• Sidebar: Evolution of Windows Storage Server

The latest version of Windows Powered NAS Server, renamed Windows Storage Server 2003, will allow OEMs to exploit the storage features of Windows Server 2003, such as the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), and bring Windows-based storage appliances to market more quickly with less custom development. Providing storage OEMs with a common OS platform with advanced storage-specific features allows Microsoft to offer a competitive option to Linux, but OEMs using Windows Server 2003 will have to work to differentiate their product in the storage appliance market.

(For background on the evolution of the product, see the sidebar "Evolution of Windows Storage Server".)

New Features Target Storage Market

According to Gartner’s Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market Share report in Mar. 2003, 38% of the overall NAS deployments in 2002 were based on Windows Powered NAS devices. Dell, EMC, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Iomega, Legend Group, and NEC will likely produce new server appliances based on Windows Storage Server 2003, with EMC indicating it plans to have a product ready as early as Sept. 2003. This quick time to market is possible because Microsoft is providing key storage and server pieces that OEMs can easily build on and customize.

The new and improved storage features that Windows Storage Server 2003 inherits from Windows Server 2003 include VSS, iSCSI, and Multipath Input/Output (MPIO).

VSS is a new Windows service and API that lets applications, OS services, storage devices, and backup applications work together so that most storage technologies can make clean "shadow copies" or "snapshots" of disk volumes while only briefly pausing applications, significantly improving backup and restore capability. Prior to VSS, coordinating a data snapshot required running additional intermediary or third-party agents for each particular application and storage device. Microsoft claims that building the VSS coordination mechanism into the OS is a first for any platform, including advanced Unix systems.

iSCSI is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard protocol that allows computers to communicate with block storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape units, over standard Internet protocols. iSCSI support will lower the cost of storage devices by lowering the cost of the interconnect infrastructure, and offer a higher degree of hardware interoperability and application support than the more prevalent Fibre Channel protocol.

MPIO allows servers to use more than one physical path to access a storage device, which provides improved system reliability and availability via fault tolerance and load balancing of the disk input/output (I/O) traffic. In the case of storage systems, where the preservation of data is vital, MPIO provides extra support points that can protect against data loss or system failure.

Additional Server Feature Benefits

Some non-storage features of Windows Server 2003, such as support for multiple network protocols and clustering, also contribute to the types of devices OEMs can build with Windows Storage Server.

Multiprotocol support. Integration of file sharing and networking protocols such as the Server Messenger Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), AppleTalk, and Netware (IPX/SPX and file service) protocols allow multiple OS clients, including Mac OS, Linux, Novell, Unix, and Windows, to use their native network file protocols to access data on the Windows Storage Server device.

Clustering support. Native support for multi-node (up to 8) failover clustering allows OEMs to easily build clusters of Windows Storage Server-based products.

Availability and Resources

For more information on Windows storage, see www.microsoft.com/windows/storage.

For more information on the EMC-Microsoft storage relationship, see "EMC Deal Shows Storage Evolution" on page 24 of the June 2003 Update.

For more information on VSS and MPIO, see "Windows .NET Server Supports Enterprise Storage" on page 3 of the Dec. 2002 Update.

For more information on SANs and NAS, see "What Is Networked Storage?" on page 4 of the Dec. 2002 Update.

For more information on iSCSI, see "iSCSI to Simplify Windows Storage" on page 17 of the Apr. 2003 Update.