ReFS - brief explanation

The most widely used file system today within the Windows environment is called NTFS, a successor to FAT32. NTFS began widespread use with Windows 2000 and XP and is since it's introduction the standard file system for all Windows Operating Systems.

QlikView is heavily dependent on the file system. For instance, looking into the Release Notes for the current releases one can read: Network Storage Devices other than Microsoft Windows based shares are known to cause system instability and are not currently supported.

This means that if a customer has a NAS/SAN with other than Windows-based shares, i.e. simulated NTFS rights, it might not work. QlikView work very closely to this level of the OS, and thus is very dependent on the file system.

With Windows Server 2012, Microsoft has introduced a new file system, ReFS.

ReFS stands for Resilient File System  meaning that it is a file system designed to be able to handle disturbances or an unstable environment.
It is very compatible with NTFS, and the improved resiliency and scalability compared to its predecessor NTFS is greatly improved. It also has verification and autocorrect features, thus the idea behind a fully configured ReFS system is that it never needs to go offline.

As disks containing ReFS can't be bootable (i.e. you can't start Windows from it), it is not a full replacement or a competitor to NTFS, rather a completion.
It is not available in Windows 8, meaning it is a server side only file system. NTFS disks cannot be converted to ReFS, without loosing file content on the disk.

Windows Server 2008 R2 or any earlier OS does not support ReFS.

Customers might be starting to use ReFS for their documents, as the resilience might be of interest in datacenters and/or storage solutions.
However, QlikView does NOT support ReFS. There is no current plans to support it either, as of QlikView 12.40