As we are expecting final release of Windows Server 2025 we can take a look at Stretched cluster capability in combination with Storage Spaces Direct (S2D).

In this quick demo I have setup a 4 node S2D stretched cluster between two Active Directory Sites and Services subnets (as Failover Cluster is using subnets in ADDS to determine in which site nodes are residing).

In my case I have Default First Site Name (Ljubljana) and another site called Portoroz. In Ljubljana our nodes are in segment 10.5.1.0/24 and in Portoroz in 10.5.2.0/24

We have two virtual machines located in a dedicated (stretched) VLAN (5) so they are in same subnet no matter on which node they are running.

Two VMs have IPs: 10.5.5.111 (vm1) and 10.5.5.112 (vm2) that I am live migrating to remote nodes (sitebn1 / sitebn2).

We have two options on how to deploy and use such scenario – we can use it in active / active mode so VMs and CSVs are on both sites and CSVs (synchronous) replicated to other pair of nodes. There is also the possibility to use it in active / passive mode so by just replicating CSVs from site 1 to site 2.

For demo purposes I have reduced the time that cluster starts its processes to establish availability of failed resources from 240 (4 minutes) seconds to 10 seconds.
Value of 240 seconds is there since Windows Server 2016 and introduction of so called compute resiliency that allowed this 4 minutes for nodes to return from let say network outage or something like that. You can reduce this timer by using Powershell:

(Get-Cluster).ResiliencyDefaultPeriod = ValueInSeconds

In the video you can see that I am live migrating VM first to site 2 and afterwards turning off the nodes in site 2. In around 15 seconds VM2 is available again this time on CSV (volume02) that was brought online on site 1.

I think this concept can be interesting for many customers and I am really looking forward for the final release of Windows Server 2025! Good job, Microsoft!