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We have a S2D Storage Spaces Direct cluster that we are wanting to add a General Purpose File Server to.

Is it possible to use the S2D Cluster Shared Volume for the File Server role ?

When i try and create the File Server role it gives me this error.

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However when I try and add a disk under 'Disks' it gives me this error

enter image description here

Brendan Gooden
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2 Answers2

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While you can use Cluster Shared Volumes to build a Scale-Out File Server, using them for a File Server for General Use is not supported. You have to move one of your clustered disks from Cluster Shared Volumes back to Available Storage to be able to select it in the Select Storage section of the File Server creation wizard.

Net Runner
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    any documentaion for moving from CSV to Available storage? – Brendan Gooden Feb 16 '23 at 03:35
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    If you right-click on CSV and remove it from "Cluster Shared Volumes" it will essentially become "Avaliable Storage". This operation is safe and does not lead to data loss. You can put available storage back to cluster shared volumes any time. – Net Runner Feb 16 '23 at 23:06
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    Build tons of Hyper-V clusters this way, the only exception is that we use StarWind virtual SAN and not S2D, but it doesn’t really matter. Long story short: Don’t mix Hyper-V roles. – Stuka Feb 23 '23 at 09:17
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You definitely can, but it doesn’t mean you should… It’s a bad idea to mix up Hyper-V role with anything else, including file server. There’s some long list of reasons - why, security comes first. What you should be doing - spawn a pair of a virtual machines (You talk S2D which means you got Datacenter edition, so you’re eligible to have as many instances of the Windows Server as you want, no licensing restrictions here), put shared VHDX on top of your freshly created S2D pool and do guest VM cluster (few useful links to the guides have been added below). Within this approach you’ll be blessed, will keep CISO happy and won’t be hated when one particular role would interfere with the other to compromise performance (for example), as settings are cluster-wide.

(Deploy a Guest Cluster Using a Shared Virtual Hard Disk)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/dn265980(v=ws.11)

(Deploying a two-node clustered file server)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/deploy-two-node-clustered-file-server

RiGiD5
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