Working with Volumes on Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2008 R2 (Service Pack 1) Host
Pure Storage no longer officially supports Windows Server 2008 or 2008R2. Please refer to the Windows Server Catalog for version compatability.
The first three workflow tasks should be completed before beginning the other items that this section is focused on configuring. There are two methods that will be shown, (1) Using Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for the FlashArray and Windows Server Disk Management and (2) Using Windows PowerShell and Pure Storage PowerShell SDK.
Steps to Create, Connect and Configure
- Installing Multipath-IO
- Configuring Multipath-IO
- Setting the MPIO Policy
- Create FlashArray Volume(s)
- Connect FlashArray Volume(s) to Host (or Host Group)
- Manage FlashArray Volume(s) from Windows Server Host
- Create Mounts Point(s) (Optional)
This section assumes that there is a Pure Storage FlashArray setup and configured with hosts and all connectivity is in place.
FlashArray Management GUI
Create FlashArray Volume(s)
The FlashArray Management interface is very simple to use. Follow the below steps to create a volume. Repeat the same actions to create a volume named ReFS (optional).
1. Create a new volume named NTFS.
2. Viewing the created NTFS volume.
Connect FlashArray Volume(s) to Host (or Host Group)
1. Connect the NTFS volume to SERVER08.
Selecting the NTFS volume to connect to SERVER08.
Viewing the NTFS volume that is now connected to SERVER08.
Windows Server Disk Management
Manage FlashArray Volume(s) from Windows Server Host
1. Start Disk Management using Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc
2. Perform Rescan Disks.
3. Initialize disks by right-clicking on the Disk # and selecting Initialize Disk.
4. The Initialize Disk dialog will open and indicate all of the disks that need to be initialized. For this example there is Disk 1 (NTFS) and Disk 2 (ReFS) that will be initialized using GPT (Guid Partition Table). GPT is used to support disks larger that 2 TB.
5. Create a volume by right-clicking on the disk partition and selecting New Simple Volume.
6. The New Simple Volume Wizard will open, click Next >
7. Specify Volume Size, the default is used for use maximum size.
8. Assign Drive Letter or Path, the default is used of selecting the next available driver letter.
9. Format Partition, choose NTFS as the File system, 64K Allocation unit size (cluster size) and set the Volume label.
To create an ReFS volume choose ReFS as the File system.
10. Accept the settings from the wizard and click Finish.
The new volumes are now ready for use.
Create Mounts Point(s) (Optional)
1. Right-click on the disk partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths...
2. The Change Drive Letter and Paths for the selected disk will be opened. Click Add...
3. Add Drive Letter or Path is opened. Since there is already a drive letter assigned the Mount in the following empty NTFS folder is selected. Click Browse...
4. Navigate using the Browse for Drive Path dialog and either select and existing folder or create a New Folder... In the below example a new folder and sub-folder have been created named \FlashArrayMounts\NTFS. Click OK.
5. Click OK.
6. Now the newly assigned mount point can be seen in the Change Drive Letter and Paths for the selected disk.
Windows PowerShell
Create FlashArray Volume(s)
The volume that will be used in the example are based on the NTFS file systems. The host that will be used is named SERVER08 and is running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 3.0.
Following the Windows PowerShell examples assumes that the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK has been installed. If the PowerShell SDK has not been installed please see the Pure1 Support > Programming Interfaces > Windows PowerShell to get started.
1. Start a new Windows PowerShell session or open the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE).
2. Create a connection to the FlashArray.
$FlashArray = New-PfaArray -EndPoint 10.1.1.1 -Credentials (Get-Credential) -IgnoreCertificateError PS C:\> $FlashArray Disposed : False EndPoint : 10.1.1.1 UserName : pureuser ApiVersion : 1.7 Role : ArrayAdmin ApiToken : 58db6abf-1933-553f-1628-0c6e207aba1e
3. Create two new volumes named NTFS.
New-PfaVolume -Array $FlashArray -VolumeName 'NTFS' -Unit T -Size 1 source : serial : 45084F3508BF461400011ACC created : 2017-05-23T21:46:04Z name : NTFS size : 1099511627776
Connect FlashArray Volume to Host (or Host Group)
1. Connect NTFS volume to SERVER08.
Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2008 R2 (Service Pack 1) do not support ReFS so any tasks shown will only include working with NTFS volumes.
PS C:\>New-PfaHostVolumeConnection -Array $FlashArray -VolumeName 'NTFS' -HostName 'SERVER08' vol name lun --- ---- --- NTFS Server08 1
If the volumes need to be visible to a cluster of Windows Server hosts then they need to be connected to a Host Group. The following steps show how to create a Host Group, add a Host and then connect the volume to the Host Group.
PS C:\> New-PfaHostGroup -Array $f -Hosts 'SERVER08' -Name 'HOSTGROUP1' PS C:\> New-PfaHostGroupVolumeConnection -Array $f -VolumeName 'NTFS' -HostGroupName 'HOSTGROUP1' hosts name ----- ---- {SERVER08} HOSTGROUP1 HOSTGROUP1 HOSTGROUP1 PS C:\>Get-PfaHostGroupVolumeConnections -Array $f -HostGroupName 'HOSTGROUP1' | Format-Table -AutoSize vol name lun --- ---- --- NTFS HOSTGROUP1 254
Manage FlashArray Volume(s) from Windows Server Host
1. Rescan/update the Windows Server host, SERVER08 to see the new volumes.
PS C:\> "rescan" | diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0 Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: SERVER01 DISKPART> Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration... DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration. DISKPART> PS C:\>
2. View the currently connected volumes to the Windows Server host.
PS C:\> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_DiskPartition | Format-Table -AutoSize NumberOfBlocks BootPartition Name PrimaryPartition Size Index -------------- ------------- ---- ---------------- ---- ----- 314566656 False Disk #0, Partition #0 True 161058127872 0 204800 True Disk #1, Partition #0 True 104857600 0
3. Initialize the new volumes.
PS C:\> diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600 Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: WIN-EE93M7FPKF6 DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Offline 150 GB 1024 KB Disk 1 Online 150 GB 0 B Disk 3 Online 1024 GB 1024 GB DISKPART> select disk 3 Disk 3 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> detail disk Disk ID: 00000000 Type : FIBRE Status : Online Path : 0 Target : 2 LUN ID : 3 Location Path : UNAVAILABLE Current Read-only State : No Read-only : No Boot Disk : No Pagefile Disk : No Hibernation File Disk : No Crashdump Disk : No Clustered Disk : No There are no volumes.
4. Create a new partition.
DISKPART> create partition primary DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition. DISKPART> assign letter=N DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
5. Format volumes as NTFS. The below example sets the Unit (cluster size or allocation unit size) to 64KB (65,536).
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label="NTFS" quick unit=65536 100 percent completed DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.
Create Mounts Point(s) (Optional)
This is an optional step and shows how to create Partition Access Paths (mount points) for volumes.
DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 149 GB Healthy Boot * Volume 2 N NTFS NTFS Partition 1023 GB Healthy
2. Create directory that will be assigned to the new volume.
PS C:\> New-Item -Path 'C:\FlashArrayMounts\NTFS' -ItemType Directory Directory: C:\FlashArrayMounts Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 5/23/2017 3:50 PM NTFS
3. Add the mount points for the individual volumes. Use the PartitionNumber retrieved from Step 1 for the new drive (N).
DISKPART> assign mount=C:\FlashArrayMounts\NTFS DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
4. View the new mount points.
Below is the view of the mount points from Windows Explorer.