UPDATE 2 – 2017/02/06

DO NOT INSTALL KB3216755 if you don’t need it.  Huge memory leak reported to associated with this. If you need it I’d consider all my options.

UPDATE – GET KB3216755

As you can read it the comments, Microsoft reached out and confirms the issues are fixed as part of KB3216755 => https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011347/windows-10-update-kb3216755 . I commend them for responding so quickly and getting it sorted. Do not that at the time of writing this (late on January 30th CET) the Windows Sever 2016 update isn’t in the Windows Catalog yet, only the Windows 10 ones. But Microsoft confirms you should install the update  on their blog

Windows Server 2016 Data Deduplication users: please install KB3216755!

The issue

Good morning. A quick blog post to give a heads up to my readers who might not be subscribed to Anton Gostev (Veeam) his “The Word Form Gostev”. It concerns a warning on Windows Server 2016 Deduplication corruption.

There are multiple reports of data corruption with Windows Server 2016 deduplication. One is related to file sizes over 2TB. The other with the loss of checksum values. Microsoft is aware these issues and a fix is coming for these issues.

I quote Gostev

I’ve already received the official confirmation from Microsoft that this is the know issue (ID 10165851) which is scheduled to be addressed in the next Windows Server 2016 servicing update. There are actually two separate issues, both leading to file corruption when using deduplication on very large files. One issue occurs when files grow to 2.2TB or larger, and another one causes loss of checksums for files with “smaller sizes” – this is the actual wording of the official note, so I have no idea how small

What to do?

If you use Windows Server 2016 deduplication for backups, create new full backups regularly. Also make sure you do backup integrity testing and restore tests. Follow up on the update when it arrives.

If you use the for production data make sure you have frequent and validated backups! Design & operate under the mantra of “Trust but verify”.

Also, we’ve heard reports and noticed that Windows Server 2016 Deduplication resource configuration isn’t always respected. I.e. it can take all resources away despite limitations being set. We hope a fix for this is also under way.