Raid 1 Mirror Storage Spaces

Hello,
I create a Storage Spaces RAID 1 mirroring pool with two identical SATA Hard Disks. If I pull only ONE of the disks and connect it to another computer SATA connector with Windows 8 or Server 2012 installed OS, is the data readable on this computer?
If I put this disk on a hard disk enclosure (USB enclosure) am I be able to see the files on this disk, because doing mirroring in Windows 7 creates a dynamic disk that can't be connected afterwards on a USB enclosure in order to see the data on it. Has
this limitation been overcomed from Windows Server 2012.
Thank you

Hi, 
I did that on my test machine. I can read database on the PhysicalDisk when attach it to another Windows Server 2012 computer. 
Firstly, create a storage pool with two PhysicalDisks on a Windows Server 2012 computer. Then create a mirror virtual disk and new a volume save soma files on the volume.
After that, remove a PhysicalDisk from the first server and connect it to another Windows Server 2012 computer. System recognize the PhysicalDisk as a storage pool. The storage pool need to be set to read-write then attach virtual disk. In disk management,
set the virtual disk to online, then we could read the file on the saved on the PhysicalDisk.
As I did my test on my virtual machine and the PhysicalDisk is a virtual hard disk, you may need to do a test on your machine.
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Similar Messages

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  • Storage Space - Inaccessible, reconnect drives

