The document discusses the features and functionalities of Storage Replica, including its capabilities for synchronous and asynchronous replication over SMB 3.1.1. It highlights various use cases, management tools, performance metrics, and distinctions from other replication technologies. Additionally, the document emphasizes the importance of system requirements, log management, and optimizations for effective data replication across clusters.

3. Introducing Storage Replica

7. Replication
Block-level, volume-based
Synchronous & asynchronous
SMB 3.1.1 transport
Write ordering
Seeded and thin provisioned
Flexibility
Any Windows data volume
Any fixed disk storage
Any storage fabric
Shared cluster storage
S2D cluster storage
Management
Failover Cluster Manager
Windows PowerShell
Azure Site Recovery
End to end MS storage stack

8. SR and Storage Spaces
Direct close the loop on the
MS storage stack

11. Single cluster
Automatic failover
Synchronous & Asynchronous
Asymmetric storage
Two sites, two sets of shared storage
Cluster storage: CSV or role-assigned PDR
Manage with Cluster Manager
Or Windows PowerShell
Increase cluster DR capabilities
Hyper-V and General Use File
Server are the main use cases
New York New Jersey
SR over SMB
The Hudson River

12. Two separate clusters
Manual or
orchestrated failover
Synchronous or
asynchronous
S2D and shared disk
supported
Manage with
PowerShell & ASR
Los Angeles Las Vegas
SR over SMB

13. Two separate servers
Manual failover
Synchronous or
asynchronous
Manage with PowerShell
…only?
Building 5 Building 9
SR over SMB

14. Remote Server Management Tool support for SR
Server to server to start
Cluster to cluster to follow
Fully integrated into RSMT
Coming at or slightly after TP5

18. This is not DFSR
This is not DFSR!
Replicating storage blocks underneath the CSVFS,
NTFS, or ReFS volume
Don’t care if files are in use
Write IOs are all that matter to Storage Replica

19. V
o
l
u
m
e

20. Applications
(local or remote)
Source Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
1
t 2
Destination Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
t1 3
2
5
4

21. Applications
(local or remote)
Source Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
1
t 2
Destination Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
t1 5
4
3
6

22. 1. Replicating normally
2. Destination offline, the source log contains all IO:
A. Replay from log
B. Destination comes back online (faster)
3. Destination offline, the source log wrapped IO
A. Replay from bitmap
B. Destination comes back online (slower)
Source Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
Destination Server
Node (SR)
Data
Log
OI
Replay Log DeltaReplay Bitmap Delta
The lesson: the bigger the log, the faster the recovery. And we never block IO

23. Using the scalability and
perf built into SMB
SMB Multichannel
SMB Direct (RDMA)
We are currently testing Mellanox InfiniBand
MetroX and Chelsio iWarp configs
We have several 10km, 25km and 40km networks
Roundtrip latencies: ~200usec at 80km
Encryption and signing
3.1.1 encryption performance improvements
(awesome parallelization)

25. Datacenter Edition (Full, Core, and Nano)
Active Directory
≥4GB RAM, ≥2 Cores
Disks
Firewall ports

26. Test-SRTopology cmdlet
Checks requirements and recommendations for
bandwidth, log sizes, IOPS, firewall ports, etc…
Tells you how long initial sync should take
Gives you a tidy HTML report with recommendations
Customers love it
When they find it

29. Destination volume is always dismounted
One to one
There is no “test failover”
Hmmm
Mixed cluster and standalone blocked
Currently
All of above planned for post-RTM
Don’t let your customer write checks we can’t cash

30. Async crash consistency versus application consistency
We guarantee a mountable volume
Your app must guarantee a usable file
Volume Shadow Copy Snapshots
They replicate too
Accept that async means possible data loss
How much money is your data worth?
Or your job?

31. Hyper-V
Replica
Yes NA Yes (VMs
hosting file
servers)
No Yes (VMs
hosting SQL)
Yes (VMs hosting
apps & servers)
VM SYSVOL File Server MS Exchange SQL Server Other Applications
Storage Replica Yes No Yes (bare metal
or VMs)
No Testing (bare
metal or VMs)
Yes (bare metal or
VMs)
SQL Server
AlwaysOn FCI
NA NA NA NA Yes NA
MS Exchange
DAG
NA NA NA Yes NA NA
DFS Replication No Yes Yes No No No
FRS Never Upgrade to
DFSR, soon
Don’t do it Are you crazy? What? No! Hahaha, you are
funny
SQL Server
AlwaysOn AG
NA NA NA NA Yes NA
Workload
Replicator

