.

SolarWinds: Live From Tech Field Day San Jose

SONY DSC

After fighting yet more networking gremlins, Tech Field Day resumed at The Hoffman Agency wit a presentation by SolarWinds. We had come to expect quite a lot from this company after their fine presentation at Net Field Day in September, and the delegates were not disappointed. SolarWinds discussed their various management products, as well as their approach to high availability and database design.

STEC Spills the Beans on ZeusRAM SSD

STEC may not have been quite ready to reveal their next-generation ZeusRAM solid-state disk (SSD), but they are demonstrating it anyway at EMC World in Boston this week. The ZeusRAM is a fundamentally different animal from the existing ZeusIOPS drive in one critical way: Rather than using flash memory for primary data storage, the ZeusRAM uses DRAM. This improves reliability and longevity and ought to raise the bar on performance as well.

Why Does Cloning A VM From Template Take A Long Time?

Over the past few years I’ve been asked to troubleshoot and explain why cloning a virtual machine (VM) from a master template would take a longer time than expected more than once.

Multipath: Active/Passive, Dual Active, and Active/Active

Although it’s rare in the PC world, multipath I/O is not new in enterprise IT. I’ve been juggling paths to storage and networks as long as I’ve been a systems administrator, and that’s a bit longer than I care to admit. But the proliferation of technologies has made it difficult to understand path management. What’s the difference between “dual active” and “active/active”? Is “active/passive” really that bad?

“Storage tiering is dying.” But purple unicorns exist.

NetApp CEO Tom Georgens is quoted as dismissive of multi-level tiering, saying: “The simple fact of the matter is, tiering is a way to manage migration of data between Fibre Channel-based systems and serial ATA based systems.”

The Benefits of Wide Striping – Avoiding A Long Tail

One of the “key features” of XIV is the wide striping of data across all spindles, a concept we’re seeing more and more. Have you ever wondered what the point is?

How Did Microsoft and Intel Get 1 Million iSCSI IOPS?

Ever since Microsoft and Intel declared that the combination of Windows and Nehalem could deliver over a million iSCSI IOPS, I’ve been curious about just how they did it. What black magic could push that many I/Os over a single Ethernet connection? And what was on the other end? Now Intel has revealed all in a whitepaper, and the results are surprising!