Tip of the Day: Improvement in NTFS Deduplication

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Today’s Tip…

In Windows Server 2012, NTFS deduplication was introduced.  In Windows Server 2012 R2 we made some improvements.  I submitted a tip a while back about how to use the new Expand-DedupFile cmdlet to re-inflate a deduplicated file.  But there is another improvement of note that I’d like to mention here.

Originally, deduplication targeted large, closed files.  This was improved upon by allowing the deduplication of VHDs that are being used in conjunction with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).  This is done by deduplicating only the cold (unchanged) ranges of the VHD file.  This results in huge storage space savings for customers utilizing VDI.