In the Microsoft Multipath I/O Step by Step guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 two new MPIO registry keys were introduced ( UseCustomPathRecoveryInterval and PathRecoveryInterval ) to mitigate a transient error. We issued post-release guidance previously...

For those of you eager for more Windows 8 related news, there is a new blog posting from Thomas Pfenning , at the link below that details improvements in Storage and Continuous Availability for Windows Server 8: http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud...

In response to my recent post about the updated guidelines for Windows disk timeouts , the Exchange Server team has released  updated guidance on disk timeout settings with Exchange Server deployments. The article, titled “Windows Disk Timeouts and...

  Jeffrey Snover has posted a great blog here about what is coming in Storage Management: http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2011/10/14/windows-server-8-standards-based-storage-management.aspx

This is the second in a series of posts on how to utilize PowerShell to easily collect system information useful for troubleshooting Storage issues. Note: In a later installment of this series, I’ll be showing how to utilize the information gathered in...

Since the information on TechNet and MSDN can unfortunately be quite spread out, I wanted to post this consolidated list of resources for Storage driver developers, to keep this in one location.   Storage Devices Reference on MSDN The section includes...

As a result of some internal discussions around this, I decided that a blog post was long overdue on this topic, as the ramifications of setting the timeout value for Disk.sys are not commonly understood completely, and can lead to long recovery times...

This will be part of a series of posts on how to utilize PowerShell to easily collect system information useful for troubleshooting Storage issues. In my first installment, we will cover the collection of currently installed Hotfixes, and collection of...

This became a much more interesting question to me recently when I had a disk fail in my Windows Home Server. After thinking about this and doing a bunch of research, I wanted to share the results. Background: Recently, after experiencing a boot disk...

Jian Yan, the Program Manager for the iSCSI Software Target, has a new blog post on Filecab that describes in details how to configure diskless servers and boot from the Microsoft iSCSI Target 3.3 (which is now available as a free download for Windows...

We have released an updated users guide for the iSCSI initiator on Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2.  The guide includes additional detail such as error messages, and registry settings for tweaking the iSCSI connection.   iSCSI Initiator...

Today, Microsoft has made this software publicly available to all users of Windows Server 2008 R2. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target has been available for production use as part of Windows Storage Server since early 2007. It has also been available...

Just wanted to let everyone know that the filesystem team has released a new whitepaper "NTFS CHKDSK Best Practices and Performance", which is available at the link below: "NTFS Chkdsk Best Practices and Performance" There are also some additional...

The MPIO DDK is now part of the Windows DDK. You can obtain the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) at the link below: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/wdk/default.mspx

The VSS SDK content is now part of the Windows SDK, and can be obtained at the link below: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6b6c21d2-2006-4afa-9702-529fa782d63b&displaylang=en

  One question that comes up a fair bit is how to view partition starting alignment offsets by the number of bytes. The following WMIC command can be used to view the starting offsets in bytes for disks. Note: Starting with Windows Vista, and Windows...

  Q: How do I determine if a disk is connected via iSCSI? A: The easiest way to determine this, is by using diskpart, using the commands below. In the “Type” field if it lists iSCSI, then the disk is an iSCSI connected disk.   Diskpart Select...

Our iSCSI Boot guide is now available. This provides information on iSCSI boot, as well as stepping through the process of creating and deploying iSCSI boot images: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619733(WS.10).aspx

Our MPIO Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available in our Storage area on TechNet for Windows Server 2008 R2 at the link below: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619778(WS.10).aspx

At the link below, you will find information about what has changed for the iSCSI Initiator, and MPIO in Windows 2008 R2. Also, the first in the series of our new configuration and step-by-step guides is available at the same location, which covers...

The Windows Boot from SAN whitepaper has been updated, and is available via the link below, this includes information on upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f4095fae-553d-4700-aafa-1cce38b5618f&displaylang...

Hello Everyone, Just wanted to post a note that we’ve updated the WMI class information for MPIO, including information on the MPIO Health class information that was added for Windows Server 2008 R2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...

We have released an updated version of the Windows Server High Availability with Microsoft MPIO whitepaper and couldn’t wait to let everyone know as there is a lot of new content in this update. You can download the updated Whitepaper directly using...

We have updated our documentation on the WMI classes supported by the iSCSI Initiator. You can see the update at the link below: Link to iSCSI WMI Classes Thanks, The Storage Area Networking Team

This scripting example shows how to set the MPIO Load Balance policy through WMI....