ie8 fix
madison

Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Home / News & Blogs / Hardware 2.0

Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS

By | January 17, 2012, 6:17am PST

Summary: The new file system has been designed from the ground up to meet the challenges facing customers both today and tomorrow.

I’ve been waiting to see what killer feature Microsoft will bake into Windows 8 (no, it was never the touch capability or the Metro UI). Initially I thought it might be the new reset and refresh tools baked into the operating system. While they’re nice, they seemed a little too consumer-oriented to me and didn’t seem like the sort of thing that would appeal to enterprise users. Well, yesterday Microsoft unveiled a killer enterprise feature - ReFS, or Resilient File System.

According to Microsoft, ReFS has been designed from the ground up to meet the challenges facing customers both today and tomorrow. The new file system is accessible through the same file access APIs on clients that are used on any operating system that can access today’s NTFS volumes, but it brings with it a whole raft of new features (some of these features will be provided in conjunction with Storage Spaces):

  • Metadata integrity with checksums
  • Integrity streams providing optional user data integrity
  • Allocate on write transactional model for robust disk updates (also known as copy on write)
  • Large volume, file and directory sizes
  • Storage pooling and virtualization makes file system creation and management easy
  • Data striping for performance (bandwidth can be managed) and redundancy for fault tolerance
  • Disk scrubbing for protection against latent disk errors
  • Resiliency to corruptions with “salvage” for maximum volume availability in all cases
  • Shared storage pools across machines for additional failure tolerance and load balancing

Here are the capacity limits for ReFS:

A new file system for Windows Server 8, in particularly one that puts such emphasis on resilience, integrity and the capability to fend off that ever-present threat of ‘bit-rot’ will be well-received by by enterprise users who see the data they hold as their greatest asset.

We have out killer server feature!

Related:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Hardware 2.0”

Topics

Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

18
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
lou@... Updated - 19th Jan
It is always interesting when Microsoft "finally"* delivers a functionality that has been available in other operatings systems for ages, it is hailed as a breakthrough! Killer App -ROTFL ...

Great on you MS - welcome to the 21st century.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
kirovs@... 17th Jan
Compared to NTFS I am sure it is a killer. It is hard to make it worse. Yet not impossible.
Citing corporate PR is not helpful either.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
George Mitchell 17th Jan
It appears that finally Windows will have a next gen filesystem comparable to ZFS and BtrFS.
0 Votes
+ -
NTFS over ZFS
eddoaloha 17th Jan
So, finally, NTFS over ZFS???

Maybe it will work???.
They need the NTFS layer to honor all their NetBIOS/AD rights structure.
But they need to move to a ZFS-like storage engine.

It would be hilarious if they build an iSCSI pseudo engine between the two, so they really just take open source ZFS for the hardware layer and then use it like a mounted SCSI file system???

Har!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
bitcrazed 17th Jan
@eddoaloha - NetBIOS and AD are network protocols. While they can integrate with the security & permissions features of a server's file system, they can also operate independently.

This is why you can choose a different (often more restrictive) set of ACL's for your network shares than the ACL's applied to the folders the shares expose.

Oh ... and Windows has had iSCSI support since 2003: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2003#Windows_Storage_Server
0 Votes
+ -
A lot of "key word" overlap . .
eddoaloha 17th Jan
Why my prior thoughts? Look at some of the key words used...
Metadata - Used by ZFS
copy-on-write - Used by ZFS
"pooling", "pool" - Used by ZFS
"scrubbing", "scrub" - Used by ZFS

Also, all ZFS pools are only "striped"... the redundancy is effected by what type of virtual devices you stripe; sets of mirrors, triple mirrors, raid, raid-2, raid-3, or raw drives. The verbiage in feature six matches the ZFS way of doing things.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
bitcrazed 17th Jan
@eddoaloha:

Metadata is not new to ZFS: all filesystems have file and folder metadata.

Copy on write (CoW) is not unique to ZFS: Windows' Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) and SQL Server 2005 (and later) both employ CoW in their file storage systems. BtrFS and several other filesystems also support CoW.

