Nowadays, it is very common on file servers to find multiple duplicate files, which lead to disk space issues.
This type of problem is particularly critical nowadays, as the continuous increase in data volume within corporations is a recurring topic in capacity planning meetings. Generally, the complexity of managing data is proportional to the amount of data allocated in the environment.
A feature known as data deduplication has emerged to help with this challenge, as it allows for maximising the data allocated on disk, thereby reducing the waste of valuable space designated for logical volumes.
Data deduplication is a software and/or hardware-based technology that maximises disk capacity usage, eliminating the need to store the same file multiple times.
The accuracy of duplicate data elimination is closely related to the type of file stored on the volume; however, according to Microsoft, the savings rate ranges from 30% to 90%.
After several laboratory tests, Microsoft released a list of the main services/server types that show good suitability when adopting Data Deduplication:
Services/Server Types
- File Servers;
- Datastore for virtualised environments;
- Backup repositories for SQL Server and Exchange Server.
- Just as there are scenarios with good suitability, we will list the scenarios that are not well-suited for the implementation of Data Deduplication:
Scenarios with poor implementation
- Hyper-V hosts;
- WSUS servers;
- Servers running SQL Server or Exchange Server;
- Files close to 1 TB in size or larger.
To give you more support when determining whether your environment is eligible to adopt Data Deduplication technology, here are some additional important technical considerations:
Technical considerations
- The target logical volume cannot be the boot volume associated with the operating system;
- The partition can be either MBR or GPT;
- Encrypted files and files smaller than 32 KB are not processed by Data Deduplication;
- Removable devices are not supported.
The implementation of data deduplication brings many positive results for corporations. Among them, we can highlight the reduction in storage space usage, greater agility in performing and restoring backups, and the reduction of IT investment costs, thus freeing up the budget for other projects.