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    OperationalStatus                : OK
    HealthStatus                     : Healthy
    BusType                          : USB
    CannotPoolReason                 : In a Pool
    SupportedUsages                  : {Auto-Select, Manual-Select, Hot Spare, Retired...}
    MediaType                        : UnSpecified
    ObjectId                         : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_PhysicalDisk.Objec
                                       tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:PD:{772e2d6a-f0f7-11e1-be68-806e6f6e6963
    PassThroughClass                 :
    PassThroughIds                   :
    PassThroughNamespace             :
    PassThroughServer                :
    UniqueId                         : USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Seagate&Prod_Portable&Rev_0130\2GHY5YD1____&0:office-pc
    AllocatedSize                    : 956435529728
    CanPool                          : False
    Description                      :
    DeviceId                         : 2
    EnclosureNumber                  :
    FirmwareVersion                  : 0130
    FriendlyName                     : Seagate Portable USB Device
    IsIndicationEnabled              :
    IsPartial                        : False
    LogicalSectorSize                : 512
    Manufacturer                     : Seagate
    Model                            : Portable       
    OtherCannotPoolReasonDescription :
    PartNumber                       :
    PhysicalLocation                 :
    PhysicalSectorSize               : 512
    SerialNumber                     : 2GHY5YD1           
    Size                             : 999385202688
    SlotNumber                       :
    SoftwareVersion                  :
    SpindleSpeed                     : 4294967295
    PSComputerName                   :
    CimClass                         : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_PhysicalDisk
    CimInstanceProperties            : {ObjectId, PassThroughClass, PassThroughIds, PassThroughNamespace...}
    CimSystemProperties              : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
    Usage                            : Auto-Select
    OperationalStatus                : OK
    HealthStatus                     : Healthy
    BusType                          : USB
    CannotPoolReason                 : In a Pool
    SupportedUsages                  : {Auto-Select, Manual-Select, Hot Spare, Retired...}
    MediaType                        : UnSpecified
    ObjectId                         : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_PhysicalDisk.Objec
                                       tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:PD:{795ec931-3b3a-11e2-be6d-00247e572b92
    PassThroughClass                 :
    PassThroughIds                   :
    PassThroughNamespace             :
    PassThroughServer                :
    UniqueId                         : USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Seagate&Prod_Expansion&Rev_0215\NA41HDPW&0:office-pc
    AllocatedSize                    : 956435529728
    CanPool                          : False
    Description                      :
    DeviceId                         : 1
    EnclosureNumber                  :
    FirmwareVersion                  : 0215
    FriendlyName                     : Seagate Expansion USB Device
    IsIndicationEnabled              :
    IsPartial                        : False
    LogicalSectorSize                : 512
    Manufacturer                     : Seagate
    Model                            : Expansion      
    OtherCannotPoolReasonDescription :
    PartNumber                       :
    PhysicalLocation                 :
    PhysicalSectorSize               : 512
    SerialNumber                     :             NA41HDPW
    Size                             : 999385202688
    SlotNumber                       :
    SoftwareVersion                  :
    SpindleSpeed                     : 4294967295
    PSComputerName                   :
    CimClass                         : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_PhysicalDisk
    CimInstanceProperties            : {ObjectId, PassThroughClass, PassThroughIds, PassThroughNamespace...}
    CimSystemProperties              : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
    Usage                            : Auto-Select
    OperationalStatus                : OK
    HealthStatus                     : Healthy
    BusType                          : SATA
    CannotPoolReason                 : Insufficient Capacity
    SupportedUsages                  : {Auto-Select, Manual-Select, Hot Spare, Retired...}
    MediaType                        : UnSpecified
    ObjectId                         : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_PhysicalDisk.Objec
                                       tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:PD:{ad47423f-540b-5a97-e386-ceff1f53db31
    PassThroughClass                 :
    PassThroughIds                   :
    PassThroughNamespace             :
    PassThroughServer                :
    UniqueId                         : SCSI\Disk&Ven_FUJITSU&Prod_MHZ2120BH_G1\4&33c29369&0&000000:office-pc
    AllocatedSize                    : 120034123776
    CanPool                          : False
    Description                      :
    DeviceId                         : 0
    EnclosureNumber                  :
    FirmwareVersion                  : 0084000A
    FriendlyName                     : PhysicalDisk0
    IsIndicationEnabled              :
    IsPartial                        : True
    LogicalSectorSize                : 512
    Manufacturer                     :
    Model                            : FUJITSU MHZ2120BH G1
    OtherCannotPoolReasonDescription :
    PartNumber                       :
    PhysicalLocation                 :
    PhysicalSectorSize               : 512
    SerialNumber                     :         K60VT9226KWM
    Size                             : 120034123776
    SlotNumber                       :
    SoftwareVersion                  :
    SpindleSpeed                     : 4294967295
    PSComputerName                   :
    CimClass                         : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_PhysicalDisk
    CimInstanceProperties            : {ObjectId, PassThroughClass, PassThroughIds, PassThroughNamespace...}
    CimSystemProperties              : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
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    OperationalStatus                 : OK
