Windows 2012 R2 File Server Cluster Storage best practice

Hi Team,
I am designing Solution for 1700 VDi user's . I will use Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Fileserver Cluster to host their Profile data by using Group Policy for Folder redirection.
I am looking best practice to define Storage disk size for User profile data . I am looking to have Single disk size of 30 TB to host user Profile data .Single disk which will spread across two Disk enclosure .
Please let me know if if single disk of 30 Tb can become any bottle neck to hold user active profile data .
I have SSD Writable disk in storage with FC connectivity.
Thanks
Ravi

Check this
TechEd session,
the
Windows Server 2012 VDI deployment Guide (pages 8,9), and
this article
General considerations during volume size planning:
Consider how long it will take if you ever have to run chkdsk. Chkdsk has gone significant improvements in 2012 R2, but it will still take a long time to run against a 30TB volume. That's down time..
Consider how will volume size affect your RPO, RTO, DR, and SLA. It will take a long time to backup/restore a 30 TB volume.
Any operation on a 30TB volume like snapshot will pose performance and additional disk space challenges.
For these reasons many IT pros choose to keep volume size under 2TB. In your case, you can use 15x 2TB volumes instead of a single 30 TB volume.
Sam Boutros, Senior Consultant, Software Logic, KOP, PA http://superwidgets.wordpress.com (Please take a moment to Vote as Helpful and/or Mark as Answer, where applicable) _________________________________________________________________________________
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Similar Messages

Shadow Copies on 2012 R2 File Server Cluster

Hello all!
I've inherited a two node physical 2012 R2 file server cluster that contains a few SMB shares on a single clustered disk. I'd like to enable shadow copies for this shared disk but want to store the shadow copy data on its own shared disk
as per shadow copy best practices (at least on non-clustered file servers).
I created a second cluster disk, assigned it to the same resources as the SMB clustered disk.
Now historically I've enabled shadow copies through computer management but I want to ensure the shadow copies are cluster aware so in the Failover Cluster Manager I open Storage | Disks and right click the SMB cluster disk and click the Shadow Copies tab.
From the tab I can Enable shadow copies, this sounds like what I'm looking for, unfortunately it does not give me an option to choose a disk/volume to store my shadow copy data, so this can't be right.
My next step was to connect computer management to the cluster virtual server name (NOCFS4) and through the System Tools | Shared Folders | All Tasks | Configure Shadow Copies it shows me the correct number of shares on the SMB cluster disk plus
I can see the Settings button for configuring the location and size limit for shadow copies, however once I tweak the shadow copy location and size settings, click Ok and click Enable to turn on the shadow copies I get a long pause and an error about
not being able to create a schedule. So it seems connecting to the cluster virtual object is not the answer either.
That leaves using computer management to connect to one of the physical server nodes of the cluster. When I open the shadow copy interface on the physical node I note that it shows a 0 for the number of shares it detects on the SMB clustered disk.
This doesn't surprise me since this interface isn't cluster resource aware.
So I'm stuck. Does anyone know the "Microsoft way" to enable shadow copies on a clustered disk while storing the shadow copy data on a second cluster disk both attached to the same cluster resource?

Hi guys
I spotted exactly same problem right now on Windows 2012 R2 with latest updates.
Enabling Shadow Copy via Cluster Manager on disk will enable schedule and snapshots but schedule is not-cluster aware (is created locally on node) and "Previous Versions" are visible only locally but not via shared folders (UNC path accesible by
clients)
When I spotted this behavior I tried different way going via Computer Management and cluster resource name but console always hangs for me when using "Configure Shadow Copies". After many minutes configuration window is opened (Hurray!) but any
action there will hang whole console again. Enabling Shadow Copies will fail with "0x80004005: Unspecified
error" for creating scheduled task but "Next Run Time" column still shows "Disabled". Checking disk resource via Cluster Manager shows it is enabled and ?local? scheduled task is created.
Computer management console still shows DISABLED and any action freezes whole console (only when cluster resource name is used).
This fix I found, unfortunately, is not applicable to 2012 R2 OS: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2894464
To sum up there is a major bug in MS implementation in Shadow Copies for Shared Folders when clustering is used or it is still not supported in 2012 R2? Doing it outside cluster works as it should (without freezes and Previous Versions are available via
UNC)
There is no documentation about FileServer Clustering on 2012(R2) unfortunately.
Could someone from MS clarify it?
Many thanks
Filip
EDIT:
Ok, one correction:
Scheduled task is not created in "Failover Clustering" hive of Scheduled tasks as user may expect but failover of fileshare to other node will unregister/reregister it on active node only.

