Working with Volumes on Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2008 R2 (Service Pack 1) Host

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.