This
document describes the best practices for the Dell Storage with Microsoft
Storage Spaces (DSMS) solution. The DSMS is a software-defined storage
(SDS) platform that uses Microsoft Storage Spaces and Dell servers,
storage, and networking. You can deploy and configure the DSMS solution
as a Scale-Out File Server (SOFS) or as a Converged solution.
When you configure the DSMS solution as a SOFS, the compute
workloads are disaggregated from the storage. The compute workloads
use Server Message Block (SMB) to access SOFS file shares on the storage
nodes, which are direct SAS attached to the storage enclosures and
provisioned and protected by clustered Storage Spaces.
Alternatively, you can configure the DSMS solution as
a Converged solution. In this implementation, SOFS is not used and
the compute workloads now run directly on the servers, which are direct
SAS-attached to the storage enclosures. Clustered Storage Spaces are
used to provision and protect the shared storage, which is used to
store all the compute workload data.
This document is intended to support DSMS configurations, which have
unique solution SKUs called Solution IDs. These DSMS solution IDs
are required when ordering a DSMS configuration, and to access the
benefits such as performance and sizing, optimized server and storage
components, single-payload updates, and solution-level technical
support. If you are in a geographical area outside of the US, the
solution IDs are not available at this time. However, you may reference
the configuration name instead. For the complete list of configuration
solution IDs, see
Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Configurations
and Solution IDs
available at Dell Tech Center.
Figure 1. The correct
solution ID connects you to all the solution has to offer, including
Dell Services and Support.
![This image shows the correct solution ID that connects you to all the solution has to offer, including Dell Services and Support.](https://dl.dell.com/topics//dsms_bpg_pub-v2/images/GUID-0CD11C16-A256-40DD-B9D4-EA26B5B573A4-low.jpg)