Windows 2012 Standard File Server Clustering SMB Share Error: Access is denied.

Hi All,
My setup consist of 2 nodes clustered with File Server role. I can successfully failover role to either node with no issues. But if I try to modify the permissions of any file share on my file server cluster I get the following error: Error
Occurred while updating an SMB share: Access is denied. Access is denied.
Now I played around with the permissions on these shares and noticed that when I add the "everyone" group to these shares with change permissions I can successfully modify the shares with no errors. If I removed the "everyone" group
I get the error. So to tell its like some service or account needs permission to these shares to be able to modify them. I don't want to keep "everyone" group on these shares. Can anyone please shed some light on what group, user,
or service account needs permissions on these shared in order for me to modify these SMB shares without getting Access is denied. Thanks

Hi,
It seems your account don’t have the enough right to modify this clustered folder permission.
More information:
Create a Shared Folder in a Clustered File Server
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732302.aspx
Hope this helps.
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Windows 2012 Hyper-V Virtual SAN Switch Best Practice

I have a four node cluster running W2012 Datacenter edition on each. All systems have Emulex HBA compatible with Hyper-V and Virtual SAN technology. The hosts are connected to a Brocade SAN Switch with NPIV Enabled. I've
created a Virtual SAN on each host. The vSAN is connected to 2 physical HBA. Each HBA is connected to a different physical SAN Switch.
I have some questions about the best practice of the whole system.
1. Do I have to create a vSAN per physical HBA ? Or create one vSAN that include 2 HBA ?
2. Add 2 virtual HBA per VM to have fault tolerance ? Or one virtual HBA that is connected to a vSAN with 2 HBAs ?
3. Do I have to create a virtual port for each VM on the HBA Gui (OCManager) ?
Any best pratice or advice ?
Thanks

Hi,
first you will do almost the same as you do on a physical SAN, normally you build 2 Fabrics right ?
In Case you have that in place you will configure also 2 vSANs to build up your 2 seperate ways/pathes.
Here my top links for that Topic
Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Design Guide
http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2013/07/23/hyper-v-virtual-fibre-channel-design-guide.aspx
Very Good Blog with all the Scenarios you can have, sinlge Fabric to Multi ......
Here the TechNet Info around "Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview"
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831413.aspx
and the "Implement Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel"
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn551169.aspx
A good Advice is also to install this Hotfix -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2894032/en-us
It is a sexy feature but if one point in the chain is doing wrong things with your NPIV Packets you are lost, so in my personal view you miss the for me most inportant point why i do Hyper-V, the Separation of HW and Software :-)
One Problem i had once was after live Migration of a VM with configured vFC the Destination Host lost there FC Connection, but only if the Host have been one SAN Hop away from the HP Storage , was a HP Driver Problem, used the original Qlogic Driver and
everything was fine, so same as with some HP Networking Driver for Broadcom, do not trust every update, test it before puting it in production.
Hope that helps ?
Udo

Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale out file server cluster using server disks as CSV

Hi,
My question is if I can create a Scale Out File Server Cluster with CSV using the disks that comes with the servers, we have 2 servers with 2 arrays each one, 1 array for the OS files and 1 array that we could use for the CSV.
Regards.

