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Microsoft has just released to all Windows Insiders the new Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17074. This build is a preview build of the next Semi-Annual Channel release of Windows Server and it’s a preview of the next production build of Windows Server 2016… usually most of the features will be confirmed in the stable branch.

So what’s New in Build 17074 for Windows Server?

  • Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)
    • In this preview build we continue to expand and simplify the hardware for Storage Spaces Direct.  SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) is no longer required for Storage Spaces Direct to be compatible, this unlocks a breath of new hardware which was not capable of running S2D.  Storage Spaces Direct now also supports Persistent Memory (aka. Storage Class Memory), this unlocks a new class of extremely low latency storage which is incredibly interesting in particular as a caching device.  Storage Spaces Direct now also supports Direct-connect SATA devices to AHCI controller, again this will expand the hardware ecosystem compatible with S2D as well as unlock a new class of low-cost hardware.  In this preview we have also enabled the Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) Cache is enabled by default, which delivers an in-memory write-through cache that can dramatically boost VM performance.
  • Failover Clustering
    • In this preview we have introduced enhancements to Azure enlightened Failover Clusters, with enhanced eventing on host maintenance events and nodes about to be in host maintenance are excluded from placement.  By making high availability software running inside of an Azure IaaS VM be aware of maintenance events of the host, it can help deliver the highest levels of availability for your applications.
  • Dedup support for ReFS and Storage Spaces Direct

The last, in my opinion, is the most interesting features! Finally we can add deduplication in ReFS formatted disks.

Considering that Windows Server 2016 has great improvement both on ReFS (much stable and finally usable in production) and also on deduplication engine (now it’s multi-threads and not only single-thread) this will be something great.

For example for archiving or backup target!

Server Insiders have the choice of Server Core Edition in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed – no need to enter a key during setup. This Server Insider pre-release build will expire on July 2nd, 2018. For the best experience, the Windows Server team recommends a clean install.

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  • Comments (2)
  • #1 |  Written by Michael Burns about 7 years ago.

    Installing this preview just broke my virtual machines. VX-t not available… how do I fix it?

    • #2 |  Written by Andrea Mauro about 7 years ago.

      Each Server Insider Preview has some issues (interesting that this has one related to virtualization)… the only way is waiting for a fix or perform a rollback.
      Of course never install an Insider (Server or Client) version on a production environment

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