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Storage replication (storage replica) is a feature that comes with Windows Server 2016 that lets you replicate a volume to another server. To work the feature requires two volumes per server. The first for storing data and the second for logs.
Storage replica works on the principle Active / Passive. The data is accessible only from the source node, on the destination it is not possible to access the same disk connect locally on the server.
It is possible to reverse the direction of replication in case of failover.
There are two modes of replication:
- Synchronous: when writing a data it is done simultaneously on both servers, the acknowledgment of the writing of the data must be made on both servers.
 | 1. The application writes data 2. The log data is written and the data is replicated to the remote site 3. The log data is written to the remote site 4. Acknowledgment of receipt of the remote site 5. Receipt of confirmed application writingt& t1: data emptied on the volume, logs always written continuously |
Source Microsoft
- Asynchronous: the data is initially written to the source server and then to the replication server.
 | 1. The application writes data 2. Journal data written 3. Receipt of confirmed application writing 4. Replicated data at the remote site 5. Log data written on the remote site 6. Acknowledgment of reception of the remote site t& t1: data emptied on the volume, newspapers always written continuously |
Source Microsoft
The Storage Replication feature does not have an administrative console, the configuration is done using PowerShell or Admin Center. If you are using the SR as part of a cluste, you can do the configuration using the Failover Clustering Console.
Prerequisites
To put in the functionality it is necessary:
- Two Windows 2016/2019 servers with:
- Fixed ip address
- Member of the same domain
- A partition for the data
- A partition for logs in production predict 10GB
- Make sure the hosts contact each other by their NETBIOS name
- Open Port Communication 445/5445
In order to ease server administration for role installation, I added both servers in the domain controller’s server manager.