NEW! Storage Spaces Design Consideration Guide and Software-Defined Storage Design Calculator

Hello folks,

I am happy to share with you that Microsoft just released Storage Spaces Design Consideration Guide and Software-Defined Storage Design Calculator.

The Software-Defined Storage Design Calculator (SDS) spreadsheet is to design a storage solution that uses the Storage Spaces and Scale-Out File Server functionality based on Windows Server 2012 R2 along with cost-effective servers and shared serial-attached SCSI (SAS) storage enclosures (JBODs).

Figure 1 – Software-defined storage architecture using Storage Spaces with shared SAS storage enclosures (Image Credit: Microsoft).

This spreadsheet combines prescriptive design workflow and computation with deployment and configuration best-practices, empowering users to design a resilient and high-performance software-defined storage solution. The spreadsheet leverages preconfigured solution templates (including small, medium and large-scale deployments) which can then be adjusted to match specific solution requirements and available hardware available from a Storage Spaces solution vendor.

Figure 2 – The QuickDesign sheet of the spreadsheet (Image Credit: Microsoft).

Figure 3 – The AdvancedDesign sheet of the spreadsheet (Image Credit: Microsoft).

For detailed information about the Storage Spaces design best practices this spreadsheet uses, see the Software-Defined Storage Design Considerations Guide. And for background info about Storage Spaces, see the Storage Spaces Overview.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
@Charbel