Linbit WinDRBD V1.0.0 Bringing HA Clusters for Windows Server

After almost 5 years in the making, LinBit announces the official launch of WinDRBD 1.0.0.

It is the port of the DRBD Linux kernel driver and user space utilities to the Windows family of OSs. It allows one to build HA clusters on Windows server and client platforms.

It provides its storage volumes as regular SCSI disks, making it compatible with most Windows applications. As it is a kernel driver, applications like SQL Server and Hyper-V can be made highly available in a cluster of Windows nodes.

It is wire compatible with the Linux version, so one can also build mixed setups replicating data between Linux and Windows machines. In addition, it enables booting Windows clients from one or more Linux servers, thereby realizing diskless thin clients running on Windows 10 (and in the future Windows 11).

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Philipp Reisner, CEO, Linbit, says: “I am proud and glad that WinDRBD reaches the 1.0 milestone. This is an important step in the journey. One of the next steps will bring LINSTOR to the Windows platform as well.“

Johannes Thoma, developer of WinDRBD, explains: “The Linux kernel compatibility layer allows us to use the original Linux DRBD sources inside the Windows NT kernel. With this layer, we are able to always use the most recent DRBD sources for WinDRBD. It implements kernel mechanisms such as threads, wait queues, spinlocks and a network socket API. Therefore, this compatibility layer may as well be used to port other drivers from Linux to Windows.”

Resources:
Read Johannes’ mailing list announcement in its original statement.
DRBD documentation