Tag: Storage Spaces

Oct042017October 4, 2017August 27, 20187Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Surface Pro Storage Spaces Boot

Boot from Storage Spaces Virtual Disk in Windows 10

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, Microsoft, PowerShell, Surface, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Work

A couple of weeks ago I got my new Microsoft Surface Pro, I decided to go with the 1TB version to have enough space.

Surface Pro Storage

After the first minutes of setup I quickly wanted to run disk optimization, which for SSDs usually does quick trim operations. In my case this was running way longer then on my Surface Book, so I checked what was going on, and I realized that it was running Optimization on a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk, which is kind of strange.

Surface Pro PowerShell Storage Spaces Boot

I checked the disk configuration and really, my Surface Pro (2017) does have a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk which it boots from. The Storage Spaces Pool does include two physical 512GB NVMe drives with one Virtual Disk on top configured as simple (striped) volume. Right now I don’t know how they did it, but it seems now possible to boot Windows from a Storage Spaces Virtual Disk with the Windows 10 Creators Update or some Surface team magic. Then when Storage Spaces was introduced with Windows 8, boot from Storage Spaces was not possible.

 


Dec282016December 28, 2016November 1, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer

Speaking at Microsoft TechDays 2017 Switzerland

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, Nano Server, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Speaking, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

I hope everyone had or is still having a great holiday. Today I am proud to announce that I have the opportunity to speak again at the Microsoft TechDays in Switzerland. From 30th – 31st January the Microsoft TechDays will take place in Baden. The conference will cover the latest trends and news from the industry and is a great opportunity for IT professionals and software developers to learn all about the newest developments in Microsoft technologies, products and services.

Microsoft TechDays Featured Speaker

My session will be placed under the IT Pro track and I will cover some of the new stuff coming with Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V 2016, including:

  • Hyper-V 2016 features
  • Nano Server
  • Storage Spaces Direct
  • Storage Replica
  • Windows Server Containers
  • And more!

So if you want to learn the latest and greatest about Microsoft technology, make sure you attend this event.

Check Out

TechDays 2017

From 30th – 31st January the Microsoft TechDays will take place in Baden. The conference will cover the latest trends and news from the industry and is a great opportunity for IT professionals and software developers to learn all about the newest developments in Microsoft technologies, products and services.

 

 


Oct122016October 12, 2016September 2, 20182Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Add Updates to Nano Server Image

Getting started with Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Nano Server, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

Microsoft announced Windows Server 2016 release at Microsoft Ignite in Atlanta 2 weeks ago. Microsoft released the Evaluation version of Windows Server 2016 which allow you to start play with Windows Server 2016. And today Microsoft announced the GA (General Availability) of Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016.

Windows Server brings some great new features and possibilities such as Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, Nano Server, Storage Replica and much more.

Here are some information about deployment, upgrading and certification:

Windows Server

If you want to go to production make sure you also install the latest Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016:

If you want to try Windows Server 2016 you can also do this on Microsoft Azure.

System Center:

 

 

 


Feb082016February 8, 2016November 1, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Microsoft TechDays 2016

Speaking at Microsoft TechDays 2016 Switzerland

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Events, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, Nano Server, Operations Management Suite, PowerShell, Speaking, System Center, Virtualization, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

Today I am proud to announce that I have the opportunity to speak at the Swiss version of the Microsoft TechDays. My session will be placed under the IT Pro track and I will cover some of the new stuff coming with Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V 2016, including:

  • Hyper-V 2016 features
  • Nano Server
  • Storage Spaces Direct
  • Storage Replica
  • Windows Server Containers
  • And more!

Microsoft TechDays 2016 Session

There are also more cool session and I specially want to announce the session of Markus Erlacher (CEO itnetX) and Marcel Zehner (Microsoft MVP) called “Better Together: System Center und Microsoft Operations Management Suite”. So if you want to learn the latest and greats about Microsoft technology, make sure you attend this event.
Check out

TechDays 2016

Check out the Microsoft TechDays 2016 in Baden, Switzerland. Keynotes – February 29, 2016 | 1.30pm to 6.15pm with subsequent networking get-together and apéro riche Breakout sessions – March 1st, 2016 | 9.00am to 4.30pm


Dec212015December 21, 2015November 1, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Best of Windows Server 2016

Recording: Best of Windows Server 2016 – The New Foundation of Windows

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft MVP, Nano Server, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Virtualization, Web, Webinar, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work
Last week I presented in a webinar together with Rick Vanover from Veeam about the Best of Windows Server 2016 – The New Foundation of Windows Server. And now you can watch the recording of that webinar:

Join Veeam for the Best of Windows Server 2016 — The New Foundation of Windows webinar. You’ll be one of the first to know about new, exciting improvements that are coming in Windows Server 2016 and how they’ll improve your day-to-day job.

