Windows 8.1 Storage Spaces

[chrisoldroyd 0]

I just received my Microserver and plan on installing Windows 8.1 on it tonight but I have a couple of questions first please:-

 

1. How do you update the BIOS prior to installing the OS. I have a .exe file that I got from HP site.

 

2. I plan on using Storage Spaces but I will only have one storage drive and one OS drive when I first set it up. I will be copying media onto the storage drive then adding in two other drives once the media has been copied off them as I want to use some form of mirroring in case of a drive failure. The question is, can I set up storage spaces with one drive, then add in the others and turn on mirroring without losing any data on the drive? The drives are currently formatted as jbod so I would assume they would have to be formatted anyway.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Chris

 

 

[chrisoldroyd 0]

I worked out the bios flash myself so just need a bit of info on Storage Spaces

[jmwills 284]

Stay away form Storage Spaces, IMO, nothing but trouble and slow performance has been reported on this site.

[Dave 417]

Have you considered Drive Bender or StableBit DrivePool?  It may help us if we knew how much data you are talking about securing and if you have drives laying around or are purchasing new.

[Boris 6]

I worked out the bios flash myself so just need a bit of info on Storage Spaces

 

Chris, you can set up "Simple" storage space with a single drive. To set up a Two-Way mirror you need at least two drives. Since drives and Storage Spaces are completely separated, that means you'll need to copy to the Simple SS first and once you have more drives added, you can start migrating to the mirror (or whatever resiliency type you choose). I'm a big fan of SS, but definitely doing this with StableBit DrivePool (per Dave's suggestion below) would be much easier as you can keep the current drives as they are and just "move" your data from the direct drive into the pool.

 

 

Stay away form Storage Spaces, IMO, nothing but trouble and slow performance has been reported on this site.

 

jmwillis, I've heard about the complaints related to Storage Spaces on the HSS @ YouTube, but can you point me to some links on the site? I'd like to understand what people are complaining about. Storage Spaces is used by data centers world wide. It's extremely robust and works extremely well. It has its cons, but so does everything. I was just copying an ISO from my Storage Spaces pool last night, while installing Windows 7 on my new server and it copied at 466mb/sec from a Simple SS. I did some testing with Two-Way, Three-Way and Parity in the past. I wish I remembered the results, but I do recall one was CRAWLING. Would have to check again.

 

 

Have you considered Drive Bender or StableBit DrivePool?  It may help us if we knew how much data you are talking about securing and if you have drives laying around or are purchasing new.

 

Hey Dave, long time no see!

 

StableBit DrivePool looked like a very good product from the limited testing that I've performed and for those not comfortable with a ZFS/Storage Spaces type solution, it's a great alternative. However, I've found far too many issues with Drive Bender.

[jmwills 284]

http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5052-storage-spaces-alternative/page-2?hl=+storage%20+spaces

[ikon 438]

Boris, pcdoc I think has done the most testing on SS, but Joe_Miner has been doing quite a bit too. pcdoc reported some really slow performance, particularly with RAID5 type arrays. My own feeling was that I don't want to use a major product from MS that has such a major issue (major to me at least). Your mileage may vary

[Boris 6]

http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5052-storage-spaces-alternative/page-2?hl=+storage%20+spaces

 

Thanks for the link, but that only mentions performance in passing. No real issues.

 

I just ran Disk Mark against my pool.. results (all Sequential #'s in MB/sec):

OS SSD: 260 / 111

Simple Pool: 145.6 / 138.4

Mirror Pool: 143.0 / 132.4

Parity: 256.0 / 25.12

 

Keep in mind these are numbers from my live system and all use ReFS File System. The Parity I created just for this test as a 1TB pool.

Boris, pcdoc I think has done the most testing on SS, but Joe_Miner has been doing quite a bit too. pcdoc reported some really slow performance, particularly with RAID5 type arrays. My own feeling was that I don't want to use a major product from MS that has such a major issue (major to me at least). Your mileage may vary

 

My mileage does vary.... don't worry, I'll twist your arm into liking it! Just give me some time!

[jmwills 284]

I'd like to know of any large data center using Storage Spaces.  It just hasn't been out that long.

[Boris 6]

I'd like to know of any large data center using Storage Spaces.  It just hasn't been out that long.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Windows-Server-2012-Datacenter/Microsoft-Corporation/Microsoft-Uses-Operating-System-to-Triple-Storage-Capacity-Reduce-Time-to-Market/710000002317

 

They sell WS Datacenter edition, I guess they're just sitting on the shelf