    HealthStatus                      : Healthy
    ProvisioningTypeDefault           : Fixed
    SupportedProvisioningTypes        : {Thin, Fixed}
    ReadOnlyReason                    : None
    RepairPolicy                      : Sequential
    RetireMissingPhysicalDisks        : Auto
    WriteCacheSizeDefault             : Auto
    FileSystem                        : Unknown
    Version                           : Windows Server 2012
    ObjectId                          : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_StoragePool.Objec
                                        tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:SP:{47405101-f1b2-11e1-be68-00247e572b9
                                        2}"
    PassThroughClass                  :
    PassThroughIds                    :
    PassThroughNamespace              :
    PassThroughServer                 :
    UniqueId                          : {47405101-f1b2-11e1-be68-00247e572b92}
    AllocatedSize                     : 1912871059456
    ClearOnDeallocate                 : False
    EnclosureAwareDefault             : False
    FriendlyName                      : StoragePool
    IsClustered                       : False
    IsPowerProtected                  : False
    IsPrimordial                      : False
    IsReadOnly                        : False
    LogicalSectorSize                 : 4096
    Name                              :
    OtherOperationalStatusDescription :
    OtherUsageDescription             :
    PhysicalSectorSize                : 4096
    ResiliencySettingNameDefault      : Mirror
    Size                              : 1998770405376
    SupportsDeduplication             : False
    ThinProvisioningAlertThresholds   : {70}
    WriteCacheSizeMax                 : 107374182400
    WriteCacheSizeMin                 : 0
    PSComputerName                    :
    CimClass                          : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_StoragePool
    CimInstanceProperties             : {ObjectId, PassThroughClass, PassThroughIds, PassThroughNamespace...}
    CimSystemProperties               : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
    Usage                             : Other
    OperationalStatus                 : OK
    HealthStatus                      : Healthy
    ProvisioningTypeDefault           : Fixed
    SupportedProvisioningTypes        : {Thin, Fixed}
    ReadOnlyReason                    : None
    RepairPolicy                      : Parallel
    RetireMissingPhysicalDisks        : Auto
    WriteCacheSizeDefault             : Auto
    FileSystem                        : Unknown
    Version                           : Windows Server 2012 R2
    ObjectId                          : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_StoragePool.Objec
                                        tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:SP:{cef39ebf-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e696
                                        3}"
    PassThroughClass                  :
    PassThroughIds                    :
    PassThroughNamespace              :
    PassThroughServer                 :
    UniqueId                          : {cef39ebf-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}
    AllocatedSize                     : 2000137748480
    ClearOnDeallocate                 : False
    EnclosureAwareDefault             : False
    FriendlyName                      : Primordial
    IsClustered                       : False
    IsPowerProtected                  : False
    IsPrimordial                      : True
    IsReadOnly                        : False
    LogicalSectorSize                 :
    Name                              :
    OtherOperationalStatusDescription :
    OtherUsageDescription             :
    PhysicalSectorSize                :
    ResiliencySettingNameDefault      : Mirror
    Size                              : 2120443895296
    SupportsDeduplication             : False
    ThinProvisioningAlertThresholds   : {70}
    WriteCacheSizeMax                 : 107374182400
    WriteCacheSizeMin                 : 0
    PSComputerName                    :
    CimClass                          : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_StoragePool
    CimInstanceProperties             : {ObjectId, PassThroughClass, PassThroughIds, PassThroughNamespace...}
    CimSystemProperties               : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
    Usage                             : Other
    NameFormat                        :
    OperationalStatus                 : Detached
    HealthStatus                      : Unhealthy
    ProvisioningType                  : Thin
    ParityLayout                      : Unknown
    Access                            : Read/Write
    UniqueIdFormat                    : Vendor Specific
    DetachedReason                    : Incomplete
    WriteCacheSize                    : 0
    ObjectId                          : {1}\\OFFICE-PC\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_VirtualDisk.Objec
                                        tId="{cef39ebe-7fba-11e3-8250-806e6f6e6963}:VD:{47405101-f1b2-11e1-be68-00247e572b9
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    PassThroughClass                  :
    PassThroughIds                    :
    PassThroughNamespace              :
    PassThroughServer                 :
    UniqueId                          : 0D514047B2F1E111BE6800247E572B92
    AllocatedSize                     : 955898658816
    FootprintOnPool                   : 1911797317632
    FriendlyName                      : Storage space
    Interleave                        : 262144
    IsDeduplicationEnabled            : False
    IsEnclosureAware                  : False
    IsManualAttach                    : False
    IsSnapshot                        : False
    LogicalSectorSize                 : 4096
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    NumberOfAvailableCopies           :
    NumberOfColumns                   : 1
    NumberOfDataCopies                : 2
    OtherOperationalStatusDescription :
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    PhysicalDiskRedundancy            : 1
    PhysicalSectorSize                : 4096
    RequestNoSinglePointOfFailure     : False
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    UniqueIdFormatDescription         :
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    CimClass                          : ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage:MSFT_VirtualDisk
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    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

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    1) Yes, being slow either on reads or on writes is a quite common situation for storage spaces. See references (with some of the solutions I hope):
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/thread/a58f8fce-de45-4032-a3ef-f825ee39b96e/
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2012/10/10/windows-server-2012-storage-spaces-is-it-for-you-could-be.aspx
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserver8gen/thread/64aff15f-2e34-40c6-a873-2e0da5a355d2/
    and this one is my favorite putting a lot of light on the issue:
    http://helgeklein.com/blog/2012/03/windows-8-storage-spaces-bugs-and-design-flaws/
    2) Issues with SATA-to-SAS hardware is also very common. See:
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverClustering/thread/5d4f68b7-5fc4-4a3c-8232-a2a68bf3e6d2
    StarWind iSCSI SAN & NAS

  • Clustered Storage Spaces - 3 disk minimum for 2-way mirror?

    Why will a 2 disk, 1 column, 2-way mirrored space work fine outside of a cluster? Yet, when I want to use clustered storage spaces I need a minimum of 3 physical disks for a 2-way mirrored space? Killing me...
    I mean if I add 2 additional disks and do a 4 disk, 2 column, 2-way mirrored space it's ok. What would be the purpose of using 3 disks as a minimum?
    Thanks,
    Scott

    Hi,
    Could you please give us more detailed explanation to help us understand your question?
    “Cluster storage space” did you mean “Cluster Share Volume” for Hyper-V Cluster?
    What did you mean “mirrored space”, did you mean software mirrored volume? For a cluster, we recommend you use a shared storage and configure disk fault tolerance with hardware RAID.
    Give us more information of your questions for further troubleshooting.
    For more information please refer to following MS articles:
    Mirrored Volumes
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938487.aspx
    How to Configure a Clustered Storage Space in Windows Server 2012
    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/06/02/10314262.aspx
    Understanding Requirements for Failover Clusters
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771404.aspx
    Hope this helps!
    TechNet Subscriber Support
    If you are
    TechNet Subscription user and have any feedback on our support quality, please send your feedback
    here.
    Lawrence
    TechNet Community Support

  • Tiered Storage Spaces with LSI RAID Controller 9260-8i (no JBOD) - Performance Drop

    Hello
    I have a Lab-Server with a LSI-Raid-Controller 9260-8i and 2x 256GB SSDs / 6x 600GB HDDs. First I configured the LSI-Raid-Controller with a RAID 1 (2x 600GB HDD) and installed
    Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V Role on this RAID 1. This works just fine. Then I configured the LSI-Raid-Controller with additional 6x "Raid 0 Drive Groups" where each Drive Group has one single physical drive
    in it. And then I created 6 virtual drives out of these 6 Drive Groups. So far so good: my Windows Server 2012 R2 now sees 6 new Harddrives (4x 600GB HDD and 2x 256GB SSD). I then created a Storage Pool out of these 6 drives (with PowerShell /
    assign MediaType SSD/HDD) and on top of the Storage Pool a "Tiered Storage Space" with Mirror Layout (2x 256GB SSDs mirrored and 2x2x 600GBs  HDD mirrored). This gives me a Tiered Storage Space of about 1.3TB. On this Storage
    Space I created a Virtual Drive of 1.3TB capacity. Success!! It seems to work fine.... Even I do not have a Storage-Controller supporting JBOD directly, I was able to create a Tiered Storage Space!!
    Now where's the problem? Fine-Tuning the LSI-Raid-Controller Settings and the resulting
    Disk Performance....
    1) LSI-Raid-Controller: Virtual Drive Properties: What should I choose? Read Policy (Ahead or no) / Write Policy (Write Back with BBU or Write Through) / IO Policy (Direct IO or cached IO) / Disk Cache Policy (enable or disabled or unchanged)
    / Stripe Size (256 KB or ??). Do these settings conflict with the Windows Server Storage Space Layout?
    2) Windows Server Disk Management (under "Disk XY"):  Write Cache Policy? (activate Write Cache on this Device) 
    3) Windows Server Device Manager (under "Drives" - Microsoft Storage Space Device):  Write Cache Policy? (activate Write Cache on this Device)
    4) Performance - Results with Crystal Disk Mark: the inital Results after setting up the Storage were quite good (Seq R: 550 MB/s and W: 590 MB/s //  512K R: 490MB/s and W: 618 MB/s // 4K R: 18MB/s and W: 37 MB/s  //  4KQD32
    R:270 MB/s and W:37 MB/S) But 2 months later the values dropped to: Seq R: 290 MB/s and W: 170 MB/s //  512K R: 120MB/s and W: 239 MB/s // 4K R: 1.5MB/s and W: 31 MB/s  //  4KQD32 R: 9 MB/s and W: 71 MB/S). Huge loss of performance
    - SSD full? 
    5) Since this is a Hyper-V Server I put some VMs on it. The Performance within the VMs has also dropped accordingly. Are there any
    best practices when placing VHDX-Files on  a Tired Storage Space? I could of course assign one or two VHDX-Files directly to the SSD Tier, but actually I don't want that because that would use too much SSD-Space.
    Any Experts on this Subject?
    Mark

