Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) in Windows Server 2016 transforms local disks in cluster nodes into a shared, highly available storage pool. This hyper-converged approach eliminates the need for expensive SAN infrastructure for Hyper-V deployments.
Deploying S2D Clusters
An S2D cluster requires a minimum of two nodes (four recommended) with local NVMe, SSD, or HDD drives. The software storage bus creates a distributed storage fabric that mirrors or erasure-codes data across nodes for redundancy.
Tiered storage automatically places frequently accessed data on faster SSDs while keeping cold data on HDDs. This intelligent data placement maximizes performance per dollar, allowing you to use cost-effective spinning drives for the bulk of your storage capacity.
Monitor S2D health through the Health Service and Windows Admin Center. Proactive alerting on drive health, storage pool capacity, and rebalancing operations ensures you address potential issues before they escalate into data availability problems.