The Scale-out File Server Design Criteria #Microsoft

So Scale-out file servers are a super cool feature from Windows Server 2012, but is it for every file server use, let us see:

from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831349:

You should not use Scale-Out File Server if your workload generates a high number of metadata operations, such as opening files, closing files, creating new files, or renaming existing files. A typical information worker would generate a lot of metadata operations. You should use a Scale-Out File Server if you are interested in the scalability and simplicity that it offers and you only require technologies that are supported with Scale-Out File Server.

and the below table is a nice reference from the same page to compare traditional clustered file server Vs. scale-out ones

so what are the design and selection criteria for scale-out file servers, the usual answer is “it depends”.

from my point of view, SO file servers are not for every use, although it offers greater scalability and performance for some workloads like SQL cluster and Hyper-v, it doesn’t really go well with the regular end-user usage for file servers as they generate a lot of metadata, also you will lose a lot of handy features like de-duplication, FCI and DFS.

So be careful when selecting your SO FS and make sure that you really need them, they are note for every use.

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