Managing storage with Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows II

This is part 2, in a series of posts about managing storage with Veritas SFW. In this part we will look at how to create Dynamic Disk Groups, and how to add Volume Manager Disk Groups as a resource in a Microsoft Failover Cluster. Microsoft Failover Clusters do not support dynamic disks natively, so if you want to use dynamic disks, you need to use Veritas SFW to create the dynamic disks, and then import those disks as a resource in the Cluster, so you can utilize those disks.

If you are going to use hardware based RAID solutions, then you don’t need to rely on dynamic disks in the failover cluster. But if you are going to utilize software based RAID solutions, then you’ll obviously need to use dynamic disks.

If you need to know how to install Symantec Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows, you can check out the previous entries on how to perform the installation, on Server 2008R2 or Server 2012.

Managing storage with Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

 1. Creating Dynamic Disk Groups

1.1 In Veritas Enterprise Administrator, select the disks you want to include in the Dynamic Disk Group, right-click → New Dynamic Disk Group

1.2 On the first page of the Wizard, click Next

1.3 On the next page, give the Dynamic Disk Group a name, then choose one of the optional choices if you want, finally click Next. As you can see the disks you selected, have already been listed as selected disks, you don’t need to select disks again. Since I am going to utilize the Dynamic Disk Group in a Failover Cluster, I have selected to create the group as a Cluster Group.

Cluster Dynamic Disk Group – Creates a cluster dynamic disk group that can be used with VCS or Microsoft Failover Cluster. If you want to utilize the Dynamic Disk Group in a Failover Cluster, you must choose this option.

Add Private Group Protection – The feature of private dynamic disk group protection makes it possible to partition shared storage with a regular dynamic disk group.

Create Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group – Instead of creating a Volume Manager Disk Group, you will create a MS Disk Management Disk Group.

Disk Name(s) Prefix – For example, entering TestGroup as the prefix for a disk group that contains three disks creates TestGroup1, TestGroup2, and TestGroup3 as internal names for the disks in the disk group.

1.4 Click Next

1.5 And finally click Finish

1.6 The Dynamic Disk Group will be created.

2. Adding Volume Manager Disk Group as a Resource in MS Failover cluster

Obviously, after creating  the dynamic disk group, you would first create dynamic volumes on it, and then add it as a resource in a Microsoft Failover Cluster. But I will cover everything related to Dynamic Disk Groups in this blog post, so we’ll just go ahead and add the Dynamic Disk Group we created as a resource in a MS Failover Cluster.

2.1 On Server 2008 R2

2.1.1 In Failover Cluster Manager, right-click Services and Applications → More Actions → Create Empty Service or Application
An empty Service will be created, called New Service or Application

2.1.2 Take New Service or Application offline.
2.1.3 Then right-click New Service or Application → Add a resource → More resources → 9 – Add Volume Manager Disk Group

If you don’t see option 9, Add Volume Manager Disk Group, its because you have installed Veritas SFW before having created a Microsoft Failover Cluster. The easiest way to fix this is to remove the Microsoft Failover Cluster option from the Veritas SFW installation, and then re-add it, by using Programs and Features in Control Panel.

2.1.4 Right-click New Volume Manager Disk Group → Properties

2.1.5 On the General Tab of the properties sheet, give the Disk a name, so you can distinguish it from other disks more easily.
Here I have called it PrintServerdisk

2.1.6 Now navigate to Properties tab. On DiskGroupName, give it the same name, as you gave the Dynamic Disk Group in step 1.3, as you might remember we named it DG01. Then click Apply and OK.

2.1.7 Now bring New Service or Application online

2.1.8 As you can see, it has now been brought online, and also the Disk contained within it has been brought online

2.1.9 Now we need to remove the Disk from the New Service or Application, so we can make it available to other services on the cluster
Right-click Disk → Remove from New Service or application

2.1.10 Click Yes

2.1.11 The Disk is now listed as Available Storage in the Storage node (as you can see I cheated a little, and had already created a volume on it, but don’t worry, creating volumes will be covered in the next part 🙂 )

2.1.12 Finally remove New Service or Application. Right-click it, choose Delete, choose yes, and it should be history.

 2.2 On Server 2012

2.2.1 In Failover Cluster Manager, right-click Roles → Create Empty Role

2.2.2 Right-click New Role → Stop Role

2.2.3 Right-click Role → More Resources → Volume Manager Disk Group

2.2.4 Choose Resources tab of the New Role

2.2.5 On General tab, give the Disk a name

2.2.6 On the Properties tab, in the DiskGroupName field, write the name of the Dynamic Disk Group. Click Apply and OK.

2.2.7 On Resource tab of New Role, right-click the Volume Manager Disk Group resource you just created, then choose Bring Online

2.2.8 The resource will be brought online, while New Role will start again
2.2.9 Now remove the Volume Manager Disk Group Resource from New Role. Right-click the resource, and choose remove. You will be asked if you are sure, click Yes

2.2.10 Now remove New Role

2.2.11 If you check Disks in Storage node, you will see that the Disk you have added is now Online, and assigned to Available Storage

In Part 3 we will look at creating Dynamic Volumes and the options available during creation of those.

Additional Resources:
Technet: KB2693046
Technet: Dynamic Disks with Windows Server Failover Clustering