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I would opt for ReFS if you are using very large disks and lots of files, e.g, 2TB+
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I would opt for ReFS if you are using very large disks and lots of files, e.g, 2TB+

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We are building a new sql server 2012 on a Windows 2012 R2 Datacenter which is a vmware 5.5 vitural machine. We have separate raw device mappings for the data,log,system databases and temp files. The first question I had was is it better to format the OS and the other drives as Refs? And for the Allocation unit size what would you recommend?<br />
Thanks<br />
Example of current setup<br />
OS = NTFS<br />
Sql Data Folder = NTFS<br />
Sql LogFiles Folder = NTFS<br />
Sql System Database = NTFS<br />
Sql TempFiles = NTFS<br />
They all have the Default Allocation unit size.
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We are building a new sql server 2012 on a Windows 2012 R2 Datacenter which is a vmware 5.5 vitural machine. We have separate raw device mappings for the data,log,system databases and temp files. The first question I had was is it better to format the OS and the other drives as Refs? And for the Allocation unit size what would you recommend?
Thanks
Example of current setup
OS = NTFS
Sql Data Folder = NTFS
Sql LogFiles Folder = NTFS
Sql System Database = NTFS
Sql TempFiles = NTFS
They all have the Default Allocation unit size.

Sql Server 2012 RefS or NTFS for database drives

Microsoft SQL Server is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.SQL Server is available in multiple versions, typically identified by release year, and versions are subdivided into editions to distinguish between product functionality. Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning.

Microsoft SQL Server

Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is the first version of Windows Server to have no support for Itanium-based computers since Windows NT 4.0. Windows Server 2012, now in its second release (Windows Server 2012 Release 2) includes Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, and does not support IA-32 or IA-64 processors.

Windows Server 2012

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.