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I am trying to configure my storage server(only 1 node for now, more to come)for SMB shares so that my separate Hyper-V nodes can use the storage server disks for shared storage.

I decided to go the SMB 3.0 route instead of iSCSI.

So I googled a bit and found how to create an SMB share. I was interested in the "enable continuous availability" option but found that that option is missing on a non-clustered file server.

Then I installed the failover clustering role and added that single storage server to the cluster. However, when I go to add disks or storage, it says there is no suitable disks to add to the cluster...

The two main volumes I have are RAID volumes that are formatted, initialized, and have drive letters. I saw them perfectly fine in the SMB share wizard before I added the server to its own cluster but now I don't. Do I have to create iSCSI volumes and then create them as SMB shares? That seems to defeat the entire purpose of what I'm doing...(layering local storage on the storage server as iSCSI so that the cluster can see the disks for creation as SMB shares...?)

I'm really confused as most tutorials or outlines don't fully explain everything. Any insight would be helpful.

edit: When I try to create iSCSI virtual disks neither my server shows in the list nor do any of my disks show up for creation. I'm really lost here.

edit: For clarification I configured the failover "file server" role as "Scale-Out File Server" so I could use it for Hyper-V.

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  • You're on the right path except you can't use local storage in the exact way you are trying to (yet). If you have local storage discs you want to use then yes you would create a storage space and have that as an isci target for the sofs. I know not great. This is designed at the moment to work with das, isci and fibre attached storage arrays. In server 2016 storage spaces is getting an upgrade and you will be able to use local storage in exactly the way you expected. Take a look here technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt126109.aspx
    – Drifter104
    Sep 4, 2015 at 20:03
  • Ughh..typical. By the way, Drifter, when I have my server configured for clustering and the single server setup as a node I cannot add iSCSI virtual disks at that point in time. Is that normal? I'm assuming that the minimum required configuration for this setup is to have 2 servers each with their disks exposed over iSCSI and THEN you add each server to the node. Is that correct? Sep 4, 2015 at 20:39
  • Something isn't right. I don't understand how locally attached disks are really any different from "direct attached" storage protocols. I get the difference between it and iSCSI and FAS but not DAS. This is such a pain in the ass. I tried creating storage spaces and exposing them with iSCSI but on the same server the failover file server role still doesn't see the disk. Sep 4, 2015 at 21:07
  • Yes minimum two servers to get it to "work" when I say work I mean it will allow you to do it. The difference between local and remotely attached is remotely attached disk can be shared. Local cant be in the same way, with 2016 it will effectively just write across servers. DAS can be shared with a HBA switch
    – Drifter104
    Sep 4, 2015 at 21:19

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