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No disk viewable in Windows 2008 Failover cluster Manager

Fabrice_GASNIER
Not applicable

Hi all,

I'm facing a strange problem and I need you to understand what appends.

 

I've got two servers runing Windows 2008-x64 Datacenter.

I first install the Windows 2008 Feature "Failover Cluster"

Both are connected to a SINGLE SAN via Fibber Chanel adapters Dual Path.

After installing "Veritas Storage Foundation 5.1 HA for Windows" all disks in the SAN are seen twince on each server : one for each path.

Then, I install the Windows 2008 feature : "MPIO"

After the reboot, each disk is seen ONCE in "Veritas Enterprise Administrator", that's OK.

 

The purpose of the cluster is actually only to ensure file servicing. So, I've got to create a simple disk that can be hold by either one or another server.

 

To do that, I go to "Veritas Enterprise Administrator" and connect to one of the servers.

I right click on "Disk Groups" and select " New Dynamic Disk Group"

I give a name to the group : "Mirrored-01" and check "Create cluster group". All other options (Add private group protection and create Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group" are grayed then).

I select 6 disks of same size from the SAN, click "Add" and then Click "Next" then "Next" (confirm) then "Finish".

Now, the new disk group appears as

Status : Imported

Unallocated : 158Gb

Type : Dynamic (Cluster)

 

In the Microsoft's Disk Manager, all 6 disks now appears as "Dynamic Invalid"

Failover Cluster Manager says : "Storage : No disk available"

 

Now, I right click on the new disk-group and select "New Volume"

I keep "Auto select disks" and click "Next"

I give a name to the volume : "Volume-01"

Layout : concatenated

Mirror : Mirrored (Checked)

Logging : (Unchecked), "no logging"

Click on "Max Size": 80996.766 MB   (that is 3*each disk size, mirroring get the 3 other disks)

Click "Next"

Assign a drive letter : "D:"

Click "Next"

Format "NTFS"

Perform a quick Format

Click "Next" then "Finish"

 

After few seconds, the new Volume is created and accessible via "Explorer"

Microsoft Server Manager "Disk Management" still see the 6 disks as "Dynamic Invalid"

Failover Cluster Manager stil says : "Storage : No disk available" Smiley Sad

 

Here is my question ...

 

What should I do to see my "Volume-01" in the "Failover Cluster Manager" console ?

7 REPLIES 7

M__Braun
Level 5
Employee

> I first install the Windows 2008 Feature "Failover Cluster"

> After installing "Veritas Storage Foundation 5.1 HA for Windows"

 

Is there any reason you install two different cluster products on the same hardware?

 

Regards

 

Manuel

SummerA
Level 2
I have the same problem with Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows 5.1 and MS Server 2008. I create a new dynamic disk groups as cluster disk groups (as i did successfully with VSF 5.0 on Server 2003), but these disk disk not visible under Failover Cluster Management, only on "Explorer".
Only disks outside dynamic diskgroups are visible for Cluster Management. Any suggestions?

Regards

Andy

McHammer
Level 3
Is EMC2 DMX, perhaps, your Storage Area Network?

rhanley
Level 4
Hello,
    Here are my suggestions....

1. Make sure you are installing the Storage Foundation for Windows 5.1 product and not the Storage Foundation HA for Windows 5.1. If you did install the HA version, you will need to uninstall the HA software and install the SFW (non-HA) version and install the MSCS (i.e. Failover Cluster) option that is available.

2. Disks that make up a Dynamic Disk Group will show as invalid in LDM (Logicial Disk Manager/Windows Disk Manager). This is normal as you can only view or configure disks that are in the Basic Group (as seen in VEA) in Windows Disk Manager.

3. You will need to add a new resource (new resource > other > volume  manager disk group) and provide your Disk Group name in the Windows Failover Cluster console.

I hope this helps.

-rhanley

SummerA
Level 2
Hey guys,

thanx for the input. I could successfully add disks in the cluster manager, but ONLY in the command line:

cluster res <resname> /create /type:"Volume Manager Disk Group" /group:"group name"
cluster res <resname> /priv diskgroupname=<DG-Name from Veritas>
cluster res <resname> /ON

This could not be done in the GUI. Also the Disk Management has not been replaced with Veritas Disk Manager (like it was with Server 2003)

Is this a bug or a feature?

Installations is not HA..

SummerA
Level 2
Hey,

once more again! If i convert a LUN (from a configured dynamic disk in veritas) in the windows volume manager to a basic disk (i see the disks as dynamic), the cluster could be destroyed!! This is really F***!!  :(

In server 2003 this was prevented by replacing the windows volume manger with Veritas volume manager... Why not in server 2008???
Or is it my configuration failure??

Andy

rhanley
Level 4
Hi Andy,
   SFW and LDM now co-exist on Windows Server 2008.

When a W2K8 server with SFW is started, the vxio driver for SFW claims all of the partitions on SFW dynamic disks, so LDM should not show SFW dynamic disks at all.

If you start with a basic disk that LDM sees and upgrade it to SFW dynamic, LDM still sees the disk. LDM recognizes the disk as dynamic because of the type 0x42 partition on it. There is nothing we can do about LDM's Convert to Basic command in this case.

LDM's view of SFW dynamic disks and volumes will improve a lot in SFW 5.1 SP1. SP1 will include a VDS plug-in that lets LDM correctly display SFW dynamic disks and volumes. LDM operations on SFW dynamic disks and volumes will be forwarded to SFW.

But until Microsoft allows SFW to use a different partition type for dynamic volumes, there will always be an occasional situation in which operations from LDM can interfere with SFW. SP1 will address that issue by offering an option to disable the LDM GUI (not LDM itself, just the UI).

SP1 is currently slated for an end of the year release. Until that time, you will need to make sure that users do not attempt to convert SFW disks to basic through LDM, and leave them as-is (showing as invalid).

I hope this helps.

rjhanley