Storage Spaces and ReFS

Hi, I'm looking to implement a file server with Server 2012 R2 and wanted to test Storage Spaces (SS) with ReFS. I understand with SS, I can setup my disks as simple or mirror. If I do simple and then format using ReFS with parity, do I get the equivalent of RAID5?

What is the purpose of using mirror under SS and then reformatting using ReFS with parity? Wouldn't that be double redundancy - at the SS level and also at ReFS level?

Can someone help me understand how SS and ReFS work together?

Thanks, Hammer8

There is no such thing as formatting ReFS with parity. All of the configuration you're thinking of is done at the Storage Spaces level.

The best way to look at ReFS is as a rework or extension to NTFS. The Simple/Mirror/Parity configuration all happens at the Storage Spaces Level as GMcDonnell has stated.

Define a "Pool" of disks, HotSpares (if used) are configured at this level if i recall correctly.

Provision a Virtual Disk on this pool, you may sparse provision or define a fixed size disk at this layer, Simple/Mirror/Parity are configured at this level and set at creation time of a virtual disk (any additional tweaking to mirror and stripe configuration can be done at creation time on this layer).

A virtual disk appears as a device in disk manager, at this level you may partition this virtual disk into whatever configuration you choose as well as select file system. Keep in mind that as of S2012 (not sure in R2) ReFS' auto-correction of corrupt files would only work if the underlying virtual disk was of type "mirror". I may be mistaken on that, but that was my understanding when i last looked into it.