    Hi Mark,
    For the settings of the Raid Controller, it is better to confirm with manufacturer for detailed information. As you said these settings will affect with storage space settings.
    From the description you set the 6 disks as 6 RAID0 groups. Is it supported to leave these disks as JBOD and directly add them into a storage space? If Raid settings will affect storage space performance, this could help us avoiding the RAID settings. 
    As data is already written onto the virtual disk, we may not available to recreate it. You could have a try with following PowerShell cmdlet to see if it will work better after optimize. 
    Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter X -TierOptimize
    If you have any feedback on our support, please send to [email protected]

  • Storage spaces simple mirror question

    I just have a simple mirror at the moment, with just two 1tb drives in mirror mode, and it works just fine.  Two things I do wonder.  If one drive fails, I assume the files would be preserved on the other.  I wonder however if it can be plugged
    into another Windows box, a Windows 7 machine for example, and read by that machine, or if it can only be read by the machine on which it was setup?
    I have assumed Storage Spaces was like hardware raid in this way, but now I wonder....

    Hi,
    For mirror mode, it means that Data is duplicated on two or three physical disks, and  this storage layout requires at least two disks to protect you from a single disk failure.
    But you can't view the content in the disk since Storage Spaces records information about pools and storage spaces on the physical disks that compose the storage pool. Therefore, your pool and storage spaces are preserved when you move an entire storage
    pool and its physical disks from one computer to another.
    Windows Server 2012 starts storage that could potentially be shared with a cluster in a safe state. For Storage Spaces, that means the first time Windows connects to a storage pool, the pool starts as read-only and the storage spaces will start in a detached
    state. To access your data, you must set the storage pool to read-write and then attach the storage spaces.
    These steps do not apply to Windows 8 – storage pools start as read-write and storage spaces start as attached.
    Kate Li
    TechNet Community Support

  • 2 Way mirror via Storage Spaces using 2xJBODS

    Looking to setup 2xJBODS connected to a cluster File Servers & use 2-WAY mirror for the pool. Its clear that w. a 2way mirror that it can only handle 2 drives failing before seeing data loss but is that 2 drives between both JBODS or is that 2 driver
    per JBOD? Also I know that if 1 JBOD were to completely go offline that I would need a total of 3 JBODS in order for vms,etc to not be affected but what is the expected behavior. A jbod goes offline and we lose vms but data is not loss? Once the jbod
    comes back data will be back to normal?

    if you are going to mirror the 2 of them yes
    What are the resiliency levels provided by Enclosure Awareness?
     Storage Space Configuration
    All Configurations are enclosure aware
    Enclosure or JBOD Count / Failure Coverage
    Two JBOD
    Three JBOD
    Four JBOD
    2-way Mirror
    1 Disk
    1 Enclosure
    1 Enclosure
      3-way Mirror
    2 disk
    1 Enclosure + 1 Disk
    1 Enclosure + 1 Disk
      Dual Parity
    2 disk
    2 disk
    1 Enclosure + 1 Disk
    REF: Storage Spaces Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
     Storage Spaces, JBODs, and Failover Clustering – A Recipe for Cost-Effective,
    Highly Available Storage
    This post is provided AS IS with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights.
    ~~~
    Questo post non fornisce garanzie e non conferisce diritti

  • How storage spaces mirror onto multiple storage pool drives...