In this hour-long webinar, Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP and Veeam Vanguard) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations including:

  • Hyper-V 2016 features
  • Nano Server
  • Storage Spaces Direct
  • Storage Replica
  • Windows Server Containers
  • And more!

Enjoy the video:

Watch it now!

Best of Windows Server 2016 – The New Foundation of Windows

Join Veeam® for the Best of Windows Server 2016 — The New Foundation of Windows webinar. You’ll be one of the first to know about new, exciting improvements that are coming in Windows Server 2016 and how they’ll improve your day-to-day job. In this hour-long webinar, Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations including: •Hyper-V 2016 features •Nano Server •Storage Spaces Direct •Storage Replica •Windows Server Containers •And more!


Dec122015December 12, 2015November 1, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Best of Windows Server 2016 Webinar

Webinar: Best of Windows Server 2016 – The new Foundation of Windows

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft MVP, Nano Server, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Virtualization, Web, Webinar, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

Together with Veeam I am proud to present in two webinars about the new features in Windows Server 2016. The title of the webinar will be Best of Windows Server 2016 – The new Foundation of Windows and will cover the greatest new features of Windows Server 2016.

Join Veeam for a webinar on the Best of Windows Server 2016 — The New Foundation of Windows. You’ll be one of the first to know about new, exciting improvements that are coming in Windows Server 2016 and how they’ll improve your day-to-day job. In this hour-long webinar, Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations including:

Attend this FREE Webinar to learn about the latest and greatest features of Windows Server 2016. You have to options one for North America and one for EMEA.

December 15 Tuesday NA 1pm ET, EMEA 2pm CET
Register for Free

Best of Windows Server 2016 – The new Foundation of Windows

Join Veeam for a free webinar on the Best of Windows Server 2016 — The New Foundation of Windows. You’ll be one of the first to know about new, exciting improvements that are coming in Windows Server 2016 and how they’ll improve your day-to-day job.

 

Thomas Maurer, one of the first Veeam Vanguards, is a cloud architect at a Swiss consulting and engineering company called itnetX AG. Thomas focuses on Microsoft Technologies, specifically Microsoft Cloud Solutions based Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Virtualization and Microsoft Azure. Thomas was awarded the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Award for his expertise in virtual machines (VMs) in 2012. He works closely with Microsoft and their partners to promote Microsoft technology at technical events.


Apr282015April 28, 2015April 28, 20150Commentby Thomas Maurer
Scale Windows Server Storage Spaces

System Center Operations Manager Management Pack for Windows Server Storage Spaces

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, Hardware, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Private Cloud, System Center, Virtual Machine Manager, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2012 R2, Work

Microsoft just released the System Center Operations Manager Management Pack for Windows Server Storage Spaces 2012 R2 to the public. This allows you to monitor your Storage Spaces deployments with Operations Manager.

You can download the Management Pack for Storage Spaces from the Microsoft Download Site.

Monitoring Scenarios

This Management Pack contains rules to monitor physical disk and enclosure state in storage spaces.
Health is calculated by the storage service and is passed to Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) using the Storage Management API (SM-API), and is in turn passed to Operations Manager (OM) through the OM connector for VMM.

Supported Configurations

This management pack requires System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1 or later. A dedicated Operations Manager management group is not required.

The following table details the supported configurations for the Management Pack for Storage Spaces:

Configuration Support
Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 with Update Rollup 4 or later installed
Windows Server File Servers 2012 R2 with KB 3000850 (November 2014 update rollup) or later
Clustered servers Yes

Management Pack Scope

This management pack supports up to:

  • 16 Storage Nodes
  • 12 Storage Pools
  • 120 File Shares

Prerequisites

The following requirements must be met to run this management pack:

  • Operations Manager Connector for Virtual Machine Manager installed and configured.
    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh427287.aspx
  • Configuring this connection will install the required VMM Management Packs.
  • Storage Spaces managed by Virtual Machine Manager
  • KB2913766 “Hotfix improves storage enclosure management for Storage Spaces” must be installed on the VMM server and file server nodes


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    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

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