Drive pooling is also not unique to ZFS. Its been around in various forms for over 30 years.

Scrubbing? Also not unique to ZFS: almost every file system in existence has some form of integrity checking mechanism. Heck, even DOS had CHKDSK wink

Don't muddle multi-drive features such as pooling, mirroring and striping with ReFS though: Those are all features coming with StorageSpaces.

ReFS is all about per-drive integrity, reliability, scalability and performance.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
Anthony E 17th Jan
Don't see how a redundant FS is a killer feature.. Compared to offerings to the NT line i guess.. ZFS on BSD & btrfs on linux provide the same features.. But at that point even on NT a software based raid5 or mirrored could offer the same benefits..

My only question is would the new fs handle file fragmentation better, especially on the server class where you may have 20+ workstation storing files on said filesystem ?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
bitcrazed 17th Jan
@Anthony E:

ReFS is all about ensuring the integrity of the contents of each drive individually.

StorageSpaces deals with mult-drive integrity through (2 or 3 drive) mirroring, striping, dynamic pool (storage space) expansion, etc.

The problem with RAID is that once its configured, it's pretty much set in stone. Increasing the size of your RAID array often requires a complete storage rebuild.
0 Votes
+ -
Depends on the array..
Anthony E 17th Jan
@bitcrazed

ZFS you can add and remove drive from the pool.. Which can increase/decrease capacity as long as the array still have enough storage.

Linux Software raid nope, but LVM can add or remove drives and shrink or grow the file system on top of the array.

But most raids are set in stone.. Raid 0,1, 10 Unless you increase a drive , rebuild then replace other drive rebuild resize.. Not recommending it for a serious setup though.
0 Votes
+ -
Kill off server maybe?
oldsysprog 17th Jan
The comments about a killer file system are funny, I consult in Windows system software and a large number of the corporate types I know use the features they are taking out of NTFS!

So they are adding some redunacy to the lower layers, they could have done that anyway, but by removing a large set of features used by smaller corporate applications and many in-house applications at large companies they have doomed Server 8 to making Vista look like a roaring success.
0 Votes
+ -
Permission to gloat?
johnfenjackson@... 17th Jan
This is where I remind you, Ed Bott, Paul Thurrott and all other Windows Home Server supporters ...
... that WHS ...
... and particularly VAIL, with its eventual single disk ...

... was complete and utter rubbish.

I welcome this belated move by M$, hope their Engineering team is given its head and not fatally constrained by the usual product limitation edicts from the marketing and revenue expansion executives.

All we need now is a decent hot-swap backplane and some front facing drive caddies and we can kick a good chunk of expensive, proprietary, enterprise storage garbage into touch.

Oh and we need ReFS to work wink

[Note: it's no good replying 'I didn't support WHS' - you should have lambasted it from the outset!]
0 Votes
+ -
I'm $hocked!
William Farrel Updated - 17th Jan
@johnfenjack$on@...

another "M$ $ucks" post form you.

Who would have guessed?

;|
0 Votes
+ -
No, It will only be welcomed if it is rock-solid
peter_erskine@... 17th Jan
and I can't see Microsoft achieving that just yet.
0 Votes
+ -
Rock-Solid in v 1.0 . . .?
eddoaloha 17th Jan
What is ZFS on, version 29? version 30? It does, indeed, take awhile to get the bugs out and the features in.
0 Votes
+ -
And ZFS still isn't
William Farrel 17th Jan
@eddoaloha
100% error free
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
tonymcs@... 17th Jan
@eddoaloha

The MS new file system also raises all the limits on ZFS (although ZFS limits were exceedingly high). I can only say well done wink
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
opcom 18th Jan
path length, baby! has always been an annoyance
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft's killer Windows Server 8 feature - ReFS
lou@... Updated - 19th Jan
It is always interesting when Microsoft "finally"* delivers a functionality that has been available in other operatings systems for ages, it is hailed as a breakthrough! Killer App -ROTFL ...

Great on you MS - welcome to the 21st century.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix