ReFS (Resilient File System)

[lunadesign]

Does Retrospect support ReFS (introduced in Windows Server 2012 but also apparently usable in Win 8.x and Win 10)?

[Scillonian]

I ran a short test using a temporary ReFS formatted Storage Space Volume on a Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) laptop Client. Retrospect 10.5 Desktop was able to backup and restore without error the ReFS volume.

 

However I did notice that in the Volumes Database the Properties for the ReFS volume show the File System as being unknown.

 

(The test files were two ZIP archives, and ISO and an installation EXE so nothing exotic. The Storage Space was created from two VHDs.)

+	Executing Immediate Backup at 2016-01-16 20:00
	To Backup Set ReFS Test...

-	2016-01-16 20:00:04: Copying ReFS Storage space (S:) on Cinnamon-LT
		2016-01-16 20:00:17: Copying: 6 files (1.0 GB) and 0 hard links
	2016-01-16 20:00:44: Building Snapshot...
		2016-01-16 20:00:56: Copying Snapshot: 1 files (6 KB)
		2016-01-16 20:00:56: Snapshot stored, 6 KB
	2016-01-16 20:00:56: Comparing ReFS Storage space (S:) on Cinnamon-LT
	2016-01-16 20:01:19: Execution completed successfully
		Completed: 6 files, 1.0 GB
		Performance: 2404.8 MB/minute (2114.6 copy, 2787.4 compare)
		Duration: 00:01:15 (00:00:23 idle/loading/preparing)

+	Executing Restore from Backup at 2016-01-16 20:07
	2016-01-16 20:07:23: Connected to Cinnamon-LT
	To volume ReFS Storage space (S:) on Cinnamon-LT...

-	2016-01-16 20:07:23: Restoring from ReFS Test, Snapshot Cinnamon-LT, 2016-01-16 20:00:04
		2016-01-16 20:08:12: Creating folders
		2016-01-16 20:08:12: Finished creating 4 folders
	2016-01-16 20:08:12: Execution completed successfully
		Completed: 4 files, 1.0 GB
		Performance: 1304.7 MB/minute
		Duration: 00:00:49 (00:00:02 idle/loading/preparing)

[lunadesign]

Neat....thanks for trying this out.

 

My understanding is that ReFS implements many of the core filesystem APIs that NTFS does but doesn't implement some others. So it's possible that Retrospect "just works" without the Retrospect developers having to add any specific code for ReFS. The trick is whether or not Retrospect requires any of the NTFS features that are not implemented in ReFS. Perhaps the "what type of volume is this?" relies on one of those unimplemented features.

 

I'd feel a lot better if Retrospect listed it in their support matrix since they do list 8 / 10 / 2012 and 2012 R2 in their OS support list.