Hi,
a SoFS needs some kind of shared Storage, this could be in the old days ISCSI or FC SAN and now also a Shared SAS JBOD with Clustered Storage Spaces.
If you have 2 Servers with "local" Disks you need some sort of Software to create a Shared Disk Layer out of that local Disks, like Starwind or DataCore.
Scale-Out File Server for Application Data Overview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831349.aspx
check out Step 1: Plan for Storage in Scale-Out File Server
oh i forgot the normal 4th Option, some Kind of Clustered Raid Controller like HP or Dell offer in some Solutions.
Udo
Udo, clustered RAID controllers still require SAS disks mounted into external enclosure *OR* everything mounted into single chassis for Cluster-In-A-Box scenario (but that's for OEMs). The only two benefits somebody would have with them are a) ability to
privide RAID LUs to Clustered Storage Spaces (non-clustered RAID controllers would be used as a SAS controllers only in pass-thru mode) and b) abillity to have caches synchronized so VM moved from one physical host to another would not start from the "cold"
state. Please see LSI Syncro reference manual for details:
Syncro 8i
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Syncro%20Shared%20Storage/docs/LSI_PB_SyncroCS_9271-8i.pdf
"LSI Syncro CS solutions are designed to provide continuous application uptime at a fraction
of the cost and complexity of traditional high availability solutions. Built on LSI MegaRAID
technology, the Syncro CS 9271-8i enables OEMs and system builders to use Syncro CS
controllers to build cost-effective two-node Cluster-in-a-Box (CiB) systems and deliver high
availability in a single self-contained unit.
Syncro 8e
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Syncro%20Shared%20Storage/docs/LSI_PB_SyncroCS_9286-8e.pdf
LSI Syncro CS solutions are designed to provide continuous application uptime at a fraction
of the cost and complexity of traditional high availability solutions. Built on LSI MegaRAID
technology, the Syncro CS 9286-8e solution allows a system administrator to build a costeffective,
easy to deploy and manage server failover cluster using volume servers and an offthe-
shelf JBOD. Syncro CS solutions bring shared storage and storage controller failover into
DAS environments, leveraging the low cost DAS infrastructure, simplicity, and performance
benefits. Controller to controller connectivity is provided through the high performance SAS
interface, providing the ability for resource load balancing, helping to ensure that applications
are using the most responsive server to boost performance and help prevent any one server
from being overburdened.
So... Making long story short: 8i is for OEMs and 8e is for end-users but require a JBOD.
Hope this helped :)
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

Can anyone help me?Creating the shadow copies in the file server cluster ,there are some errors occured, OS version is WSS 2012

I construct a failover cluster(file server,AP module) for sharing files by WSS 2012,and I want to use the shadow copies to backup my data,but when making a shadow copies on the volume which is added to the cluster(not the CSV,just add
it to the cluster and use it to share files,it plays the role of file server),there are some errors occured, these errors result in the shadow copies failed,error likes the following pictures:
1: the disk F is added to the cluster,first I make the shadow copies by click the right key of mouse on the disk F,and chouse the configeration shadow copies,and click the settings, then click the schedule , and I wait just a few seconds, the error is appeared,like
this picture 1, the wait operation timed out,and then ,
I click the schedule button once again,a different error occured,like the following picture," the object already exists",if i don't set the schedule at first ,use the default shedule,and click the enable button also the same error must
accure
but the only diffrence is that, a shadow copy time point is created, also ,you can make the shadow copies by click " create now", that is creating the shadow copies manually. Although it can succesfully make the shadow copies, but when I select
a time point to revert, error occured, "A volume that contains operating system files or resides on a cluster shared disk cannot be reverted"
In a word,all the errors above make the shadow copies by schedulling failed,except making the shadow copies manually,but what makes me confused is that I have ever maked the shadow copies succesfully by schedul a policy,I don't know what makes it succesful,
it's small probability, most of time ,it's failed.No matter what kind of situation, revert must be failed.
I'm sorry for my pool english , it's the first time for me getting help in forum by english ,I don't know if I descripe my question clearly, also ,other method like the link
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784118(v=ws.10).aspx I have tried,but the same errors occured.Can anyone tell me How can I make the shadow copies in File Server
cluster（AP module）？And I make a mistake in operating？ Looking forward for your reply.Thanks!

