Shadow Copies and FSRM on 2016 File server cluster

Question

_{Thursday, December 7, 2017 3:17 PM}

Hello,

We are about to deploy a 2016 file server cluster, and have some queries in the following areas;

1. How much control do we have over shadow copies setup on the nodes. From what I can tell, there seems to be a GUI option in cluster manager to enable or disable shadow copies, and change the schedule. We cannot however, seem to change how much storage to reserve or set as a quota for shadow copies, or drive to store data on etc. Is this possible, or will we be limited to simply specifying, on/off?

2. If we were to use file server resource manager to setup file screens, will these settings follow the file server role from node to node, or do we have to setup the same settings on each node?

Thanks

Eds

All replies (5)

_{Thursday, December 14, 2017 6:44 AM ✅Answered}

Hi Eds,

After more testing in our lab, we found that we can configure the limit of shadow copies of cluster disk using the following method.

On the owner node of the cluster disk, open disk management and the disk properties. On Shadow Copies tab, open Settings of the disk.

Then we are able to configure the limit:

Also, we are able to delete the former ones and leave only the ones we would like to keep.

Best Regards,

Anne

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_{Tuesday, December 12, 2017 8:22 AM}

Hi Eds,

>1. How much control do we have over shadow copies setup on the nodes. From what I can tell, there seems to be a GUI option in cluster manager to enable or disable shadow copies, and change the schedule. We cannot however, seem to change how much storage to reserve or set as a quota for shadow copies, or drive to store data on etc. Is this possible, or will we be limited to simply specifying, on/off?

Based on our research and test, we could only turn it on or off, other settings are not available.

>2. If we were to use file server resource manager to setup file screens, will these settings follow the file server role from node to node, or do we have to setup the same settings on each node?

Yes, the settings will follow the role from node to node, no need to setup on each node.

Best Regards,

Anne

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_{Tuesday, December 12, 2017 11:25 AM}

Thanks Anne,

Any thoughts on why there is no control over shadow copies?

I don't want it to start consuming all of our disk space on a volume unnecessarily. Do you know of a way to manually clear old copies so we can keep on top of it?

Thanks

Eds

_{Thursday, December 14, 2017 7:07 AM}

1. There is no problem to configure VSS on cluster disk. Reserve about 10% of disk size and perform it, for instance, twice per day. After some days you are able to determine whether this space is enough - it depends of intensity changing data.

2. FSRM should be deployed on both nodes.

3. Don't forget add cluster folder to backup plan.

_{Thursday, December 14, 2017 10:17 AM}

Thanks Anne/Alexey!

I wasn't sure if changing previous version settings outside of the file server cluster role was supported, but I guess as those settings are stored on disk, all metadata related to previous versions should failover to another node along with the cluster role?

Many thanks

Eds