Microsoft Features and Roles

File Systems

Disks can be formatted with one of two different file systems in Windows Server: New Technology File System (NTFS) and Resilient File System (ReFS). Everpure recommends the use of NTFS. As noted below, ReFS is fully supported but has caveats. For more information, see the article Windows Server File Systems FAQ for FlashArray.

File System	Note:
NTFS	Fully Supported with no caveats on all versions of Windows currently Microsoft Support Matrix.
ReFS	Fully Supported. Check the Application best practices for configuration recommendations. Caveats: Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) will not use Direct IO, consider NTFS. Microsoft Support Matrixwill not function with ReFS. Commands such as TRIM and UNMAP are not supported. Many applications do not support ReFS deduplication. Many applications only support logs and database files on ReFS. Many applications require specific operating system hotfixes for ReFS. Many applications require specific application settings to enable ReFS. Many applications require all data integrity features to be disabled on ReFS partitions. Many applications achieve both better data reduction and greater IO performance with NTFS. ReFS cannot be used as a boot volume (system drive) and cannot hold the paging file.

File System

Note:

NTFS

Fully Supported with no caveats on all versions of Windows currently Microsoft Support Matrix.

ReFS

Fully Supported. Check the Application best practices for configuration recommendations.

Caveats:

Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) will not use Direct IO, consider NTFS.
Microsoft Support Matrixwill not function with ReFS.
Commands such as TRIM and UNMAP are not supported.
Many applications do not support ReFS deduplication.
Many applications only support logs and database files on ReFS.
Many applications require specific operating system hotfixes for ReFS.
Many applications require specific application settings to enable ReFS.
Many applications require all data integrity features to be disabled on ReFS partitions.
Many applications achieve both better data reduction and greater IO performance with NTFS.
ReFS cannot be used as a boot volume (system drive) and cannot hold the paging file.

Hyper-V

Hyper-V is Microsoft's is hypervisor for virtualizing workloads. For more topics related to Hyper-V and FlashArray, see Hyper-V Role in the Microsoft Platform Guide.

Hyper-V Variant	Note:
Hyper-V Server	This is the standalone Hyper-V product and is fully supported with no caveats on all versions of Hyper-V Server currently Microsoft Support Matrix. Note that Microsoft's last version of Hyper-V Server is 2019.
Hyper-V Server Role in Windows Server	Fully supported with no caveats on all versions of Windows Server currently Microsoft Support Matrix.

Offloaded Data Transfer

Introduced in Windows Server 2012, Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) provides direct data transfer within or between storage arrays by bypassing the host system. ODX support was introduced in Purity 4.10. ODX is supported for Windows Server for:

Purity versions that are not in the Purity//FA Release and End-of-Life matrix.
Microsoft Support Matrix, including Core and Desktop Experience

For more information on ODX and FlashArray, see Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) in the Microsoft Platform Guide.

Note:

ODX is not supported with PODs in ActiveCluster and ActiveDR.