Deduplication Use Cases (Post-Processing)

Post-processing data deduplication offers benefits such as lower storage space requirements and more efficient disk space use. Deduplication can optimize storage and reduce the amount of disk space consumed—when applied to the right data. Deduplication savings will vary widely based on the data type.

Generally, good candidates for deduplication are files that have plenty of duplication, are accessed less frequently, and have relatively static content. Poor candidates are files that change often and are constantly accessed by users or applications.

Good Candidates for Deduplication

  • General file shares: for example, group content publication and sharing, user home folders, and folder redirection/off-line files
  • Software deployment shares: for example, software binaries, images, and updates
  • Virtualization depot or provisioning library: for example, templates for virtual machines and virtual desktops, as well as virtual hard disk (VHD) file storage for provisioning to hypervisors
  • Database backup volumes: for example, SQL Server and Exchange Server backup volumes

Candidates that should be evaluated based on content:

  • Line-of-business servers
  • Static content providers
  • Web servers

Deduplication is not recommended for:

  • Hypervisors (other than virtual hard disks and machine templates)
  • Servers running Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), also known as Software Update Services (SUS)
  • Servers running live databases: for example, Exchange Server or SQL Servers
  • Virtual desktop instances

Deduplication is not supported for files that are open and constantly changing for extended periods of time or have high I/O requirements.

Post-processing deduplication is not supported and has not been tested for combined use with the following software features: