Tiered Storage Space-2016 vs 2019

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gregsachs

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Aug 14, 2018
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Single Node configuration, not clustered or S2d.
With Server 2016, a tiered space volume must be NTFS for the tiering to work. I have seen suggestions that in 2019, a tiered space can be ReFS, but haven't stood up a test box yet. Does anyone know if this is true or do I need to do a test box?
Thanks!
 

ArcyneTheFirst

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Jan 22, 2016
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Tiering in 2016 using ReFS will work. You just need to create the tiering with NTFS then reformat it using ReFS. That said 2019 introduces some improvements in the performance of the mirroring tier as well as support for deduplication in ReFS. One nuance with ReFS is that if you use deduplication as well as tiering the amount of data written seems to push data into the cold tier (HDD) thus reducing the effectiveness of the read caching is diminished. (e.g. it prioritizes write performance over read when using the SSD mirror tier.) You can get around this by doing a <<defrag>> HDD style that will move data to the SSD tier but you add additional wear on your SSD's.
 
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gregsachs

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Aug 14, 2018
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Tiering in 2016 using ReFS will work. You just need to create the tiering with NTFS then reformat it using ReFS. That said 2019 introduces some improvements in the performance of the mirroring tier as well as support for deduplication in ReFS. One nuance with ReFS is that if you use deduplication as well as tiering the amount of data written seems to push data into the cold tier (HDD) thus reducing the effectiveness of the read caching is diminished. (e.g. it prioritizes write performance over read when using the SSD mirror tier.) You can get around this by doing a <<defrag>> HDD style that will move data to the SSD tier but you add additional wear on your SSD's.
I was unable to get it to work, or at least unable to pin things to specific tiers. Is that the nuance I was missing?
I'm running h-v 2016 with a space with 2x ssd and 2x hdd, so straight mirror/tiering.
More discussion here:
Windows Server 2016 RTM -Storage Pool Virtual Disk Tiers Mirrored using Powershell results in Layout: Empty and Provisioning: Unknown
 

ArcyneTheFirst

New Member
Jan 22, 2016
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The tiering is realtime and automatic, take a look at the perfmon counters for ReFS and you can see the amount in each tier. (NTFS tiering is based on task jobs running to tier and to create the heat map.) For ReFS there is no way to pin a file to a specific tier.

R
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
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The tiering is realtime and automatic, take a look at the perfmon counters for ReFS and you can see the amount in each tier. (NTFS tiering is based on task jobs running to tier and to create the heat map.) For ReFS there is no way to pin a file to a specific tier.

R
Ok, thanks! I kept getting frustrated, as I would try to pin a file and it wouldn't work! Now to decide if I should redo it as ReFS instead of NTFS...
 

LaMerk

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Jun 13, 2017
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In Windows 2019 there are issues with tiered spaces on NTFS (it writes in cold tier only). Wiht ReFS no issues have been detected.