Tag Archives: diskpart

Extending a Microsoft Hyper-V R2 Cluster Shared Volume

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Hyper-V

This quick blog post shows you how you can simply extend a Hyper-V R2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster Shared Volume without any downtime. First you expand your LUN in your OEM SAN management software. This is mostly of the time nothing special. But after that you have to expand the Cluster Shared Volume.

  • In your OEM SAN Management Software expand the size of the LUN or disk
  • Open the Microsoft Failover Cluster Manager and check the CSV coordinator for the disk or LUN you have expanded. The CSV coordinator is the disk owner in the cluster
  • Login to the CSV coordinator machine
  • If you are using the GUI version you can use the Disk Management under Storage in the Server Manager. You can now rescan for disks and then expand the Disk or LUN.
  • If you are using Hyper-V or Windows Server Core you can use diskpart
  • First start the cmd and open diskpart
  • type rescan
  • now type list volume, to list all volumes
  • Use select volume IDNumber, the IDNumber is the number you could see with list volume in the previous step.
  • now you can type extend
  • with list volume you can see the results

In some environments sometimes if you need to expand a Cluster Shared volume it makes more sense to create a new one and move the Virtual Machines with Storage Migration but this cannot be done without downtime.

Boot from VHD

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If you need to run multiple instances of Windows on your computer, you have different options. First you could use software like Microsoft Virtual PC or VMware Workstation to run a virtual instance. But if you need more performance, or you have to run for example Microsoft Hyper-V you need a native installed Operating System. Until Microsoft added the feature “boot from VHD”, you had to create different partitions for each installation. Since Microsoft allowed you to use VHD to boot you won a lot of flexibility.

This guide should show you how you can install a new operation system in a VHD, which you can boot from.

  1. First boot from a Windows Setup DVD or USB Stick
  2. On the screen where you could click “Install now” you have also a “Repair your computer” option in the bottom left corner. Click on this option or use the short cut “Shift + F10” to boot in to the command line mode.
  3. Enter diskpart
    Capture1
  4. Create a new VHD file
    create vdisk file=”filepathandfilename” type=”expandable” maximum=maxsiize
    Capture2
  5. Now you have to attach this VHD
    select vidsk file=”filepathandfilename”
    attach vdisk
    Capture3
  6. Now you can switch back to the “Install now” screenby pressing “ALT+TAB” and now do the setup on the new create vdisk.
  7. If you start Windows the next time you will see the new and the old Windows in the boot menu.

If you want to add a already existing VHD to the boot menu you can use bdcedit to edit the boot menu.

bcdedit /copy {originalguid} /d "New Windows 7 Installation"
bcdedit /set {newguid} device vhd=[D:]\Image.vhd
bcdedit /set {newguid} osdevice vhd=[D:]\Image.vhd
bcdedit /set {newguid} detecthal on

You can get more information here.

Cisco UCS Hyper-V Cluster – Configure Blade Servers – Part 4

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After we have installed the Cisco Blade Servers we now have to do some configuration on the Hosts.

  1. First I activate Remote Management like Remote Desktop, Remote MMC and Powershell.
  2. I add a Firewall rule for Remote Disk Managment 
     netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Volume Management" new enable=yes

    Firewall Rule

  3. After adding this firewall rule, I install the Multipath I/O feature 
     ocsetup MultipathIo
  4. Now you can use the MPclaim command-line tool to manage Multipath I/O
    To view all detected enterprise storage:

     Mpclaim -e

    Add MPIO support for Fibre Channel devices:

     mpclaim.exe -r -i -d < _VendorID> < _ProductID>

    Important: Note that the vendor string length is 8 characters, the product string length is 16 characters, and both fields are padded with spaces as needed.
    More Information about the MPclaim command-line tool
    MPclaim

  5. With diskpart you can now see the disks. And you can format the disks with NTFS. Important after that you should take the disks offline to use them in the cluster.
    Diskpart
  6. In the Configuration Menu enable the Cluster Feature.
  7. On each note the all Cluster disks offline. 
    select disk 2
disk offline

In the next post we will configure the Network Adapters of the Cluster notes and create the virtual networks.

Howto Attach / Detach VHD in Windows Server 2008 R2

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This little HowTo shows you how you can attach or detach VHDs (Virtual Hard Disk) in Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7. Basically you can use the Disk Management in the Server Manager to do that.

  1. Open Disk Management
    Disk Management Windows Server 2008 R2
  2. Now click on “More actions” and “Attach VHD”
    Disk Management Windows Server 2008 R2
  3. Now you can choose the VHD you want to attach
    Attach VHD
  4. As you can see you have now a new Virtual Hard Drive in your Disk Management
    Attach VHD Windows Server 2008 R2
  5. To Detach the VHD right click on it and click on “Detach VHD”
    Detach VHD Windows Server 2008 R2

You can also attach and detach VHD’s via diskpart.exe

Attach VHD with Diskpart.exe

Attach VHD via Diskpart.exe

diskpart
select vdisk file="D:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\data.vhd"
attach vdisk

Detach VHD via Diskpart.exe

diskpart
select vdisk file="D:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\data.vhd"
attach vdisk

Cheatsheet: Using Diskpart on a Server Core installation #4

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Using Diskpart on a Server Core installation. Disk Administration or Partition a disk.

Create a new partition and format a partition

SELECT DISK 0
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
ASSIGN LETTER=E
SELECT PARTITION 1
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="New Volume" QUICK
EXIT

Commands you may then issue at the DISKPART prompt:

LIST Disk
LIST Partition
LIST Volume

SELECT Disk n
SELECT Volume n
SELECT Partition n

DETAIL Disk
DETAIL Partition
DETAIL volume

HELP
REM (remark/comment)
EXIT

Commands to Manage Basic Disks:

(set the current in-focus partition to be the system partition)

ASSIGN (allocate the next free drive letter)
ASSIGN LETTER=l (Choose a free letter)

CREATE PARTITION Primary Size=50000 (50 GB)
CREATE PARTITION Extended Size=25000
CREATE PARTITION logical Size=25000

DELETE Partition

EXTEND Size=10000

REMOVE letter=l (Remove drive letter l from the in-focus partition)
REMOVE /ALL (Remove ALL current drive letters and mount points)

Commands to Manage Dynamic Disks:

(set the current in-focus partition to be the system partition)

ASSIGN (allocate the next free drive letter)
ASSIGN LETTER=l (Choose a free letter)

ADD disk=n (Add a mirror to the in-focus SIMPLE volume on the specified disk.)

BREAK disk=n (Break the current in-focus mirror)

CREATE VOLUME Simple Size=n Disk=n
CREATE VOLUME Stripe Size=n Disk=n,n,...
CREATE VOLUME Raid Size=n Disk=n,n,...

DELETE DISK
DELETE PARTITION
DELETE VOLUME

EXTEND disk=n [Size=n]
IMPORT
ONLINE

REMOVE letter=l (Remove drive letter l from the in-focus volume)
REMOVE /ALL (Remove ALL current drive letters and mount points)
RETAIN

Commands to Convert Disks:

CONVERT mbr
CONVERT gpt
CONVERT dynamic
CONVERT basic

CLEAN ALL (remove all partition and volume info from the hard drive)
RESCAN