Hi,
Please check the following 2 places:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Tasks
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks
First please compare permission settings of the folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks with a working computer. Correct permission settings if anything wrong. Specifically, confirm you current account do have permission on this folder.
As it said "object already exists", find the schedules you created before, backup and delete all these schedules in both registry key and folder.
Then test to create a new schedule to see if issue still exists.
Meanwhile what kind of storage device you are using? The issue could occur on specific storage device, so test to enable shadow copy on a local disk to see if that will work.
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum |If you have any feedback on our support, please contact [email protected]
Thank you for you reply.On the local volume,all of these errors will not occur, but the volume in the file server cluser.There is no value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Tasks. On local volume, everything goes well about the shadow copy, so I do not
think something is wrong about the permission settings of the folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks.Storage device is a SAN,we use RAID6 and provide the LUNs to the NAS engine, and the make the volume on these LUNs, Is Angthing wrong? Hope for you
reply~~

Unable to access UNC path on 2012 R2 file server with ABE enabled

Brief Description:
We have granted access to people via a domain local group on a folder on a file server that is three levels deep from the share, i.e. \\servercluster\share\folder1\folder2\folder3, where folder3 is where the group is granted Read & Execute
access. The share has Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) enabled and the Everyone group has Full Control share permissions. We also use DFS, so the path for that is \\domain\dfsrootname\folderfororganization\share\folder1\folder2\folder3. People
in the aforementioned group only have access to folder3, its subfolders, and files. They do not have any access to folder2 or any of the other folders higher in the tree at all. Also, consider that folder3 contains a subfolder folder4, which is
simply inheriting permissions.
What we have found is that clients running Windows 7 SP1 have strange access issues when attempting to access the folder via either the DFS or cluster name UNC paths.
Detailed Testing Results Accessing Folder3 Directly:
NOTE: "UNC path" in the following test results means either the DFS or the cluster name share path. The results are the same regardless which path is used.
1 - Enter UNC path without trailing backslash in Windows Explorer's address bar:
Windows Explorer seems to do nothing for about 30 seconds and then displays the following error:
"Windows cannot access <UNC path>
Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose."
2 - Enter UNC path with trailing backslash in Windows Explorer's address bar:
The same error encountered in #1 is displayed immediately.
3 - Enter UNC path with or without trailing backslash but contained in double quotes in Windows Explorer's address bar:
Internet Explorer opens and displays the error:
"Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"
4 - Enter UNC path without trailing backslash in Run dialog box:
An error message immediately appears:
"<UNC path>
The specified path does not exist.
Check the path and then try again."
5 - Enter UNC path with trailing backslash in Run dialog box:
Same as #4.
6 - Enter UNC path without trailing backslash but contained in double quotes in Run dialog box:
Same as #4.
7 - Enter UNC path with trailing backslash and contained in double quotes in Run dialog box:
Windows Explorer opens the correct UNC path location and displays the folder contents. This is the expected behavior for all of these attempts.
8 - Create Shortcut to UNC path by performing #7 and then dragging the folder icon in Windows Explorer's address bar to either to the desktop or the Favorites section, and then attempt to access the folder via
the shortcut.
Same as #7.
9 - Attempt to create a shortcut to the UNC path using the New Shortcut wizard:
Unable to successfully create the shortcut, regardless if you add a backslash at the end or enclose the path in double qutoes. When you press Next after entering the UNC path, you receive the following error:
"The file <UNC path> cannot be found."
10 - Disable ABE on the share and repeat all tests:
All tests with ABE disabled on the share have the same result as #7. There is no issue whatsoever accessing the desired folder when ABE is disabled.
Other Notable Behaviors:
If the aforementioned folder (folder3) contains one or more subfolders (e.g. folder4), you are able to access those subfolders via UNC path directly and then go up one level to folder3 without issue, even when ABE is enabled. You just cannot access
folder3 directly via UNC path unless you attempt to access it via the method used in #7 above or a successfully created shortcut.
Adding a user account directly to the folder3 ACL rather than using group membership makes no difference.
If access is granted to folder4 instead of folder3 (the fourth folder deep rather than the third), accessing folder4 directly via UNC path is not an issue regardless of ABE status or attempted access method.
Windows 8 and 8.1 clients have no trouble directly accessing the folder's UNC path via any method. The unusual, undesirable behavior seen in Windows 7 is non-existent on Windows 8.x clients.
Systems Involved:
Client: Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x86
Server: Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard in cluster
Other Details About the Systems:
Both the client and the file server cluster are in the domain AD DS domain.
The client and the file server cluster are in different subnets.
There is no firewall or other packet inspection or compression service/device in between the client and server (not even Windows Firewall).
Question:
Is there a way to fix this behavior with Windows 7 clients and ABE enabled on the share so that it works correctly without forcing the clients or server to use SMBv1 or disabling ABE on the shares?

