64 TB VSS snapshot limit in Windows 2016

[enoch]

Hi all,

Maybe the wrong forum, but does anyone know if it's possible with Windows 2016 to have greater volumes than 64 TB in Windows and still be able to VSS on running virtual machines in Hyper-V?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2967756

[Delo123]

I don't believe this is going to change.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... erver-2016

Having more than 64TB on a single VM sounds scary anyway

[enoch]

This problem is not only if you have a VM with more than 64 TB, the problem is that it's not possible to make a VSS snapshot on a phycical Hyper-V server which have a volume that is larger than 64 TB.

The Hyper-V server could on this 64TB volume have 100's of VM's, but the "problem" (up to windows 2012r2) is limit on the volume.

[Delo123]

Yes, that is why you can have nearly unlimited (I think) volumes each 64TB large, you just have to make sure you thin provision them in storage spaces... We have 10x62TB thin provisioned volumes on "only" 480TB of storage to overcome VSS limit

[nmdange]

Since VM backups using the new RCT (Resilient Change Tracking) will no longer require doing a VSS snapshot on the host level, you should be able to have a host volume larger than 64TB and still do backups. However, I think each VM would still be limited to 64tb.

[foggy]

nmdange is spot on. The limit is still there, however, VSS snapshots will not be used during onhost backup from Windows Server 2016, so you can have larger volumes in this case.

[enoch]

Great news, does Veeam support Windows 2016 RCT or do we need to wait until Veeam 9,5?

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, you need to wait till Veeam B&R v9.5 comes out to start using Windows 2016 RCT (Resilient Change Tracking) engine.