Windows 2022 Storage Space Direct - Disable Options

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Windows 2022 Storage Space Direct - Disable Options

Robert Murphy 0

Our Customer wants to do the following and we are in need of some guidance. This is not limited to just one Customer, we have others now in the pipeline for this solution:

By Default windows 2022 uses Storage Space Directs to validate the disks, however customer doesn't want to use

it and disable it, but when they try to disable it it through command line it throw errors, attached in SR.

Customer attached block devices to Windows Server 2022 and tried to configure Failover Cluster, during setup it

generate a validation report which is attached in SR

Customer is using share block volumes of Oracle PCA and dont want to use Storage spaces Direct, but it fails windows

cluster configuration. If they skip this option and continue with cluster configuration, then cluster services

don't come up when machine is migrated to different compute node.

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Answer 1

Hello Robert, I am Henry and I want to share my insight about your issue.

My recommendation is to build the cluster in a way that bypasses the S2D checks from the start. You can refer the workflow to configure your Failover Cluster correctly.

Step 1: Prerequisites - Before creating the cluster, ensure the storage is correctly prepared on all nodes.

Install MPIO: On all server nodes, install the Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) feature. This is critical for redundancy and performance with shared block storage like Oracle PCA. A reboot will be required.
Present Storage: Ensure the shared LUNs from your Oracle PCA are presented uniformly to all server nodes.
Initialize Disks: On one node, use Disk Management to bring the disks Online and Initialize them as GPT.
Crucial: Do not format the disks or assign them drive letters. They should remain as unallocated space. On all other nodes, the disks should simply appear as Offline.

Step 2: Run Cluster Validation (Ignoring S2D)

On one of the nodes, open PowerShell as an Administrator.

Run the validation test, specifically telling it to ignore the S2D checks that are causing the errors: Test-Cluster -Node <Node1,Node2> -Ignore ``'Storage Spaces Direct'
Review the validation report. Resolve any reported errors related to your network or storage configuration before proceeding.

Step 3: Create the Cluster (Without Adding Storage)

The key to bypassing S2D during creation is the -NoStorage parameter.

In the same administrative PowerShell window, run the following command: New-Cluster -Name ``<YourClusterName>`` -Node <Node1,Node2> -StaticAddress ``<YourClusterIP>`` -NoStorage
- This creates a functional cluster object without attempting to automatically claim storage, thus avoiding the S2D logic entirely.

Step 4: Add and Configure Storage

Now that the cluster exists, you can manually add your prepared shared disks.
Open Failover Cluster Manager.
Navigate to Storage > Disks and click Add Disk in the Actions pane. Your Oracle PCA LUNs will be discovered and added to "Available Storage."
Configure Quorum: Right-click a smaller disk (e.g., 1-5 GB) and select "Configure Cluster Quorum Settings" to use it as a Disk Witness. This is critical for cluster stability.
Create Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV): For the larger data disks that will host your services, right-click them and select "Add to Cluster Shared Volumes". This makes the storage accessible to all nodes simultaneously under C:\ClusterStorage.

Step 5: Test High Availability

With the cluster and storage now properly configured, test the failover functionality.

Create a test role on the cluster (e.g., a test virtual machine or a simple "File Server" role) and place its resources on one of your new CSVs.
In Failover Cluster Manager, right-click the test role, select Move > Best Possible Node.
Confirm that the role and its storage successfully move to the other node and come online without errors.

I hope this information is helpful.

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Windows 2022 Storage Space Direct - Disable Options

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