With FSCLUSTER configured, you can use System Center Virtual Machine Manager to create a new storage space, or virtual disk, for actually storing data. When a storage space is created, the volume is formatted appropriately and converted to a CSV. A continuously available file share, onto which data can be placed, is provisioned on that CSV. The storage pool that was created earlier consisted of a mix of HDD- and SSD-based media. When creating a new virtual disk, you have the option to specify whether to enable storage tiering for that particular virtual disk, which will create a virtual disk of administrator-defined capacity, using a mix of the HDD and SSD devices. Unfortunately, in System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, you are unable to create tiered storage spaces. But you can still create a tiered storage space one of two ways. The first way is to use Failover Cluster Manager and create the virtual disk, and subsequently a file share, by using a GUI. The second option is to use Windows PowerShell to create a tiered space, which provides additional granularity over columns and interleave.
This example walks through the GUI to create this single storage space, and ultimately, file share.
1. Log on to FS01 using contoso\administrator credentials.
2. Open Failover Cluster Manager, expand Storage, and click Pools.
3. Select Cluster Pool 1. In the information pane, ensure that the pool name is POOL1.
4. On the right side of the window, click New Virtual Disk.
5. On the Before You Begin Page, click Next.
6. On the Select The Storage Pool page, click POOL1, and then click Next.
7. On the Specify The Virtual Disk Name page, type TenantDisk1, select Create Storage Tiers On This Virtual Disk, and then click Next.
8. On the Select The Storage Layout page, select Mirror, and click Next.
9. On the Configure The Resiliency Settings page, select Two-way Mirror, and click Next.
10. On the Specify The Size Of The Virtual Sisk page, shown in Figure 4-18, under Faster Tier (SSD), click Specify Size and type 124; under Standard Tier (HDD), click Specify Size, and type 1295; and then click Next. This creates a 1.39-TB virtual disk in this configuration.
FIGURE 4-18 Tiered pool configuration during provisioning
11. On the Confirm Selections page, review the summarized information, and click Create. Windows Server creates the new virtual disk.
12. On the View Results page, ensure that the Create A Volume When This Wizard Closes check box is selected, and click Close.
13. On the Before You Begin page, click Next.
14. On the Select The Server And Disk Page, select SOFS, and click Next.
15. On the Specify The Size Of The Volume page, click Next.
16. On the Confirm Selections page, review the summarized information, and click Create. Windows Server creates and formats the volume, transforms it into a CSV, and updates all relevant information to enable usage by the SOFS.
17. When the process is completed, click Close.
18. Remaining within Failover Cluster Manager, under Storage, click Disks. Notice that the Cluster Virtual Disk has been created.
19. Repeat steps 4 through 18 to create three additional virtual disks with the names TenantDisk2, InfraDisk1, and InfraDisk2. They should all have the same capacities as previously used.
20. Repeat steps 4 through 18 for one final disk, which will host the System Center Virtual Machine Manager library. The size of this one can be smaller for this POC. Use Library as the name, and configure the virtual disk with 10-GB SSD and 500-GB HDD. The other settings can remain the same as previously used.
To view more information about the virtual disks that you have created, on FS01, in Failover Cluster Manager, expand Storage, and click Disks. Note the new cluster virtual disks that have been created. In the information window, under Resiliency, review that information about the resiliency mode chosen. In this case, the resiliency mode is mirror. Also note information about column count and interleave.
Besides offering resiliency to drive failures, storage spaces also offer increased performance by striping data across multiple disks. Storage spaces describe a stripe by specifying two parameters, NumberOfColumns and Interleave:
A stripe represents one pass of data written to a storage space, with data written in multiple stripes (passes).
Columns correlate to underlying physical disks across which one stripe of data for a storage space is written.
Interleave represents the amount of data written to a single column per stripe. The NumberOfColumns and Interleave parameters, accessible via Windows PowerShell and WMI, determine the width of the stripe (stripe_width = NumberOfColumns * Interleave). The stripe width determines how much data and parity (in the case of parity spaces) Storage Spaces writes across multiple disks to increase performance available to applications. In this configuration, the creation wizard sets the default number of columns and interleave based on this configuration.TIP For further detailed guidance on how to optimally configure your virtual disks, including column count settings, based on your environment, review the Storage Spaces design information on TechNet at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=517497.
The final step is to create a new file share that resides on the new CSV. Although you could perform this task within Failover Cluster Manager, in this procedure you perform this step within System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
1. Log on to VMM01 using contoso\administrator credentials.
2. Open the System Center Virtual Machine Manager console, click Fabric, click Storage, and then click Providers.
3. Right-click FSCLUSTER.contoso.com, and select Rescan. This makes the newly created CSV visible to System Center Virtual Machine Manager. This process might take a few minutes.
4. Once the process is completed, under Storage, click Classifications And Pools. Under the expanded POOL1, is a number of new Logical Units, representing the virtual disks just created.
5. On the top ribbon navigation, click Create File Share.
6. In the Create File Share Wizard, for the name, type TenantShare1.
7. From the Storage Type drop-down list, select Volume.
8. From the Volume drop-down list, select your appropriate CSV that represents TenantDisk1. If you are unsure about which CSV maps to which virtual disk, return to Failover Cluster Manager on FS01, click Storage, and then click Disks. When you select a particular virtual disk, the information pane displays the correct CSV. If you created your virtual disks in the same order as described above, your TenantDisk1 should map to C:\ClusterStorage\Volume2.
9. In the Classification drop-down list, select Tenant Storage, and then click Create.
10. Repeat steps 5 through 9 to create four additional file shares named TenantShare2, InfraShare1, InfraShare2, and LibraryShare. For InfraShare1, InfraShare2, and LibraryShare, use Infrastructure Storage as the classification. Again, use Failover Cluster Manager on FS01 to assist mapping the particular CSV to the underlying virtual disk.
11. When this is completed, in the Fabric view, under Storage, click File Servers. Expand SOFS.contoso.com to verify the new file shares are available.