Windows Server Storage Replica

[Alex_Gertsik]

We need to migrate our data from the old file server 2008 r2. My infrastructure team is considering using Windows Server Storage Replica. Does anybody have any experience or feedback about it?

We have  9TB of data and we also have DDS setup. Not sure how DDS setup would be effected by Storage Replica as I'm not familiar with this technology.

My initial recommendation was to set up DFS-R.

Thanks in advance.

Alex

[AdamShaneHyland]

Hi Alex.

Distributed Disk Services (DDS) does not provide high availability and can't act as a disaster recovery solution.  If you are looking for replication services to maintain multiple copies of the files in the disk groups you could uses a tool like Distributed File Systems (link - though a little dated), or hardware replications.  

Windows Server Storage Replica has been brought up before.  You can reference this post (link).

Best wishes.

[Alex_Gertsik · Accepted solution]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your prompt response. Sorry but I think I got confused you with my DDS references. My question was in regards to Storage Replica and besides the post that you linked above, I cannot find any information. Was Storage Replica tested with any version of OnBase? Are there any technical documents for it?

Regards,

Alex

[AdamShaneHyland]

Hi Alex, I'm not aware of any testing which has been performed with OnBase and the Storage Replica (link) feature of Windows Server environments.  This should be transparent to OnBase.  From a storage requirement, specific to HA/DR, OnBase needs to have UNC access to the storage location.  Where that storage location is doesn't matter as long as it is accessible.  The caveat is that OnBase only supports WRITING events to an uncommitted copy of the Disk Groups which is always Copy1.  If you Copy1 is not available, then OnBase will become READ ONLY until the Copy1 UNC accessible location is available.  Here is more about this in the HA/DR white paper (link).   Any technologies, such as Storage Replica, which are used to replicate data can be used as long as that UNC share link doesn't change.  DFS does provide this features and has been tested with OnBase (link - the document is old and doesn't address newer features of DFS however it is still supported).

Here are some other resources which might be helpful...

CommunityLIVE 2019: High Availablity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Tactical Storage Considerations for an OnBase Solution

Hope this helps.

[Alex_Gertsik]

Thank you Adam.