Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares
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So I don't how how I missed this (maybe between the fire-fighting etc) but Server 2012 R2 has deduplication capabilities built in. Of course we do not have it enabled...
Why (idk the wind was blowing the wrong way that day I guess, and we couldn't see because of sand in our eyes) . . .
Anyways would there be any harm in enabling dedup on active network shares on an existing Server 2012 R2 server? What should I expect to see, any performance hits as the system processes the dedup functions?
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In the past, when I enabled it, we didn't see any performance hit with it. You can set the Dedupe to run in real time, or on a schedule, IIRC. We did ours with whatever the default was, and it wound up saving us ~20% on a 2TB drive with departmental shares on it.
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Does the Usagetype of HyperV matter even though this VM is on XenServer?
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The standard powershell command would be either
Enable-DedupVolume E: -UsageType HyperVorEnable-DedupVolume E: -UsageType Default -
@DustinB3403 said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
The standard powershell command would be either
Enable-DedupVolume E: -UsageType HyperVorEnable-DedupVolume E: -UsageType DefaultYou would use Hyper-V if the E: Drive was holding Hyper-V VMs.
If it's just a file server, use the default.
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This is the guide I used:
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So because this isn't a Hyper-V host, I'd use the default? Just confirming.
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@DustinB3403 said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
So because this isn't a Hyper-V host, I'd use the default? Just confirming.
Yes, that's correct.
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@aaronstuder said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
This is the guide I used:
This is the same guide that I followed, I do believe.
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Don't feel bad about missing it. I just discovered it a week ago when I client mentioned it. He was getting 51% back.
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@Mike-Davis said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
Don't feel bad about missing it. I just discovered it a week ago when I client mentioned it. He was getting 51% back.
Holy cow!
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@Mike-Davis said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
Don't feel bad about missing it. I just discovered it a week ago when I client mentioned it. He was getting 51% back.
Wow that is a lot of space recovered!
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@DustinB3403 said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
@Mike-Davis said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
Don't feel bad about missing it. I just discovered it a week ago when I client mentioned it. He was getting 51% back.
Wow that is a lot of space recovered!
Yeah, I was on that call. Highest dedupe rate I've seen in real life. Over 50% means they have a lot of files in triplicate!
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Windows dedupe is pretty resource light, it's generally safe to turn it on and often recommended for file servers.
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It should be noted that it cannot work on the boot volume!
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@dafyre said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
It should be noted that it cannot work on the boot volume!
This I knew.
Thanks for the tip though.
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So just got back to work after 11 days off and remember I ran this eval against a single network share. Our largest share that the business has.
And this is what we could see as a potential savings.....
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@DustinB3403 said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
So just got back to work after 11 days off and remember I ran this eval against a single network share. Our largest share that the business has.
And this is what we could see as a potential savings.....
That's a nice chunk of savings there!
Edit: It should be noted that even with Dedupe enabled, you can still mount this volume on another server if you ever have the need to do so.
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@dafyre yeah its a huge savings... 45% on just this share alone.
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@DustinB3403 said in Server 2012 R2 - Enabling Deduplication on operational shares:
@dafyre yeah its a huge savings... 45% on just this share alone.
Your users like to have their own copy of everything? That's some amazing space savings!
