Reference Guide

Preparing Your Systems for Clustering 25
Installing and Configuring the Shared Storage
System
The shared storage array consists of disk volumes that are used in your cluster.
The management software for each supported shared storage array provides a
way to create disk volumes and assigns these volumes to all the nodes in your
cluster.
For more information, see "Preparing Your Systems for Clustering" section in
the Dell Failover Cluster Hardware Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for
your specific storage array on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Assigning Drive Letters and Mount Points
A mount point is a drive attached to an empty folder on an NTFS volume.
A mount point drive functions the same as a normal drive, but is assigned a
label or name instead of a drive letter. Using mount points, a cluster can
support more shared disks than the number of available drive letters.
The cluster installation procedure does not automatically add the mount
point into the disks managed by the cluster. To add the mount point to the
cluster, create a physical disk resource in the cluster resource group for each
mount point. Ensure that the new physical disk resource is in the same cluster
resource group and is dependent on the root disk.
NOTE: Mount points are only supported in MSCS on the Windows Server 2003
operating system. When mounting a drive to an NTFS volume, do not create mount
points from the quorum resource or between the clustered disks and the local
disks. Mount points must be in the same cluster resource group and must be
dependent on the root disk.
NOTICE: If the disk letters are manually assigned from the remaining node(s), the
shared disks are simultaneously accessible from both nodes. To ensure file system
integrity and prevent possible data loss before you install the MSCS software,
prevent any I/O activity to the shared drives by performing this procedure on one
node at a time, and ensure that all other nodes are turned off.
The number of drive letters required by individual servers in a cluster may vary.
It is recommended that the shared drives be named in reverse alphabetical
order beginning with the letter z.