Module 02 Course Project Template – DeDupe
Process
During a meeting of the IT Storage team with the incoming CTO, decisions were made to better utilize the current storage of XYZ Technology Service Company and improve data accessibility, reduce data corruption, and improve data compliance. This was in response to a recent critical out of disk space notification. An immediate response to free up storage is to implement Disk Deduplication.
Data Deduplication, often called Dedup for short, is a feature of Windows Server 2016 that can help reduce the impact of redundant data on storage costs. When enabled, Data Deduplication optimizes free space on a volume by examining the data on the volume by looking for duplicated portions on the volume.
Duplicated portions of the volume’s dataset are stored once and are (optionally) compressed for additional savings. Data Deduplication optimizes redundancies without compromising data fidelity or integrity.
Data Deduplication helps storage administrators reduce costs that are associated with duplicated data. Large datasets often have a lot of duplication, which increases the costs of storing the data. For example:
User file shares may have many copies of the same or similar files.
Virtualization guests might be almost identical from VM-to-VM.
Backup snapshots might have minor differences from day to day.
The space savings that you can gain from Data Deduplication depend on the dataset or workload on the volume. Datasets that have high duplication could see optimization rates of up to 95%, or a 20x reduction in storage utilization. The following table highlights typical deduplication savings for various content types:
Scenario Content Typical space savings
User documents Office documents, photos, music, videos, etc. 30-50%
Deployment shares Software binaries, cab files, symbols, etc. 70-80%
Virtualization libraries ISOs, virtual hard disk files, etc. 80-95%
General file share All the above 50-60%
For this part of the project your manager has asked you to implement DiskDeDup, analyze the Disk savings, as a percentage of current disk usage, and recommend the use cases for implementing DiskDedup on XYZ Technology’s Server Storage Infrastructure.
Body
Preparing the Server Environment to perform the Project:
Connect to the SOT Sandbox Using the network diagram as a template, and perform the steps included in this document to implement Data Deduplication for Windows Server.
Launch File Manager
Navigate to E:\4126-VHDs
Copy 4126-ProjectModule2 – Master to (your initials)-users
Example: rjw-users as shown above
Connecting the Users Data to the Server to perform the project
Click (or Press) Windows Key
Click Server Manager
Click Volumes Page
Click Tools
Click Computer Management
Click Disk Management
Click More Actions on the Actions Pane (Right Pane)
Click Attach VHD
Browse out to E:\4126-VHDs
Select the VHD file that you named in step 1
Did you receive an error message? _________________________
What was the error message? ______________________________
What does the error message indicate? ____________________________
How do you clear the error message? ______________________________
Check the file permissions for the VHD file that you created in Step 1. Change the file permissions if necessary to make the file read write.
Change the Drive Letter to Drive H: and press ok
Insert Screenshot of Computer Management demonstrating that the H: drive (Users) drive has been successfully mounted to the Server
Exit out of Computer Management
Return to the Server Manager
Refresh the page
Do you see any changes to the page? _________________________
What are the Drive Characteristics?
Drive Size: _____________
Available: ______________
Installing Data Deduplication Role
To Install the Windows Data Deduplication role peform the following
Click (or Press) the Windows Key
Click Windows PowerShell
Enter the following commands into the PowerShell window:
Import-Module ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature -name FS-Data-Deduplication
Import-Module Deduplication
Enable-DedupVolume H:
Set-Dedupvolume h: -MinimumFileAgeDays 5
To start the Job enter the following command into the PowerShell Window:
Start-DedupJob -Type Optimization -Volume h:
To check the status of a job that of the job that is running enter the following command into the PowerShell window:
Get-DedupStatus
Return to the Server Manager Window.
Refresh the page
Do you see any changes to the page? _________________________
What are the Volume Characteristics?
Drive Size: _____________
Free Space: ______________
Deduplication Rate: _____________
Deduplication Savings: ______________
4. In the provided white paper reading for this module titled Data Protection Best Practices there are a number of topics discussed related to the implementation of the “CIA TRIAD”.
Using that reading and other resources in this module as a resource, discuss methods in this section to leverage Virtual Disk Technologies and on premises storage enterprise disk technologies (NAS/SAN) to develop a resilient storage strategy which provides the Enterprise with the efficiency of storage tiers.
Complete the spreadsheet Folder Retention.xlsx included with this project to identify the required compliance requirements for the various categories of Enterprise documents indicated in the white paper.
Executive Summary
In this Executive Summary, discuss how the deduplication role improves the storage efficiency of the storage infrastructure. How does this improvement affect the design of storage design for XYX Technology?
