ReFS on a 340+ TB Disk Volume?

[rciscon]

We've just purchased a Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 with 24 - 18 TB SATA hard disks. This is going to be our primary storage for Veeam B&R and Veeam for Office 365. I'm configuring the drives in a RAID 6 configuration and I'm planning on installing Windows Server 2022 on a 1 TB C: volume and then formatting the remaining 340+ TB for the D: volume for my Veeam backups.

I'm curious as to what Veeam would recommended in this scenario. I know previously that Veeam was all out in support of ReFS, but I have concerns based on personal experience with seeming innocuous Windows Updates breaking ReFS volumes--we can't take that risk.

So the question is ReFS, or the old-faithful NTFS?

Any suggestions from Veeam or any others would be appreciated.

[Mildur]

Hi Raymond

Our recommendation is not to share the same server for VBR and VB365. I would reconsider your design.
Or you will face some disadvantages.

If you have to use the same hardware for both products, please create a separate volume for the VB365 Data. You will be able to backup this volume with the Veeam Agent, if you need a second copy (3-2-1-1-0 Rule) and send it to immutable storage.
For the VBR Server, we recommend to use reFS to leverage FastCloning. For the VB365 Server, both file systems are supported, but NTFS is recommended.

[rciscon]

Mildur,

Thank you for the fast response. I would like to clarify my current and planned configuration to make sure your recommendations are feasible.

Current Veeam & VB365 Configuration:

- The Veeam B&R and VB365 management servers live on two separate VMs and the software for each product is isolated to the VM it's installed on.
- Both Veeam B&R and VB365 are configured to use a Dell Server running Windows Server 2012 with a SAS connection to a Dell PowerVault MD3260.
- The Dell Server has Veeam Proxy and Repository software installed on it.
- Both VBR and VB365 are targeting the above Dell server as a Backup Target.
- The Dell server and MD3260 are very long in the tooth, and we're planning on replacing it with the new hardware, a Dell R740xd2 with 24 - 18 TB hard disks and we will be connecting a Dell ME484 disk chassis to it in the near future for additional storage.

Future Planned Configuration:
- The Veeam management software for either application will not be running on the new server, it will only be used as a target for backup data.
-The Dell R740xd2 will be configured with a 1 TB OS volume, and the remaining 340+ TB will be used for Veeam for Office 365 backups
- When the ME484 arrives, it will be connected and all storage on that device will be configured as another 340+ TB disk volume that will be used as a target for Veeam B&R, so separate volumes for the two applications.
- The R740xd2 will have Veeam Proxy, Veeam Repository software installed and running.
- This server will also act as the Tape Server for my Quantum Scalar i3 tape library with Fibre Channel connections to those LTO-8 tape drives.

All devices will be connected via 10 Gbps Ethernet.

Is this configuration supported and can I expect good performance from it?

Thanks,

Ray

[collinp]

Just keep in mind that the RAID rebuild time with drives that large using RAID-6 double parity are going to take some time. Depending on the abilities of the RAID controller, the backup performance won't be as good for that time period when a drive goes bad and the rebuild process kicks in.