Image taken from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-overview

The main use case targeted is hyper-converged infrastructure for Hyper-V deployments. However, there are other use cases, including leveraging this SMB storage to store SQL Server Data to be used in a SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance

Why would anyone want to do that?

Well, for starters you can now build a highly available 2-node SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) with SQL Server Standard Edition, without the need for shared storage. Previously, if you wanted HA without a SAN you pretty much were driven to buy SQL Server Enterprise Edition and make use of Always On Availability Groups or purchase SIOS DataKeeper and leverage the 3rd party solution which lets you build SANless clusters with any version of Windows or SQL Server. SQL Server Enterprise Edition can really drive up the cost of your project, especially if you were only buying it for the Availability Groups feature.

In addition to the cost associated with Availability Groups, there are a number of other technical reasons why you might prefer a Failover Cluster over an AG. Application compatibility, instance vs. database level protection, large number of databases, DTC support, trained staff, etc., are just some of the technical reasons why you may want to stick with a Failover Cluster Instance.

SIOS DataKeeper Solution Vs S2D For SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances 

Microsoft lists both the SIOS DataKeeper solution and the S2D solution as two of the supported solutions for SQL Server FCI in their documentation here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sql/virtual-machines-windows-sql-high-availability-dr

When comparing the two solutions, you have to take into account that SIOS has been allowing you to build SANless Clusters since 1999. But the S2D For SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances is still in its infancy.  Having said that, there are bound to be some areas where S2D has some catching up to do. Or, simply features that they will never support simply due to the limitations with the technology.

Before Choosing Your SANless Cluster Solution

Have a look at the following table for an overview of some of the things you should consider before you choose your SANless cluster solution.

If we go through this chart, we see that SIOS DataKeeper clearly has some significant advantages. For one, DataKeeper supports a much wider range of platforms, going all the way back to Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2. The S2D solution only supports the latest releases of Windows and SQL Server 2016/2017. S2D also requires the Datacenter Edition of Windows, which can add significantly to the cost of your deployment. In addition, SIOS delivers the ONLY HA/DR solution for SQL Server on Linux that works both on-prem and in the cloud.

Analysis Of The Differences

But beyond the cost and platform limitations, I think the most glaring gap comes when we start to consider disaster recovery options for your SANless cluster. Allan Hirt, SQL Server Cluster guru and fellow Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, recently posted about this S2D limitation. In his article Revisiting Storage Spaces Direct and SQL Server FCIs  Allan points out that due to the lack of support for stretching S2D clusters across sites or including an S2D based cluster as a leg in an Always On Availability Group, the best option for DR in the S2D scenario is log shipping!

Don’t get me wrong. Log shipping has been around forever and will probably be around long after I’m gone. But that is taking a HUGE step backwards when we think about all the disaster recovery solutions we have become accustomed to, like multi-site clusters, Availability Groups, etc.

In contrast, the SIOS DataKeeper solution fully supports Always On Availability Groups. Better yet – it can allow you to stretch your FCI across sites to give you the best HA/DR solution you could hope to achieve in terms of RTO/RPO. In an Azure environment, DataKeeper also support Azure Site Recovery (ASR), giving you even more options for disaster recovery.

The rest of this chart is pretty self explanatory. It basically consist of a list hardware, storage and networking requirements that must be met before you can deploy an S2D cluster. An exhaustive list of S2D requirements is maintained here.  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-hardware-requirements

SIOS Datakeeper. What’s Good

The SIOS DataKeeper solution is much more lenient. It supports any locally attached storage and as long as the hardware passes cluster validation, it is a supported cluster configuration. The block level replication solution has been working great ever since 1 Gbps was considered a fast LAN and a T1 WAN connection was considered a luxury.

SANless clustering is particularly interesting for cloud deployments. The cloud does not offer traditional shared storage options for clusters. So for users in the middle of a “lift and shift” to the cloud that want to take their clusters with them they must look at alternate storage solutions. For cloud deployments, SIOS is certified for Azure, AWS and Google and available in the relevant cloud marketplace. While there doesn’t appear to be anything blocking deployment of S2D based clusters in Azure or Google, there is a conspicuous lack of documentation or supportability statements from Microsoft for those platforms.

Make A Safe Choice

SIOS DataKeeper has been doing this since 1999. SIOS has heard all the feature requests, uncovered all the bugs, and has a rock solid solution for SANless clusters that is time tested and proven. While Microsoft S2D is a promising technology, as a 1st generation product I would wait until the dust settles and some of the feature gap closes before I would consider it for my business critical applications.