WHS and system drive

[larciel]

Finally setup a WHS box

1x 500Gb samsung for system
4x 1.5tb on areca 1222 with Raid 5 Two volume of 2tb and one 1+0 for fun 😀

I have about 2Tb of data right now. Reason I chose to go Raid even though it's not supported in WHS is I trust Raid over DE.(other issue)

problem is, the storage pool is 4.45TB that is 2x 2tb raid array volumes plus 450GB from the samsung system drive.

How can I make sure that the data I put in does NOT go into the system drive? because that drive is not have any redundancy. I put in about 1TB of data and fortunately it went into the raid volume.. but data will eventually go into the samsung and I want to keep it from doing it!

 

[alevasseur14]

The only way I can see doing this is by partitioning the Samsung drive down to 20 GB or whatever WHS requires for it's system drive. Do you think that will work?

 

[larciel]

WHS requires min of 80gb so I don't think that'd work but thanks for your idea!

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: larciel
WHS requires min of 80gb so I don't think that'd work but thanks for your idea!

That's the (enforced) installation requirement, but it'd probably keep running if you managed to re-partition the drive after the install and if WHS properly recognized the new (re-sized) partition.

As you probably know, the most common use of RAID (usually RAID 1) in WHS is to mirror the System drive. This can prevent downtime if the System disk dies, since a failed System disk means you have to re-install WHS to the replacement drive (which is pretty easy) but it takes time for the new system to explore all the disks and rebuild the tombstones.

 

[alevasseur14]

Originally posted by: larciel
WHS requires min of 80gb so I don't think that'd work but thanks for your idea!

I still think it would work. Just partition the drive down to 80 GB and either leave the other space unpartitioned or set it up as another partition to add it to the storage pool.

That's all I've got. Good luck!

 

[ViRGE]

The easiest thing would be to just not use the Samsung. WHS should be perfectly fine with installing the system partition to your RAID array as long as you can feed it drivers during the install.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The easiest thing would be to just not use the Samsung. WHS should be perfectly fine with installing the system partition to your RAID array as long as you can feed it drivers during the install.

Agreed.

 

[alevasseur14]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The easiest thing would be to just not use the Samsung. WHS should be perfectly fine with installing the system partition to your RAID array as long as you can feed it drivers during the install.

Agreed.

+2

 

[larciel]

Ok, I made a new volume on the raid that I can install the WHS onto.

how can I move the WHS from samsung to the new partition?

thx for all the info!

 

[RebateMonger]

A safe way to do this might be to treat this as a "failed" System drive. You boot to the WHS DVD and it should scan the rest of the "drives" and recognize it as a Windows Home Server with a missing System drive. The new virtual disk needs to be the first disk seen by the system BIOS. It'll offer the option to "recover" (I don't remember the exact term) the server. Note that this option is different that the option to do a New Install or a Re-Installation.

After re-installing WHS (which is basically totally automated), it'll scan the other disks and rebuild the tombstones. You probably don't have any client PC backups yet, so you probably don't have to worry about the client PC backup database. Imaging and recovery of a WHS system by trying to "clone" the WHS system disk can apparently be a bit tricky (I haven't tried it, though).

Now if I could just find my notes from the last time I did this (experimenting)...

Personally, I'm simple-minded. I'd probably just get all the data onto backup disks, re-install WHS from scratch, and copy the data back onto the shared folders. It's guaranteed and pretty much automatic. It'll take a while to move the data, but that can easily be done overnight. If you do it this way, you can make sure that the various virtual disks in your RAID array are in the proper BIOS order, so if you ever need to do a recovery you don't have to figure out how to re-order them.

 

[larciel]

so I'd have to re-create whole array volumes since the volume I want to install WHS is the last volume (2tb, 2tb, 100gb)

so if I follow your advice and do it conventional way and create 100gb,2tb,2tb volumes and install WHS on 100gb one, what'd happen when WHS fails, (would it recover on the 2nd volume (2tb) ?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: larciel
so I'd have to re-create whole array volumes since the volume I want to install WHS is the last volume (2tb, 2tb, 100gb)

so if I follow your advice and do it conventional way and create 100gb,2tb,2tb volumes and install WHS on 100gb one, what'd happen when WHS fails, (would it recover on the 2nd volume (2tb) ?

While I've performed all of the normal repair/recovery options with WHS, I've not tried EVERY possibility. And I've never used RAID underneath WHS, so I haven't looked into all the potential issues. The Microsoft technical forums for WHS and the forums at http://wegotserved.com have many discussions of using RAID beneath WHS.

I was too general discussing the boot order in a WHS server recovery. While I know that a WHS Server RE-INSTALLATION can only be done if the WHS System disk is the first disk in the BIOS boot order, I don't know WHAT happens if you attempt a WHS SERVER RECOVERY using a new disk that isn't the first in the BIOS boot order.

Regarding WHS repair options involving the System disk, the following three repair options are available:

1) New Server - If you want to start fresh. Everything gets erased. You install WHS on the system disk, then add additional disks. As you add disks to the storage pool, the disks are formatted as they are added.

2) Server Re-Install - If the system disk is functional, but WHS has been messed up. This option installs WHS on top of the old installation. If the WHS installer finds an existing WHS installation on the FIRST disk in the BIOS boot order, you'll get this option. You leave all the data disks in place and none of the storage disks are formatted.

3) Server Recovery - If the system disk has failed, you replace it with a new disk. The WHS installer will recognize the existing data disks and offer the option of a server recovery, installing WHS on the new (empty) system disk.The primary data partition on the system disk is formatted, losing the tombstones and any shared data on that first disk. After WHS is installed, it scans all of the data disks and rebuilds the tombstones.