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It should be noted that I can't repeat the behavior on my test machine again today after some changes were made in our environment.
Today, I found that someone had modified permissions on the folder to give the group my test account was a member of rights to traverse the folder hierarchy from the root of the share. Additionally, in testing something with FIPS mode, I ended up reverting
my virtual machine to an older snapshot.
After removing the extra permissions that weren't present when I was doing my testing and reverting to the older snapshot, I am not having issues accessing the real equivalent of folder3 directly in Windows Explorer via DFS UNC path or creating a shortcut
with the New Shortcut wizard.
Things have been fundamentally changed and I cannot repeat the behavior on this particular folder. I will see if I can recreate the same situation on another folder.

File Server Cluster along with SQL Cluster

Hello There,
I have got SQL 2008 R2 cluster running on Windows 2008 R2 Ent OS.
Can i use the same cluster to host file server cluster? If yes is it advisable to do so.
Regards,
Maqsood
Maqsood Mohammed Senior Systems Engineer MCITP-Enterprise Admin & ITILv3 Foundation Certified

I have got SQL 2008 R2 cluster running on Windows 2008 R2 Ent OS.
Can i use the same cluster to host file server cluster? If yes is it advisable to do so.
1) Upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2
2) Virtualize all of your workload (SQL Server, File Server etc)
After you'll be done it would be much easier to handle isolation inside your VMs and with a decent level of hardware resources allocated you'll have no issues running SQL Server and File Server @ the same time. If you don't virtualize I agree with Tim -
doable but not desirable :)
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

Write access to a directory for ASP 2.0 application stops working on Windows 2012 Standard Cloud Server

Just moved our ASP 2.0 based web application to a Windows 2012 Standard Cloud Server. A directory is used for temporary copying of files for the application. The Read Write access is properly given and everything works but then stops working
in about 2.5 hours. The settings are still there, to make things work again typically I add "Everyone" to the security list and apply and then 3 hours later I remove "Everyone" and this refreshes the security setting and things work
againg for a couple of hours. Last Cloud server was 2008 R2 and we had no issues. Recently moved to this new cloud server. Code has been functioning fine for years and can not migrate it to newer ASP since will have to make quite a few code
changes. Obviously a bug which needs to be addressed. Again the security settings do not disappear but are no longer handled properly every 3 hours or so.

Hi,
Is there any other files have the same issue? Please create a test folder and give the same permissions with the directory for ASP 2.0 application to see if the issue still exists.
Regards,
Mandy
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Windows 2008 R2 File Server - user profiles appear underdirectory C:\user

I've a windows 2008 r2 file server and few day ago I've noticed that under directory c:\users some user profiles have been created.
These users don't have rdp access to this server and don't use any ts application.
Is this a problem or a normal behavior?

