Reference Guide

28 Preparing Your Systems for Clustering

Configuring Hard Drive Letters When Using Multiple Shared

Storage Systems

Before installing MSCS, ensure that both nodes have the same view of the

shared storage systems. Because each node has access to hard drives that are

in a common storage array, each node must have identical drive letters

assigned to each hard drive. Your cluster can access more than 22 volumes

using volume mount points in Windows Server 2003.

NOTE: Drive letters A through D are reserved for the local system.

To ensure that hard drive letter assignments are identical:

Ensure that your cables are attached to the shared storage devices in the

proper sequence.

You can view all of the storage devices using Windows Server 2003 Disk

Management.

To maintain proper drive letter assignments, ensure that each storage

connection port is enumerated by each node and is connected to the same

RAID controller, storage processor, or SAN switch.

For more information on the location of the RAID controllers or storage

processors on your shared storage array, see "Cabling Your Cluster

Hardware" in the

Dell Failover Cluster Hardware Installation and

Troubleshooting Guide

for the specific storage array on the Dell Support

website at

support.dell.com

Go to Formatting and Assigning Drive Letters and Volume Labels to the Disks.

Formatting and Assigning Drive Letters and Volume Labels to the Disks

Shut down all the cluster nodes except node 1.

Format the disks, assign the drive letters and volume labels on node 1 by

using the Windows Disk Management utility.

For example, create volumes labeled "Volume Y" for disk Y and "Volume Z"

for disk Z.

Shut down node 1 and perform the following steps on the remaining

node(s), one at a time:

Turn on the node.

Open

Disk Management