Veeam Host Upgrade + ReFS setup.

[Zew]

I found an awesome blog online!

https://blog.workinghardinit.work/category/refs/

So I want to upgrade the host SO that my Veeam server is hostsed on a Server 2016 Server instead of 2008 R2.

When it comes to ReFS, whats better, should I build a dedicated Server to host my storage and share it via CIFS... so...

Storage Server ----iSCSI-------- (ReFS) --------- Windows Server 2016 --------TCP/IP-------------(SMB)-------------- Veeam Server

or

Storage Server ------iSCSI------------(ReFS) ------------- Veeam Server

I figured the second approach would be a bit better, at this point I don't plan on implementing CSV much like the blog.

Suggestions?

[DaveWatkins]

Veeam repositories aren't used over SMB, in your first case the "Windows Server 2016" would be the repository server and Veeam would use it's transport services to move the data to it, not SMB. You could certianly do that and leave your Veeam server as a 2008R2 server and it would still work with ReFS

[Zew]

Wouldn't a direct iSCSI connection to storage with ReFS on that be more efficient?

[DaveWatkins]

It depends if you want to separate your repo or not. Also on your networking. If you have 10Gb for iSCSI and only 1Gb for network traffic then yes, it would be faster to direct connect iSCSI to the Veeam server. If it's all 1Gb, or all 10Gb, then it won't be any faster really unless your Veeam server is CPU or RAM bound, then moving the repository to a new server would improve performance

[Zew]

Touche. Well said.