Windows Server: Creating Cluster Shared Volumes

Steps to create disk Cluster Shared Volumes and allowed storage limits.

Cluster Disk and Cluster Shared Volume information: 

• Disks Available: 20
• Disk Size: 3.49 Terabytes
• Mirroring Option: Two-Way Mirror
• Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) needed: 2

1. Multiply number of disks in the storage pool used for future CSVs by the size of the individual disks.
   1.  The equation below is 20 Disks X 3.49 Terabytes = 69.8 Terabytes.
      
2. Subtract the size of one disk per cluster node. 
   1. In this example below the cluster storage disks are 3.49 TB. We are subtracting 6.99 TB which is the size of two cluster storage disks. This allows for the reserve space needed for the cluster storage pool. 

      

3. Next, we account for the Mirroring option used on the Cluster. A two-node cluster uses two-way mirroring so here we divide 62.81 TB by 2 equaling 31.405 TB.
   
   
   
4. The number of Virtual Disks is considered next, and we want to create one CSV Virtual Disk per cluster node. Here we divide 31.405 TB by 2 to get 15.7025 TB. This is the maximum size of CSV Virtual Disk that we can create to get the correct number of Virtual Disks on our two-node cluster.  
   
   
   
5. Some storage calculators show the value in Tebibytes. If a Tebibyte value is needed instead of a Terabyte volume number; we must divide your Terabyte value by 1.099511627776 to get the Tebibyte number.
   1. In the example below we divide 15.7025 by 1.099511627776 to get a Tebibyte number of 14.281134055458941.
      
      
      
6. Next to create the CSV Disks we use Windows Admin Center (WAC). In WAC, we go into the cluster section and select the Volumes section.
   
   
   
7. Next, we switch to the 'Inventory' tab and select the '+ Create' button.
   
   
   
8. On the 'Create volume' page that we can give the volume a name, configure Resiliency, and decide on the size of the disk.
   1.  In our example below our values are creating a disk named Volume01, using Two-way mirroring with a size of 10 TB.
      
       
   2. Click on the 'Create' button to complete the CSV disk creation.
      
      
       
9. Next, we follow the steps used in step 8 and create a second CSV disk dedicated to Node 2 in the cluster.
   
   
   
10. When complete we can check our results in the Failover Cluster Manager tool. The screenshot below shows our new CSV disk files and location on each cluster node.