    Tricky question to pose..
    I currently have 2 * 2TB drives in a storage pool.  I have a 2 TB storage space assigned to this pool (lets call them A and B).  I have 2TB of mirrored storage across 4TB of drives.  All is well...
    If I add a third 2TB drive "C" to the storage pool, how will 2-way mirroring work now?  My hope is that it will evenly mirror across each drive in the pool ( 1TB mirrored across A + B, 1TB across A+ C and 1TB across B + C) giving me effectively
    3TB of mirrored storage. 
    If it does work as I hope, does the server rebalance the mirroring?  Say I have already used 1.8GB of storage by the time I add in the 3rd drive, there is only 0.2GB on each of the morrored drives available.  When I add in the 3rd drive, if the
    server does not re-allocate, then I would only gain 0.4GB of storage (0.2GB A+C, 0.2GB B+C) leaving 1.4GB unusable.
    If not as I hoped, how do I make use of the 3rd drive?  I assume the 3rd drive is useless in that pool unless I do 3-way mirroring or I add another 4th drive?
    Thanks,  Mark.

    Tricky question to pose..
    I currently have 2 * 2TB drives in a storage pool.  I have a 2 TB storage space assigned to this pool (lets call them A and B).  I have 2TB of mirrored storage across 4TB of drives.  All is well...
    If I add a third 2TB drive "C" to the storage pool, how will 2-way mirroring work now?  My hope is that it will evenly mirror across each drive in the pool ( 1TB mirrored across A + B, 1TB across A+ C and 1TB across B + C) giving me effectively
    3TB of mirrored storage. 
    If it does work as I hope, does the server rebalance the mirroring?  Say I have already used 1.8GB of storage by the time I add in the 3rd drive, there is only 0.2GB on each of the morrored drives available.  When I add in the 3rd drive, if the
    server does not re-allocate, then I would only gain 0.4GB of storage (0.2GB A+C, 0.2GB B+C) leaving 1.4GB unusable.
    If not as I hoped, how do I make use of the 3rd drive?  I assume the 3rd drive is useless in that pool unless I do 3-way mirroring or I add another 4th drive?
    Thanks,  Mark.
    A Storage Spaces mirror configuration stores 2 copies of each data block on 2 different physical drives.  However, it does not balance the data.  So in your specific example, adding a third drive to a mirror environment won't help much. 
    You would really need to add a fourth 2 TB drive at the same time.
    You can get more info on Storage Spaces here.

  • Storage Spaces UI missing disks when a controller reports the same UniqueID for all attached disks (e.g. Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8)

    Summary: The Storage Spaces UI has several problems when there are more than 21 physical disks available to Storage Spaces.
    I have 28 SATA disks connected over 6 controllers. 2 are used for an Intel motherboard RAID1 for OS (PhysicalDisk0), so that leaves 26 data disks for Storage Spaces. [The plan is to get to 36 data disks in due course by adding disks (this 36-bay chassis: http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/847/SC847A-R1400LP.cfm)]
    Initially, there were 23 data disks (5x 1TB, 1x 640GB, 14x 500GB, 3x 250GB) as PhysicalDisk1-23 (in that order), which I put into a storage pool. I created a parity disk over all 23 disks. It looks like it is working fine, albeit very slowly on writes.
    I've now added 3 more 4TB disks, as PhysicalDisk24-26, and taken them offline, and have now noticed errors in the Storage Pools UI in the Server Manager. For example:
    * No more than 21 disks ever show up in the "Physical Disks" area in the lower right. When the 23 disks are connected, only the first 21 show up in the pool I created. With 26 disks connected, only the first 20 show up in the pool, and only 1 more of the
    new 3 (PhysicalDisk26) shows up in the Primordial group.
    * In the Properties of the parity Virtual Disk created over the 23 disks, the disks are shown incorrectly. Again, only 21 disks are shown, and PhysicalDisk26 is incorrectly shown as part of the virtual disk. See image:
    * Using the New Storage Pool Wizard, I cannot add more than 1 of the new 3 disks to a new Storage Pool (only PhysicalDisk26 is available). And the details incorrectly refer to PhysicalDisk21. See image (a WDC WD2500JD-22H is a 250GB disk, not a 4TB disk).
    Thus I cannot use the new disks in a new storage pool.
    According the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/05/virtualizing-storage-for-scale-resiliency-and-efficiency.aspx:
    Q) What is the minimum number of disks I can use to create a pool? What is the maximum?
    You can create a pool with only one disk. However, such a pool cannot contain any resilient spaces (i.e. mirrored or parity spaces). It can only contain a simple space which does not provide resiliency to failures. We do test pools comprising multiple hundreds
    of disks – such as you might see in a datacenter. There is no architectural limit to the number of disks comprising a pool.
    However, the UI currently does not seem to correctly work with more than 21 physical disks. Please advise.
    Using Server 2012 RC.
    Hardware: Supermicro X8SAX (BIOS v2.0), Intel i7-920 2.67GHz, 6x 2GB DDR3-1333 (certified Crucial CT25664BA1339.16SFD)
    Disk controllers: 2x RAIDCore BC4852 (PCI-X, final 3.3.1 driver) (15 ports used), 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe, 4.0.0.1200 Marvell driver to allow >2TB disks) (6 ports used), Sil 3114 (PCI, latest 1.5.20.3 driver) (1 port used), motherboard Intel
    in RAID mode (4 ports used for data, plus 2 for OS RAID1).