Hello,
IIRC this is normal behavior as they do a connect to the server to access the shared folders.
Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.
Can you please explain in more detail?
Why aren´t all users creating a local Profile on the fileserver?
Kind regards,
Tim
MCITP, MCTS, MCSA
http://directoryadmin.blogspot.com
This posting is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
"If this thread answered your question, please click on "Mark as Answer"

Backup File Server Cluster

I have a windows 2008 file server cluster. We have an issue with our backups in backupexec where the jobs were decreasing performance on our network. We have our backup server configured for a new separate network. The file server cluster
is configured for our data network. Is there a way to make the file server cluster configured for both data network and backup network? I am trying to get out backup job of the file cluster to not degrade performance of our data network.

I have a windows 2008 file server cluster. We have an issue with our backups in backupexec where the jobs were decreasing performance on our network. We have our backup server configured for a new separate network. The file server
cluster is configured for our data network. Is there a way to make the file server cluster configured for both data network and backup network? I am trying to get out backup job of the file cluster to not degrade performance of our data network.
Sure! You can make your file server "listen" and respond to multiple networks. See all options listed here:
Using multiple NICs with File Server
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2010/09/03/using-the-multiple-nics-of-your-file-server-running-windows-server-2008-and-2008-r2.aspx
(one you should be interested in is 2.4 and below)
Good luck :)
Hyper-V Shared Nothing Cluster. Only two Hyper-V hosts needed.

Server 2012 R2 File Server - 2008 R2/Win7 Clients Access Denied. SMB 3 Encryption.

I've setup a Server 2012 R2 File Server. When creating shares I selected to enable encryption.
Now Windows 7 and 2008 R2 clients cannot access. Pretty clear that this is SMB 3 encryption the cause.
OK. So can I enable these Windows 7 and 2008 R2 clients to access encrypted SMB 3 shares?
I can find no answer or documentation on this.

So can I enable these Windows 7 and 2008 R2 clients to access encrypted SMB 3 shares?
No, you can't. These Windows 7 and 2008 R2 clients talking to Windows Server 2012 R2, they will negotiate to the lowest common protocol which would be SMB 2.1 enabling communication, while not taking advantage of the SMB 3.0 specific capabilities (encryption
included).
There's no built-in encryption inside SMB 2.1

High Network Utilization on HeartBeat and LiveMigration networks - Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V cluster

Hi all,
I have just setup a fresh Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V cluster with 4 nodes.
Config:
Network:
2 x Networks for iSCSI
1 x VM network 1
1 x VM network 2
1 x Heartbeat
1 x LiveMigration
Disks:
5 GB = Quorum
2 x 2.99 TB (Deduplication enabled)
The problem I am getting is that HeartBeat and LiveMigration (both configured with Cluster Only traffic) have alot of traffic on them even though no LiveMigration (the only card configured for LiveMigration) is going on.
All network configuration is the same as it was in Windows 2008 R2 SP1 cluster which these machines where running before (not upgrade, fresh install and migration) and did not have this "problem".
Has anyone experienced this or have a solution to this?
Regards,
Thorir
thorir

Hi Thorir,
According to your discription , you can try to monitor and analyse the traffic of LM via network monitor for troubleshooting .
Here is the links for downloading and using network monitor :
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4865
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc723623.aspx
Any further information please feel free to let us know.
Hope this helps
Best Regards
Elton Ji
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PCO on Windows 2012 64-bit server

Hi All,
We have MII hosted on windows 2012 64-bit server. We are planning to install latest GA version of PCo which happens to be 2.3. From the product availability matrix it seems that PCo 2.3 is not listed in the OS for it.
I know that PCo 15 which is in ramp is compatible with windows 2012 64-bit server.
Has anyone installed PCo 2.3 on windows 2012 64-bit server or is anyone aware when PCo 2.3 will be available for windows 2012 64-bit server.
Regards,
Darshan Sheth

