Data deduplication in Windows server 2012

Data deduplication in Windows server 2012

To install deduplication components on the server by using Server Manager

1.     From the Add Roles and Features Wizard, under Server Roles, select File and Storage Services (if it has not already been installed).

2.     Select the File Services check box, and then select the Data Deduplication check box.

3.     Click Next until the Install button is active, and then click Install.

To enable data deduplication by using Server Manager

1.     From the Server Manager dashboard, right-click a data volume and choose Configure Data Deduplication. The Deduplication Settings page appears.

2.     Enable data Deduplication.

On Windows Server 2012 R2: In the Data deduplication box, select the workload you want to host on the volume. Select General purpose file server for general data files or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) server when configuring storage for running virtual machines.

On Windows Server 2012: Select the Enable data deduplication check box

3.     Enter the number of days that should elapse from the date of file creation until files are deduplicated, enter the extensions of any file types that should not be deduplicated, and then click Add to browse to any folders with files that should not be deduplicated.

4.     Click Apply to apply these settings and return to the Server Manager dashboard, or click the Set Deduplication Schedule button to continue to set up a schedule for deduplication.

To return a list of the volumes that have been enabled for data deduplication by using Windows PowerShell

Run the following Windows PowerShell commands on the server.

Windows PowerShell

Get-DedupVolume

Get-DedupVolume | format-list

The first command returns summary information and the second returns details about the volume data deduplication settings.

Optimization jobs

The Data Deduplication feature comes with built-in jobs that will automatically launch and optimize the specified volume(s) on a regular basis. Optimization jobs deduplicate data and compress file chunks on a volume per the policy settings. After the initial optimization is complete, optimization jobs run on the files that are included in the policies, according to the job schedules that you have configured or the default job schedules that ship with the product.

You can trigger an optimization job on demand in Windows PowerShell by using the Start-DedupJob cmdlet. For example:

Windows PowerShell

Start-DedupJob –Volume E: –Type Optimization

Start-Dedupjob D: -Type Optimization -Memory 50 

(Will use 50 percent memory for running for running this process) 

This command returns immediately and the job is launched asynchronously. If you want the job to complete at a later time , add the –wait parameter, like this:

Windows PowerShell

Start-DedupJob E: –Type Optimization –Wait

You can query the progress of the job on the volume by using the Get-DedupJob cmdlet:

Windows PowerShell

Get-DedupJob

The Get-DedupJob command show current jobs that are running or are queued to run.

You can query the key status statistics including the achieved savings on the volume by using the Get-DedupStatus cmdlet:

Windows PowerShell

Get-DedupStatus | Format-List

The Get-DedupStatus command shows the free space, space saved, optimized files, InPolicyfiles (the number of files that fall within the volume deduplication policy, based on the defined file age, size, type, and location criteria), and the associated drive identifier.