Hi,

Does the controller show the drives as non raid? Is the driver and firmware up to date? http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=2H45F&fileId=3578894387&osCode=WST14&productCode=poweredge-r730&languageCode=en&categoryId=SF

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=T244W&fileId=3578897139&osCode=WST14&productCode=poweredge-r730&languageCode=en&categoryId=SF

what do you mean by " Does the controller show the drives as non raid?" ?

i've configured HBA mode in the controller , is that what you mean?

i've also installed both drivers but windows keeps showing "RAID" in thier bus type

Unfortunately Microsoft does not support the use of RAID controllers in Pass-through mode for Spaces Direct. At this time the only supported controller on an R730 will be the HBA330 and will require the removal of the H730 from the server.

PERC H730 should support pass trough mode according the the information published in dell documents.

i've switched my controller to HBA mode, and the disks state in Non-RAID in the controller.

why does Windows see that disks as RAID ? this is clearly a bug.

You are correct that the H730 does have a pass-through mode the issue is Microsoft Spaces Direct does not support Raid controllers in Pass through mode and Dell at this time only supports using the HBA330 for Spaces Direct in Dell servers.

Hi gilte,

As its been stated before you must use the HBA330 if you plan to use storage spaces direct. You are seeing the bustype as RAID meaning that you are not using a "simple" HBA like the HBA330  but rather an H730 in bypass mode which is not supported.  This is expected behavior and not a bug. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/clausjor/2015/11/23/hardware-options-for-evaluating-storage-spaces-direct-in-technical-preview-4/ 

What about creating single disk raid 0 VD for each drive?

This article here clearly shows that this worked on a R610 / perc H700 & Server 2012 R2 for making Storage Spaces.

www.exitthefastlane.com/.../fun-with-storage-spaces-in-windows.html

I was planning on doing the same, but now wondering if I can.


And where would one get an HBA330 controller?  This is NOT the H330?  I can't find one on Dell.com or Google search.  Just some documentation for it.

The fun with storage spaces article is related to Storage Spaces on 2012R2 for a Software Defined Storage Solution (SDS)  and while it can run in the configuration suggested it would not be supported.

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) is a hyper converged solution and would also not be supported in the above configuration, and is only supported on 13th generation Dell platforms (R730, R630, R930 for example)  that also support the HBA330 and Windows Datacenter edition.

The primary reason behind Spaces solutions that leverage a raid controller not being supported is Raid on top of Raid is not supported. Raid controllers still have logic that can interfere with Spaces being able to properly manage and communicate with the individual disks even if the disks are configured in standalone Raid 0's.