MS NAS device plays well with others

18.09.2006
Effectively overseeing data storage across the network is a problem that all network managers face. Some estimates peg annual storage growth at 60 percent to 100 percent; with growth numbers like this, even small and branch offices can quickly find themselves in a real storage crunch.

Microsoft's recent release of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 aims to help admins avoid that crunch by providing centralized management, optimized file sharing, and more efficient file replication between servers. New to R2 is Single Instance Storage (SIS), a very effective method of reducing data bloat by replacing duplicate files with a pointer to an original copy.

Other upgrades include performance boosts for CIFS (common Internet file system) and NFS (network file system) file serving, and management is now available in a single user interface. But don't look for Windows Storage Server R2 at your favorite retailer -- this is an OEM bundle only.

Microsoft as an appliance?

Storage Server R2 is Microsoft's foray into NAS (Network Attached Storage), delivered through its OEM deals with vendors such as Dell and HP. The hardware-software bundle provides an optimized, ready-to-run server appliance that can quickly integrate into the existing infrastructure. (Check out our review for more on HP's StorageWorks All-in-One 600,http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/09/18/38TCstorage_1.html, which uses Storage Server R2.)

Because Microsoft knows that not every network is a Windows-only affair and it wants to be a good corporate citizen, this release features much improved NFS performance for Unix/Linux users. Although not the fastest NFS out there, Microsoft says properly tuned Storage Servers have been clocked at 22,416 ops/sec using the SpecSFS benchmark; the enhancements to CIFS traffic showed a 15 percent to 20 percent performance increase compared with non-optimized Windows servers. After my tests, I did have a gut feeling that Storage Server R2 did perform better than my other "fat" Windows 2003 Servers.