Data Deduplication in Windows Server 2012

Server 2012 Deduplication Feature

Data is growing at a rapid rate and IT Departments have constant challenges to meet storage requirements. Server 2012 introduces a basic Data Deduplication feature which reduces disk sizes using deduplication.

Potential Storage savings

File Type	Content	Space Savings
User documents	Documents, photos, music, videos	30-50%
Deployment shares	Software binaries, cab files, symbols files	70-80%
General file share	All of the above	50-60%

The DDPEVAL tool is useful for calculating storage savings.

You can obtain the Deduplication Evaluation Tool (DDPEVAL.exe) from \Windows\System32\ directory on a server 2012 installation. If you havent already got a copy of server 2012 RC you will need to download and install a copy to extract the tool.

Points to note:

If you decide to move an deduplication enabled volume to another operating system, ensure that the target operating system supports/has Deduplcation, If not you will not able to access deduplcated files.

Microsoft Failover Clustering is fully supported.
Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) are not supported
Deduplication is not supported on operating system volumes

For more information on server 2012 Deduplication or the DDPEVAL.exe tool, please see the links below.

Microsoft’s Data Deduplication Planning and Deployment Link : Click Here

Microsoft’s File server capacity tool FSCT: Click Here

Microsoft’s Deduplication Research Team: Click Here

References

Microsoft. (2012). Data Deduplication Planning and Deployment. Available: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831700. Last accessed 02 Aug 2012.

Douglas Gantenbein. (2011). Eliminating Duplicated Primary Data. Available: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/deduplication-101311.aspx. Last accessed 02 Aug 2012.