Windows 8 / Server 2012 storage and drivers

[Anvil]

We need a thread to gather info about the Windows 8 and Server 2012 storage drivers.

I'll start with what I've found so far (not much ) but it will be expanded to raid testing tomorrow.

First of all, W8 installation is fast, faster than W7.

I have performed several installations of W8 but installing on a SB (P8P67 Deluxe) computer is the first for me, the others were Virtual Machines.

To see how the default driver performs I performed a standard installation.
One thing I did notice was that the "hidden" partition has increased in size from 100MB to 350MB, not an issue but still, it has changed.

Drive used for single drive testing is a Vertex 4 128GB. (over-provisioned to the Xtreme)

Standard driver



RST 10.8.0.1003



RST 11.5.0.1177



The beta (11.5.0.1177) looks to be the better performer but it needs more testing.

Also, there is built in functionality for TRIMming single drives using the standard Optimizer. (where you used to defrag)
Will be testing raid tomorrow.

WEI is still there and it has changed, the Vertex 4 scored 8.0 in the "Hard disk test", will need to try other drives to get a feeling with how the score has changed.

The page file is still here, this PCs got 8GB and it allocated 4GB which is an improvement vs earlier versions. (normally 1.5x installed memory)
I did not check if the hibernation file has changed, it was enabled though and I disabled it.

The footprint is about 8.5GB when the pagefile and hibernation disabled.

So, raid and Windows Server 2012 will follow next.
I have already installed WS2012 in VMWare but a "normal" install is needed.
From the storage perspective there are some quite interesting things on Windows Server 2012.

[Ourasi]

So, raid and Windows Server 2012 will follow next.

When will this happen, Anvil? :P

[Fernando]

@ Anvil:
Where did you get the RST drivers v11.5.0.1177?
According to my knowedge the last RST drivers of the v11.5 series are v11.5.0.1171.
By the way: All Intel "RST" drivers of the v11.5 development branch belong definitively to the Intel RST "Enterprise Edition" = RSTe series, because they do contain the additional SCSI filter driver iaStorF.sys.

@ all:
My computer has an Intel Z68 chipset (ASUS P8Z68-V) and 2x128 GB Crucial M4 SSD's running as RAID0 array. Since I have split the RAID array into 2 partitions and installed Win7 x64 and the "Release Preview" of Win8 x64 onto them, I am able to compare both Operatig Systems running different Intel RAID drivers.
Installed RAID ROM: Intel RSTe v11.5.0.1347

Here are my benchmark results:

A. Operating System: Win8 x64 "Release Preview" (freshly installed onto a separate RAID0 partition)
Running RAID driver(s):

1. Win8 in-box Intel MSM RAID driver v8.6.2.1019 (Win8 in-box Intel RAID driver)
   
   
2. Intel RST RAID driver v11.2.0.1006:
   
   
3. Intel RSTe RAID drivers v11.5.0.1171 Beta (designed for being used with Win8)
   

B. Operating System: Win7 x64 (installed 2 months ago onto a separate RAID0 partition)
Running RAID driver(s):

1. Intel RSTe RAID drivers v11.5.0.1171 Beta (designed for being used with Win8)
   

So it seems, that Intel's RSTe drivers v11.5 are running much better with Win7 than with Win8, although Intel has them designed for Win8.

Another interesting difference between Win7 and Win8 while running the RSTe drivers with the additional SCSI filter driver iaStorF.sys:
The "Storage Controllers" and "Drives" sections of the Device Managers are looking quite different.

Here is the Win7 x64 Device Manager of my RAID0 system running the RSTe drivers v11.5.0.1171:

And here is the Win8 x64 Device Manager while running the same RSTe drivers:


Interesting difference: The drives are not shown as SCSI devices by the Win8 Device Manager!
Maybe this has something to do with Intel's promise, that the RST(e) drivers v11.5 will support Trim (or Unmap) even for drives, which are members of a RAID0 array.

Regards
Fernando

[Fernando]

Here are the equivalent benchmark results with Anvil's tool (same conditions as in the previous post):

A. Operating System: Win8 x64 Release Preview (tests done after a fresh install of the OS):

1. Win8 in-box Intel MSM RAID driver v8.6.2.1019 (Win8 in-box Intel RAID driver):
   
2. Intel RST RAID driver v11.2.0.1006:
   
   
3. Intel RSTe RAID drivers v11.5.0.1171:
   

B. Operating System: Win7 x64 (in use since 2 months with heavy traffic):

1. Intel RSTe RAID drivers v11.5.0.1171:
   

Conclusion for my Intel Z68 RAID system: The Intel RSTe drivers v11.5.0.1171 do induce the best write performance of all tested RAID drivers, but only while running Win7.

Side note: The Win8 in-box Intel RAID driver is shown in the Device Manager as v8.6.2.1022, but in reality it's v8.6.2.1019 (checked by opening the Properties and Details of the file iaStorV.sys). The Device Manager just reads the entries of the - maybe wrong - INF file entries.

Regards
Fernando