We are looking to deploy a new file server cluster, one of the things of which to be stored on it, will be Server 2012 R2 remote desktop User Profile Disks (UPDs).
My question is, is it best practice to store these on a standard file server cluster, or on a scale out file server cluster (SOFS).
My understanding is, that SOFS is intended for Hyper-V vmdk files as they are constantly open and that is the intent of SOFS. It is not intended for standard files and folders that have a high number of metadata changes.
As user profile disks will be long opened files and not ones that are constantly opened and closed, I would have thought they would be best placed on a SOFS cluster.
Hoping someone can point me in the direction of best practices for user profiles disks on a file server cluster, and what type should be used.
Best Answer
SOFS isn't expected to work with anything except supported scenarios: Hyper-V VMs, and SQL Server databases. Reason is simple: SOFS uses CA (Continuously Available) File Shares and these "guys" aren't cached, so "general purpose" file access performance is going to be mediocre at best.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/clausjor/2012/06/07/smb-transparent-failover-making-file-shares-continuously-available/
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831349(v=ws.11).aspx