File server with deduplication migration

Question

Hello,
I have a File server 2012 R2 with deduplication enabled.
The data volume went down from 11TB to 5TB.
I am planning the migration and I would like to create a new OS with data volume only 5TB.
Robocopy is not dedup aware I am afraid and traditional windows server backup requires a volume with same size?
Is there any way to restore a new disk with optimized disk?
Thank you

Answer 1

Hi,

If an administrator is using XCOPY, for instance, the restoration happens in memory during the backup copy operation. The backup target must be large enough to hold the logical size of the entire dataset because none of the deduplication is retained.

Please check the following article about Backup and restore Dedup volumes:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/hh831600(v=ws.11)

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

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Answer 2

So is there any possible solution or just shrink the virtual disk?

Answer 3

Hi,

I am afraid that we need to reserve enough space on the destination disk.

Shrink the disk may release some free space on the virtual disk.

Best Regards,

Anne