A Step-by-Step Guide to Configuring Data Deduplication on Windows Server

In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to install and configure Data Deduplication on Windows Server to maximize free space on a volume, a crucial task for any server administrator. If you’re curious about this process, you’re in the right place.

Data Deduplication, commonly known as Dedup, helps minimize the effects of redundant data on storage expenses. When activated, Data Deduplication analyzes the data on a volume to identify duplicate segments. These duplicate segments are stored only once and can also be compressed for further space savings. Additionally, this process reduces redundancies while maintaining data quality and integrity.

If you’re ready to set up Data Deduplication, follow the detailed steps below.

Now let’s delve into these steps in detail.

To begin, let’s proceed with the installation of the Data Deduplication feature on your server machine. You can follow the steps outlined below.

Once you have completed these steps, you will finalize the installation process.

Alternatively, Data Deduplication can also be installed via PowerShell. Simply open PowerShell with administrative privileges, then execute the commands provided below.

To install Data Deduplication, run the following command on a server that is operating Windows Server 2016 or newer, or on a Windows PC where RSAT is installed.

To start, if you can access the server remotely via PowerShell remoting, execute the command provided below.

2] Activate and Set Up Data Deduplication for the volume of your preference

Once the feature has been installed, you can proceed to enable it for your selected volumes. Follow the steps outlined below.

You can also establish a deduplication policy for a specific drive using PowerShell. For this, execute – Enable-DedupVolume -Volume <Volume-Path> -UsageType <Selected-Usage-Type>

This will take care of everything for you.

If you’d like to check whether deduplication is set up, you can run – Get-DedupStatus or Get-DedupStatus | fl within the elevated PowerShell environment.

To find out the deduplication schedule, you can execute – Get-DedupSchedule. Alternatively, you can open the Task Scheduler, navigate to the Deduplication section, and review all the schedules you have created. If you want to test the task, simply right-click on it and select Run. After executing the task, you can use the Get-DedupStatus command to check the current deduplication status or Get-DedupJob to monitor the job status.

When you’re content with the schedule and the job details, you can close the Server Manager, confident that your tasks will run as planned, ensuring that your volumes are deduplicated accordingly.

That’s it!

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To activate data deduplication in Windows Server, you must first add the feature through the Server Manager. After that, you can adjust the Deduplication settings and establish its schedule by following the instructions provided earlier in this article.

Explore: Free Backup software for VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines

To implement Data Deduplication, it is essential to have Windows Server 2012 or a newer version. Additionally, the data volumes must be formatted with NTFS. Data deduplication is most effective with specific workloads, including general-purpose file servers, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) servers, and virtualized backup applications.

Also Read: Best free backup software for Windows Server.

Published on October 19, 2024

Tags: Server

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