Is dedupe supported on Azure Stack HCI/S2D (Server 2019) for ReFS formatted mirror-accelerated parity volumes?

Brian Murphy 21 Reputation points
2021-01-15T01:54:22.353+00:00

The documentation here "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/interop" is not clear to me because the reference of an unsupported configuration of deduplication on volumes with multiple tiers is in a bullet point that references NTFS-formatted volumes

Blockquote

Data Deduplication is fully supported on Storage Spaces Direct NTFS-formatted volumes (mirror or parity). Deduplication is not supported on volumes with multiple tiers. See Data Deduplication on ReFS for more information.

Blockquote

However, according to this "https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-server-ama/refs-s2d-and-dedup-compression/m-p/100456" in Windows Server version 1709 deduplication introduced a feature known as near-inline optimization, which works (specifically) with ReFS mirror-accelerated parity. Unless this feature was deprecated before Windows server 2019, I would expect it to be supported on ReFS mirror-accelerated parity.

Mirror-accelerated parity is appealing as Cosmos points out here "https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/here-s-what-you-missed-8211-five-big-announcements-for-storage/ba-p/428257".

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A hyperconverged infrastructure operating system delivered as an Azure service that provides security, performance, and feature updates.
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Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Storage: The hardware and software system used to retain data for subsequent retrieval.
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  1. Xiaowei He 9,871 Reputation points
    2021-01-15T06:54:02.6+00:00

    Hi,

    As far as I know, dedup is supported on Refs formatted mirror accelerated party volumes.

    Mirror-accelerated parity is a Storage Spaces storage layout.

    Deduplication will work on any ReFS volume on Server 2019.

    Some related articles for your reference:

    https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/why-you-should-consider-storage-spaces-direct-in-windows-server-2019

    https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2282945-is-storage-spaces-on-stand-alone-server-2019-for-smb-viable?page=1

    (Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.)
    ​
    Thanks for your time!
    Best Regards,
    Anne

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  1. Jim Gandy 121 Reputation points
    2021-01-15T17:20:03.813+00:00

    Based on this information. Would it be possible to update the bullet point on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/data-deduplication/interop to clarify?

    57178-image.png

    PS> Also the Data Deduplication on ReFS link does not have anything about Windows Server just Win10.

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  2. Noel Teng 1 Reputation point
    2022-05-19T22:28:11.077+00:00

    Jim, I just saw this thread. I believe "unsupported configuration of deduplication on volumes with multiple tiers" refers to Azure Stack HCI using a combination of NVMe, SSD and HDD as the storage devices. In this design, SSD and HDD are the storage capacity while NVMe is the cache.

    Can anyone confirm?

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