Old Windows File server is dying - What should I replace with?

[mikkydoos]

Hi all,

 

My old Windows file server is dying and I'm wondering what to replace it with.

Can't justify the ££ for a SAN.

 

2 x Hypervisors are currently using local storage - ideally I'd like this shared.

 

Traditional Windows file server?

Windows 2016 with storage spaces?

Hardware NAS?

FreeNAS?

Linux/ZFS?

 

 

A problem I have currently is that I have decent Veeam Endpoint backups of this physical server but nowhere to properly restore them to in the event of a server failure.

Every other server I have is a VM so restoring those (Veeam) isn't a problem.

 

I have storage space on my hypervisors but is VM'ing a file server really wise - methinks not.

 

600 users.

 

 

Any suggestions appreciated

Edited May 4, 2018 by mikkydoos

[Cache]

Our file servers are all VM's and have been since we went virtual 6 years ago - not had an issue.

[XiJ]

VM everything. Perhaps a decent nas with some iSCSI connections for storage ?

[deano3693]

Agreed no reason not to VM for your file server! We are 100% virtual and have no issues.

[3s-gtech]

Went physical to virtual when I refreshed all my file servers on 2012 R2. Went really well, just made sure that the disks were quick and not highly shared between various VMs. You may want to use SSDs if you can afford to.

[mikkydoos]

Thanks all.... where is your data though. Not on local hypervisor storage?

 

VM'ing the OS for a file server.. yes... but I have 3TB of data. Migrating 3 TB to another host for maintenance isn't an option.

[Steve21]

That depends on your setup really, I mean if you want the cheap route you can always do a 10gig link from server to server directly, even doing the entire 3TB files would be under an hour then if you're talking one off maintenance like updates etc, obviously not daily etc

 

Or you use Veeam to replicate between the two and do a live failover then failback after but then you'd need to double up space etc

 

Steve

[mikkydoos]

Or you use Veeam to replicate between the two and do a live failover then failback after but then you'd need to double up space etc

 

 

 

Thats an option.

 

But my chassis is full so would need to replace all disks.

 

I think NAS is the way to go.

Edited May 8, 2018 by mikkydoos

[mikkydoos]

OK can I run this past you guys...

 

 

Storage is my limitation so I'm looking into:

 

Enterprise NAS

1gb iSCSI connections from hosts to NAS LUNs

 

...so I get my shared storage.

 

 

 

 

Regarding Veeam backups:

 

At present my physical file server obviously hosts all files on a partition. This is backed up to a Veeam B&R repository using the endpoint client... so the whole server files and all and up in a massive .vib or .vdk file - which tales ages to initially backup and to restore in its entirety.

 

If I were to set up a server 2016 machine, set up a LUN and connect the file servers data drives via iSCSI, can Veeam still backup the data or just the VM?

Edited May 10, 2018 by mikkydoos

[JackCPickup]

Hi all,

 

My old Windows file server is dying and I'm wondering what to replace it with.

Can't justify the ££ for a SAN.

 

2 x Hypervisors are currently using local storage - ideally I'd like this shared.

 

Traditional Windows file server?

Windows 2016 with storage spaces?

Hardware NAS?

FreeNAS?

Linux/ZFS?

 

 

A problem I have currently is that I have decent Veeam Endpoint backups of this physical server but nowhere to properly restore them to in the event of a server failure.

Every other server I have is a VM so restoring those (Veeam) isn't a problem.

 

I have storage space on my hypervisors but is VM'ing a file server really wise - methinks not.

 

600 users.

 

 

Any suggestions appreciated

 

2 Hyper-V Server 2016 nodes with Starwinds vSAN would be a good choice.

[mjk]

I think Linux/ZFS would be a pain for support due to the licensing.

If you set on Linux then choose GlusterFS for a distributed filesystem. If your set on ZFS then choose BSD.

[mikkydoos]

2 Hyper-V Server 2016 nodes with Starwinds vSAN would be a good choice.

 

Starwinds is great but I need more storage than my hosts have anyway. Bigger disks (HP 2.5" SATA's) are too expensive to replace compared to a NAS