D
David Trounce
Summary: The Storage Spaces UI has several problems when there are more than 21 physical disks available to Storage Spaces.
I have 28 SATA disks connected over 6 controllers. 2 are used for an Intel motherboard RAID1 for OS (PhysicalDisk0), so that leaves 26 data disks for Storage Spaces. [The plan is to get to 36 data disks in due course by adding disks (this 36-bay chassis: SC847A-R1400LPB | 4U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.)]
Initially, there were 23 data disks (5x 1TB, 1x 640GB, 14x 500GB, 3x 250GB) as PhysicalDisk1-23 (in that order), which I put into a storage pool. I created a parity disk over all 23 disks. It looks like it is working fine, albeit very slowly on writes.
I've now added 3 more 4TB disks, as PhysicalDisk24-26, and taken them offline, and have now noticed errors in the Storage Pools UI in the Server Manager. For example:
* No more than 21 disks ever show up in the "Physical Disks" area in the lower right. When the 23 disks are connected, only the first 21 show up in the pool I created. With 26 disks connected, only the first 20 show up in the pool, and only 1 more of the new 3 (PhysicalDisk26) shows up in the Primordial group.
* In the Properties of the parity Virtual Disk created over the 23 disks, the disks are shown incorrectly. Again, only 21 disks are shown, and PhysicalDisk26 is incorrectly shown as part of the virtual disk. See image:
* Using the New Storage Pool Wizard, I cannot add more than 1 of the new 3 disks to a new Storage Pool (only PhysicalDisk26 is available). And the details incorrectly refer to PhysicalDisk21. See image (a WDC WD2500JD-22H is a 250GB disk, not a 4TB disk). Thus I cannot use the new disks in a new storage pool.
According the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/...rage-for-scale-resiliency-and-efficiency.aspx:
Q) What is the minimum number of disks I can use to create a pool? What is the maximum?
You can create a pool with only one disk. However, such a pool cannot contain any resilient spaces (i.e. mirrored or parity spaces). It can only contain a simple space which does not provide resiliency to failures. We do test pools comprising multiple hundreds of disks – such as you might see in a datacenter. There is no architectural limit to the number of disks comprising a pool.
However, the UI currently does not seem to correctly work with more than 21 physical disks. Please advise.
Using Server 2012 RC.
Hardware: Supermicro X8SAX (BIOS v2.0), Intel i7-920 2.67GHz, 6x 2GB DDR3-1333 (certified Crucial CT25664BA1339.16SFD)
Disk controllers: 2x RAIDCore BC4852 (PCI-X, final 3.3.1 driver) (15 ports used), 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe, 4.0.0.1200 Marvell driver to allow >2TB disks) (6 ports used), Sil 3114 (PCI, latest 1.5.20.3 driver) (1 port used), motherboard Intel in RAID mode (4 ports used for data, plus 2 for OS RAID1).
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I have 28 SATA disks connected over 6 controllers. 2 are used for an Intel motherboard RAID1 for OS (PhysicalDisk0), so that leaves 26 data disks for Storage Spaces. [The plan is to get to 36 data disks in due course by adding disks (this 36-bay chassis: SC847A-R1400LPB | 4U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.)]
Initially, there were 23 data disks (5x 1TB, 1x 640GB, 14x 500GB, 3x 250GB) as PhysicalDisk1-23 (in that order), which I put into a storage pool. I created a parity disk over all 23 disks. It looks like it is working fine, albeit very slowly on writes.
I've now added 3 more 4TB disks, as PhysicalDisk24-26, and taken them offline, and have now noticed errors in the Storage Pools UI in the Server Manager. For example:
* No more than 21 disks ever show up in the "Physical Disks" area in the lower right. When the 23 disks are connected, only the first 21 show up in the pool I created. With 26 disks connected, only the first 20 show up in the pool, and only 1 more of the new 3 (PhysicalDisk26) shows up in the Primordial group.
* In the Properties of the parity Virtual Disk created over the 23 disks, the disks are shown incorrectly. Again, only 21 disks are shown, and PhysicalDisk26 is incorrectly shown as part of the virtual disk. See image:
* Using the New Storage Pool Wizard, I cannot add more than 1 of the new 3 disks to a new Storage Pool (only PhysicalDisk26 is available). And the details incorrectly refer to PhysicalDisk21. See image (a WDC WD2500JD-22H is a 250GB disk, not a 4TB disk). Thus I cannot use the new disks in a new storage pool.
According the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/...rage-for-scale-resiliency-and-efficiency.aspx:
Q) What is the minimum number of disks I can use to create a pool? What is the maximum?
You can create a pool with only one disk. However, such a pool cannot contain any resilient spaces (i.e. mirrored or parity spaces). It can only contain a simple space which does not provide resiliency to failures. We do test pools comprising multiple hundreds of disks – such as you might see in a datacenter. There is no architectural limit to the number of disks comprising a pool.
However, the UI currently does not seem to correctly work with more than 21 physical disks. Please advise.
Using Server 2012 RC.
Hardware: Supermicro X8SAX (BIOS v2.0), Intel i7-920 2.67GHz, 6x 2GB DDR3-1333 (certified Crucial CT25664BA1339.16SFD)
Disk controllers: 2x RAIDCore BC4852 (PCI-X, final 3.3.1 driver) (15 ports used), 2x Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe, 4.0.0.1200 Marvell driver to allow >2TB disks) (6 ports used), Sil 3114 (PCI, latest 1.5.20.3 driver) (1 port used), motherboard Intel in RAID mode (4 ports used for data, plus 2 for OS RAID1).
Continue reading...