Problem
How to move a physical disk resource to a Storage Foundation disk group resource in Microsoft Failover cluster.
Solution
This process can be used to move any disk information from a basic disk type to a dynamic disk type and maintain cluster functionality and data integrity. It can also be utilized in moving Exchange, SQL, and Oracle data to a dynamic disk group type to allow the expansion of a volume, mirroring, and other advanced volume features.
Note: Before starting this process, verify that the disk to be upgraded meets the minimum requirements to support the dynamic disk type. There must be unallocated free space on the disk to store SFW private region. Below mentioned table describes the free space requirement.
Note: Unallocated free space means it should not
belong to a partition or volume.
| SFW Version |
Unallocated Space
Required |
| SFW 5.x, 6.0 and 6.0.x |
1 MB |
| SFW 6.1 and onwards |
16 MB |
Follow the below mentioned steps to migrate a physical disk resource to SFW dynamic disk group resource:
1) Open the Microsoft Failover Cluster (MS FOC) GUI.
2) Offline any disk dependent applications within the service/application group by right-clicking on the resource and selecting "Take this resource offline", alternatively the service/application group can be taken offline by right-clicking the service/application group and selecting "Take this service or application offline".
3) Highlight the Storage option.
4) All Basic Disks should be displayed here. ****Note::: Disks that are part of Service/Application are grouped together and shown under the Service/Application name.
5) Right click on the disk and select Properties. Select the Dependencies tab in the Properties windows and Delete any dependency if exist. Click Ok to return to Storage option.
6) Right click on the disk and select Remove from <service/application name> option. This will remove the disk from the service group and will be listed under Available Storage group.
7) Right click on the disk and select Delete. This will delete the resource from cluster control and won't delete any data from the disk.
8) Go into SFW VEA console and right click on localhost and select Re-scan.
9) The disks should show with an icon of a blue '
i ' and Status as Offline. Right click on each disk within VEA (under the 'Disk' section) and select the option for 'Online Disk'.
10) Once the disk is online, right click on the disk and select New Dynamic Disk Group option. Proceed through the wizard, provide a name for the disk group, mark the Create cluster group option. Proceed through the wizard and respond appropriately to any prompts / warnings.
11) Once the disk group wizard is complete, expand the Disk Groups section from the left hand panel to find the recently created disk group.
11) Go back to MS FOC GUI.
12) Select the Service/Application Group. Then from the Actions panel select "Add a resource" ==> More Resources ==> Add Volume Manager Disk Group (VMDG).
13) You will notice a new VMDG resource has been added to the group.
14) Right click on the newly created resource and select Properties.
15) In the Properties window, enter an appropriate name for the resource.
16) Then navigate to Properties tab and enter the disk group name in the DiskGroupName value column. ****Note::: Enter the disk group name selected during Step 10.
17) Right Click on the resource and select to bring it online.
18) Re-create any resource dependencies that were removed during Step 5.
Applies To
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