    An update. I added 16x SATA disks across 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8. All 16 disks report the same UniqueID.
    I have 25 disks in the pool now (23 as parity; 2 as journal added via PowerShell). 10 of these are on the two AOC-SASLP-MV8 controllers. Only the first 16 disks show up in the UI, so 9 are missing from the UI - which is consistent with this UI bug where
    only one disk per UniqueID shows up. PowerShell does work to manage the SS.
    PS C:\Users\administrator.TROUNCE> Get-PhysicalDisk | format-list FriendlyName, UniqueId, ObjectId, BusType
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk6
    UniqueId     : 00280000004000004FB116493C169A1A
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e00-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk7
    UniqueId     : 00280000004000001AE48E5088028D0D
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e02-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk8
    UniqueId     : 002800000040000020C9A6680224E32F
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e04-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk9
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000FDE73E7254A60C4C
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e06-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk23
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e08-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk22
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e0a-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk21
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e0c-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk20
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e0e-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk5
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000272BA74A52309853
    ObjectId     : {7ab3900f-ab87-11e1-bbbd-002590520253}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk19
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e10-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk4
    UniqueId     : 00280000004000009DE164099941430A
    ObjectId     : {7ab39011-ab87-11e1-bbbd-002590520253}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk18
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e12-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk11
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000967EB0559AB4E351
    ObjectId     : {7ab39013-ab87-11e1-bbbd-002590520253}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk17
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e14-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk24
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e16-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk10
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000B22A722C8AD2557B
    ObjectId     : {df23f916-c19f-11e1-bbf5-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk16
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000DA4D24536A847E52
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e19-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk15
    UniqueId     : 00280000004000005DEDFF007783A242
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e1b-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk14
    UniqueId     : 002800000040000018C9CF6EBE605911
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e1d-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk13
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000B64436290D155A48
    ObjectId     : {7ab38e1f-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk0
    UniqueId     : IDE\DiskOS1.0.00__\4&180adc7b&0&0.0.0:Trounce-Server2
    ObjectId     : {df23f925-c19f-11e1-bbf5-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk31
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241daf-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk32
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241db2-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk27
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241cbe-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk28
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241cc1-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk34
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241dc4-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk29
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241cca-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk33
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241dcf-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk30
    UniqueId     : 0050430000000000
    ObjectId     : {df241cd3-c19f-11e1-bbf5-002590520253}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk2
    UniqueId     : 002800000040000037638531D4A17419
    ObjectId     : {7ab38df8-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk3
    UniqueId     : 0028000000400000AB7400464090110C
    ObjectId     : {7ab38dfa-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk1
    UniqueId     : IDE\DiskWDC_WD6400AAKS-00A7B2___________________01.03B01\4&180adc7b&0&0.1.0:Trounce-Server2
    ObjectId     : {7ab38dfc-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : RAID
    FriendlyName : PhysicalDisk12
    UniqueId     : 00280000004000005396CC47AA8AD97B
    ObjectId     : {7ab38dfe-ab87-11e1-bbbd-806e6f6e6963}
    BusType      : Fibre Channel

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