32. Hyper-V Replica advantages and characteristics
Use SR when you need:

33. In a VM
In Azure
Will we backport SR to Windows Server 2012 R2?
Please?

34. Storage Replica is not “shared nothing” clustering
Storage Replica is not a backup
Storage Replica is not DFSR
Storage Replica is not a general branch office solution

37. Module: StorageReplica

42. http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2015/07/09/storage-replica-versus-robocopy-fight.aspx
Technique Data to copy Time to complete
Robocopy /s /copyall /zb /mt:128 95GiB, 100M files 8 hours, 0 minutes and 12 seconds
Robocopy /copyall /zb 1.45TiB, 1 file 2 hours, 48 minutes, 26 seconds
Robocopy /copyall /j /zb 1.45TiB, 1 file 2 hours, 38 minutes, 8 seconds
Robocopy /s /copyall /zb /mt:128 1.45TiB, 1.11M files 25 minutes, 0 seconds
Robocopy /copyall /j 1.45TiB, 1 file 15 minutes, 23 seconds
Storage Replica 1.45TiB, the volume 14 minutes, 27 seconds

43.  4 Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processors (16 cores)
o Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2623 v3 (10M Cache, 3.00 GHz)
 Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 128 GB
 (24) x 2.5" SAS/SATA drive bay, Hot-swap with 12Gb/s backplane
 (4) x Redundant cooling fans
 (2) Risers x8 slots low profile PCIe Gen3 (2 available per node)
 (2) Intel(R) 10Gb Ethernet SFP+ connections on-board (per Node)
 (1) 1200W (1+1) Redundant Power Supply
 Remote Management Module, Integrated BMC w/IPMI 2.0 NIC port
 (4) External SAS Ports (per Node)
 (1) DataON 2U "Standard" RACK mount Rail set
 Internal OS Drives 4: Sandisk x300 128GB 2.5 SATA III MLC SSD - 2 per Node
 12G SAS HBA for Data Drives - Avago(R) LSI Storage 9300-8i PCI-e 3 8-port internal 12Gp/s SAS HBA.
Integrated mezzanine card
 12G SAS Cabling for Expansion - SFF-8644 to SFF-8644 Ext. 2M 12Gb/s SAS Cable for expansion
 12 1800GB HGST SAS 2.5" 10k RPM - HDD Part # Ultrastar C10K1800 21.6TB Raw per appliance
 12 400GB HGST 12Gb Ultrastar SSD1600MM SAS 2.5" - SSD Part # HUSMM1640ASS04 4.8TB Raw per
appliance
 Network Card(s): 7 NIC(s) Installed.
o Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
o Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro Ethernet Adapter
o Chelsio Network Adapter
o Chelsio Network Adapter
o Intel(R) 82599 10 Gigabit Dual Port Network Connection
o Mellanox ConnectX-3 IPoIB Adapter
Mellanox ConnectX-3 IPoIB Adapter

44. Metric 8 KB I/O 16 KB I/O 32 KB I/O 64 KB I/O
Percentage Write Latency Overhead due to SR -56% -45% -65% -66%
Percentage Read Latency Overhead due to SR - 100% Read 7% 5% 2% 23%
Average Write Latency to Source Log disk in milliseconds 1.24 1.53 2.78 3.7
Average Write Latency to Destination Log disk in milliseconds 1.17 1.35 2.81 3.31
I/O Size (KB)
Read Latency - 100% Read (ms) Write Latency – 80% Write (ms)
Without SR With SR Without SR With SR
8 5.37 5.77 41.98 18.31
16 6.08 6.37 42.79 23.68
32 4.8 4.92 52.16 18.12
64 5.52 6.77 68.45 23.49

47. Configure SR without being an administrator
Pair two clusters

48. Replicate thin-provisioned Storage Spaces volumes
Support for 3rd parties possible but requires validation

49. Pick your networks
Limit by machine or by partnership
Also limit bandwidth
Set-SmbBandwidthLimit -Category StorageReplication -BytesPerSecond <uint64>

50. Change partition sizes mid-replication
No need to recreate replication, not blocked while
replicating
ReFS is grow-only

51. New/Set-SRPartnership
Cluster Administrator wizard

52. Lots of issues in TP4
All working in TP5
Probably
Please test and file bugs, Nano is very dynamic code

53. Hooked into new Cluster health system
RPO dial for async
Not a bandwidth limiter
More of an early warning system
Under-provisioned log warnings (maybe not TP5)