Hi All,
Got confirmation from SAP through OSS message that PCO 2.3 SP04 can be hosted on Windows Server 2012.
Regards,
Darshan Sheth

Server 2012 File Server Cluster Shadow Copies Disappear Some Time After Failover

Hello,
I've seen similar questions posted on here before however I have yet to find a solution that worked for us so I'm adding my process in hopes someone can point out where I went wrong.
The problem: After failover, shadow copies are only available for a short time on the secondary server. Before the task to create new shadow copies happens the shadow copies are deleted. Failing back shows them missing on the primary server as
well when this happens.
We have a 2 node (hereafter server1 and server2) cluster with a quorum disk. There are 8 disk resources which are mapped to the cluster via iScsi. 4 of these disks are setup as storage and the other 4 are currently set up as shadow copy volumes
for their respective storage volume.
Previously we weren't using separate shadow copy volumes and seeing the same issue described in the topic title. I followed two other topics on here that seemed close and then setup the separate shadow copy volumes however it has yet to alleviate the
issue. These are the two other topics :
Topic 1: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/ba0d2568-53ac-4523-a49e-4e453d14627f/failover-cluster-server-file-server-role-is-clustered-shadow-copies-do-not-seem-to-travel-to?forum=winserverClustering
Topic 2: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/c884c31b-a50e-4c9d-96f3-119e347a61e8/shadow-copies-missing-after-failover-on-2008-r2-cluster
After reading both of those topics I did the following:
1) Add the 4 new volumes to the cluster for shadow copies
2) Made each storage volume dependent on it's shadow copy volume in FCM
3) Went to the currently active node directly and opened up "My Computer", I then went to the properties of each storage volume and set up shadow copies to go to the respective shadow copy volume drive letter with correct size for spacing, etc.
4) I then went back to FCM and right clicked on the corresponding storage volume and choose "Configure Shadow Copy" and set the schedule for 12:00 noon and 5:00 PM.
5) I noticed that on the nodes the task was created and that the task would failover between the nodes and appeared correct.
6) Everything appears to failover correctly, all volumes come up, drive letters are same, shadow copy storage settings are the same, and 4 scheduled tasks for shadow copy appear on the current node after failover.
Thinking everything was setup according to best practice I did some testing by changing file contents throughout the day making sure that previous versions were created as scheduled on server1. I then rebooted Server1 to simulate failure. Server2
picked up the role within about 10 seconds and files were avaiable. I checked and I could still see previous versions for the files after failover that were created on server1. Unfortunately that didn't last as the next day before noon I was going
to make more changes to files to ensure that not only could we see the shadow copies that were created when Server1 owned the file server role but also that the copies created on Server2 would be seen on failback. I was disappointed to discover that
the shadow copies were all gone and failing back didn't produce them either.
Does anyone have any insight into this issue? I must be missing a switch somewhere or perhaps this isn't even possible with our cluster type based on this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779378%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
Now here's an interesting part, shadow copies on 1 of our 4 volumes have been retained from both nodes through the testing, but I can't figure out what makes it different though I do suspect that perhaps the "Disk#s" in computer management / disk
management perhaps need to be the same between servers? For example, on server 1 the disk #s for cluster volume 1 might be "Disk4" but on server 2 the same volume might be called "Disk7", however I think that operations like this
and shadow copy are based on the disk GUID and perhaps this shouldn't matter.
Edit, checked on the disk numbers, I see no correlation between what I'm seeing in shadow copy and what is happening to the numbers. All other items, quotas, etc fail and work correctly despite these diffs:
Disk Numbers on Server 1:
Format: "shadow/storerelation volume = Disk Number"
aHome storage1 = 16
aShared storage2 = 09
sHome storage3 = 01
sShared storage4 = 04
aHome shadow1 = 10
aShared shadow2 = 11
sHome shadow3 = 02
sShared shadow4 = 05
Disk numbers on Server 2:
aHome storage1 = 16 (SAME)
aShared storage2 = 04 (DIFF)
sHome storage3 = 05 (DIFF)
sShared storage4 = 08 (DIFF)
aHome shadow1 = 10 (SAME)
aShared shadow2 = 11 (SAME)
sHome shadow3 = 06 (DIFF)
sShared shadow4 = 09 (DIFF)
Thanks in advance for your assistance/guidance on this matter!

