Windows 8 and Storage Spaces

[octoberasian]

Ok, I've read around online on the faults of this, and Ars Technica has a very good article on it:
http://arstechnica.com/information-...aces-explained-a-great-feature-when-it-works/

However, who here on [H] have personally used it, tried it, and can share some experiences with it?

If it's not all that it's cracked up to be, I may end up buying FlexRAID for $60. I haven't tested SnapRAID yet, but it is another consideration.

 

[Archer75]

Looks like it will work well for my needs, which is storing my bluray rips to stream around my house. When I can find some time i'll get it setup.

 

[mmtom]

I've been using Storage Spaces on my 2012 box for a while. I have 5 1TB WD Black drives in a single pool (I use an SSD for OS). In that pool, I'm running four virtual disks. One is for VM storage (1.5TB). Currently I'm running 25 VMs (AD, Exchange, Client, ADRMS, ADFS, ADCS, etc) on that VHD. I use another 2TB for my HTPC - I connect via iSCSI from the HTPC to the server so all recordings are stored there. Then another two disks for consolidating backups and for ISO storage.

If I do something like shut down or start up all 25 VMs at one time, it kills the disks... I'd expect that on a hardware RAID controller, too.

Setup is easy. I like the ability to thin provision disks and then add more storage if I need to. All I need to do is add a 6th drive, throw it in the pool, and the rest just happens. That said, I haven't yet had the need to over-provision the 5TB. I've used all parity for my VHDs, with the exception of the ISOs where I used a mirror.

I upgraded from RC to RTM without any issues - a clean install. It left the Storage Spaces intact, though I did have to go an set the drives to online and fix the drive letters, if I remember correctly.

So my experience has been pretty good. I haven't noticed any performance problems and it's been reliable thus far.