Hi,
we are planning the following configuration:
1x PowerVault MD3420 Storage (2x SAS controller)
3x PowerEdge Servers directly connected to the Storage, two cables (one to each controller of the Storage)
3x Windows 2012 R2 STANDARD Server that will run Hyper-V
We want to have each of the Windows 2012 R2 Standard Server seeing the same content on the Storage-Disk at the same time, or in other words, one shared Storage Pool/Volume where we will place the VHD's.
After reading through quite some stuff like the Dell Manuals, Forums etc. we have come to the conclusion that this might need a Windows 2012 R2 Standard - Clustered Storage Space / similar to the one described this link: blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/.../
We couldn't find a best-practice / guidance from Dell on how to configure a scenario like this.
It is also unclear what configuration Steps are necessary on the Storage or on Windows. We know that the Windows 2012 R2 Standard Version includes Clustered Storage Spaces - other then Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, back then the Enterprise Version was needed.
To our understanding those are the necessary Steps:
Cable everything and start/install the Servers
Install the Feature/Role for Storage Clustering
Configure the Storage Clustering and create the RAIDs and Volumes
Or do we create the RAIDs and Volumes on the Storage itself over it's Management-Webinterface/Software?
There is a lot of confusing Information out there, and we are new to direct attached storage over SAS (DAS/SAS), since we used iSCSI ever since.
Also, without the Storage Clustering component installed on all the Windows Servers, we wouldn't be able to see the same content on each Server and even cause issues. This is at least our understanding here.
Thank you!
Florian