Hello Alex,
Thank you for your reply. I will go through your questions in order as best I can, though I'm not the backup expert here.
1) "Did you see any event ID when the VSS fail?
please offer us more information about your environment, such as what type backup you are using the soft ware based or hard ware VSS device."
I saw a number of events on inspection. Interestingly enough, the event ID 60 issues did not occur on the drive where shadow copies did remain after the two reboots. I'm putting my event notes in a code block to try to preserve formatting/readability.
I've written down events from both server 1 and 2 in this code block, documenting the first reboot causing the role to move to server 2 and then the second reboot going back to server 1:
JANUARY 2
9:34:20 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 1074 - INFO - Source: User 32 - Standard reboot request from explorer.exe (Initiated by me)
9:34:21 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The Volume Shadow Copy service entered the running state."
9:34:21 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 60 - ERROR - Source: volsnap - "The description for Event ID 60 from source volsnap cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy49
F:
T:
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present"
9:34:21 PM - Server 1 - Event ID 60 - ERROR - Source: volsnap - "The description for Event ID 60 from source volsnap cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
H:
V:
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present"
***The above event repeats with only the number changing, drive letters stay same, citing VolumeShadowCopy# numbers 6, 13, 18, 22, 27, 32, 38, 41, 45, 51,
9:34:21 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 60 - ERROR - Source: volsnap - "The description for Event ID 60 from source volsnap cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4
E:
S:
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present"
***The above event repeats with only the number changing, drive letters stay same, citing VolumeShadowCopy# numbers 5, 10, 19, 21, 25, 29, 37, 40, 46, 48, 48
9:34:28 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The NetBackup Legacy Network Service service entered the stopped state."
9:34:28 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The Volume Shadow Copy service entered the stopped state.""
9:34:29 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The NetBackup Client Service service entered the stopped state."
9:34:30 PM - Server 1 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The NetBackup Discovery Framework service entered the stopped state."
10:44:07 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The Volume Shadow Copy service entered the running state."
10:44:08 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 7036 - INFO - Source: Service Control Manager - "The Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider service entered the running state."
10:45:01 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 48 - ERROR - Source: bxois - "Target failed to respond in time to a NOP request."
10:45:01 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 20 - ERROR - Source: bxois - "Connection to the target was lost. The initiator will attempt to retry the connection."
10:45:01 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 153 - WARN - Source: disk - "The IO operation at logical block address 0x146d2c580 for Disk 7 was retried."
10:45:03 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 34 - INFO - Source: bxois - "A connection to the target was lost, but Initiator successfully reconnected to the target. Dump data contains the target name."
JANUARY 3
At around 2:30 I reboot Server 2, seeing that shadow copy was missing after previous failure. Here are the relevant events from the flip back to server 1.
2:30:34 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 60 - ERROR - Source: volsnap - "The description for Event ID 60 from source volsnap cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy24
F:
T:
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present"
2:30:34 PM - Server 2 - Event ID: 60 - ERROR - Source: volsnap - "The description for Event ID 60 from source volsnap cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy23
E:
S:
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present"
We are using Symantec NetBackup. The client agent is installed on both server1 and 2. We're backing them up based on the complete drive letter for each storage volume (this makes recovery easier). I believe this is what you would call "software
based VSS". We don't have the infrastructure/setup to do hardware based snapshots. The drives reside on a compellent san mapped to the cluster via iScsi.
2) "Confirm the following registry is exist:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Settings"
The key is there, however the DWORD value is not, would that mean that the
default value is being used at this point?

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