Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Best Practices Guide

There are two different versions of Windows Server supported with DSMS solutions—Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition and Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition. The primary difference between the two editions, as it applies to the DSMS solution, is the licensing for the guest operating systems in the VMs. Standard Edition enables you to install 2012 R2 on the host and up to two VMs. Datacenter Edition enables you to install 2012 R2 on the host and unlimited VMs.

For Scale-Out File Server configurations, VMs are not installed on the storage nodes; therefore, it is recommended to use Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition.

For Converged configurations, the operating system edition selected depends on whether the solution will be running VMs. If you intend to run VMs, Datacenter Edition on the servers is often the best value because it enables you install unlimited VMs running 2012 R2. However, if you do not intend to run VMs with the solution and will be running other applications or workloads then Standard Edition may be more cost effective.