Solved Storage Spaces (Storage Pool) Experience?

[Ron AKA]

Has anyone tried the new Storage Spaces feature in Windows 8? Your experience with it?

More specifically:

1. If this system is used on a shared network with other operating systems such as XP and Windows 7, can the storage pool drives be set up as shared, and become visible and usable from the XP and Win 7 machines?

2. If you have a Network Backup drive, like WD My Book Live, will it see and back up the Storage Spaces configured drive just like any other drive on the network?

 

[Shadowjk]

I've only set this up on a Windows Server 2012 configuration therefore I cannot provide the exact steps on how to set one up in a client environment. That being said, a storage space/pool is essentially a virtual disk that resides on one or multiple physical disks allowing you to accumulate free space. For example if I have multiple servers with free space on their data drives I can then create a storage pool to accumulate this. To allocate this storage pool/space to a user or machine you will need to decide what you wish to do with it. Below are a couple of examples of how:

1. Share via Windows Folder Sharing (UNC Path)
2. Use iSCSI to use the current ethernet infastructure allowing you to assign the storage pool/space a drive letter to the client machine
3. In a server environment you may wish to use it for DFS (Distributed File System) to maintain redundancy

Personally I use my storage pool as an iSCSI drive for which i have partitioned.

   Warning

You can only use the free space of a non Windows install drive. To my knowledge you cannot overcome this with partitioning.

In relation to your second question, you will only able to use the share as a safepoint backup if it is shared via Windows Folder Sharing. For example: \\computername\share

Also you will need to make sure that the NAS is on the same workgroup as the Windows 8 machine hosting the storage pool otherwise it will not be able to find the share. Hopefully this is what you asking however please correct me if it isn't.



Hope This Helps,
Josh

 

[Ron AKA]

Also you will need to make sure that the NAS is on the same workgroup as the Windows 8 machine hosting the storage pool otherwise it will not be able to find the share. Hopefully this is what you asking however please correct me if it isn't.

The plan is to build a new computer with Windows 8 for an operating system. The OS and all programs will be installed on a 128 GB SSD. Two Seagate 1 TB Barracuda drives would be used only for program data. They would be configured as one Storage Space drive of 2 TB, with Resiliency set to Simple (none).

The home network would then consist of 1 XP, 1 Win7, 1 Win 8, & the My Book Live 3 TB NAS. It is currently used for backup only, and I would be hoping it would also back up the Storage Space configured drive on the Win 8. Yes?

For convenience I have shared all the home computer My Documents directory on one Workgroup, and you can read and write to any computer from any computer. I would like that to be the same after the addition of the Win 8 Storage Space. Yes?

 

[Shadowjk]

If you create a normal share then yes you can and the Windows 8 machine will distribute the data across all specified drives accordingly.

As for the MYBOOKLIVE, I doubt you will be able to backup your storage pool directly to the MYBOOKLIVE since the virtual disks will be spread out across multiple drives. You could however run a syncronisation program such as SyncToy which when your storage space is mounted and the MYBOOKLIVE is mapped can be run so that your files and folders are synced.

Josh

 

[Ron AKA]

If you create a normal share then yes you can and the Windows 8 machine will distribute the data across all specified drives accordingly.

As for the MYBOOKLIVE, I doubt you will be able to backup your storage pool directly to the MYBOOKLIVE since the virtual disks will be spread out across multiple drives. You could however run a syncronisation program such as SyncToy which when your storage space is mounted and the MYBOOKLIVE is mapped can be run so that your files and folders are synced.

Thank you for the response. I will investigate the My Book Live further. Currently it runs sync software which I suspect is similar to SyncToy. I select folders I want it to duplicate in My Book drive. It monitors the folders and copies any new files as they are created.

 

[Shadowjk]

If you create a normal share then yes you can and the Windows 8 machine will distribute the data across all specified drives accordingly.

As for the MYBOOKLIVE, I doubt you will be able to backup your storage pool directly to the MYBOOKLIVE since the virtual disks will be spread out across multiple drives. You could however run a syncronisation program such as SyncToy which when your storage space is mounted and the MYBOOKLIVE is mapped can be run so that your files and folders are synced.

Thank you for the response. I will investigate the My Book Live further. Currently it runs sync software which I suspect is similar to SyncToy. I select folders I want it to duplicate in My Book drive. It monitors the folders and copies any new files as they are created.

Yep, SyncToy does the same

Josh

 

[Ron AKA]

Just as a follow up. I did proceed to install two Seagate Barracuda 1TB drives in a Storage Space "Simple" configuration to give a single 2 TB D: drive which is used for data only. Seems to work well with WD My Book Live, but I have not had to use the back up, and hope never to!

Have not fully set up the home network yet, but it appears to be no issue.

 

[Shadowjk]

Glad we could help

Josh

 

[Ron AKA]

Set up the Homegroup for the new Win 8 computer and the Win 7 laptop. Very simple except for the complicated password assigned. It seems strange that they would put that fancy password on the group but give it free access for anyone on the group to see??

The other strange part was that the Win 7 computer was hidden from the new Win 8, but an older XP computer that I am getting rid of, showed up automatically with no effort from me. In any case in a short while that one will be gone, so I'm not bothering to do much with it.