Users Guide

Storage Solutions Guide 41
Preparing the Disk for Storing VHDs or VM Files
Both VHDs and VM files (configuration, saved state data, etc) must reside on
a formatted partition. Perform the following steps after provisioning LUNs to
the parent partition:
1
Using Disk Management or diskpart , place an NTFS partition on the
provisioned disks and assign a drive letter to the partition. It is
recommended to utilize a GPT partition type based on their improved
partition data structure integrity when compared to MBR and support for
LUNs greater than 2 TB.
If using
diskpart , perform the following commands in order:
a LIST DISK (note the newly provisioned disk number)
b SELECT DISK X (where X is the disk number)
c ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
d ONLINE DISK
e CONVERT GPT (initializes the disk)
f CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
g FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL=" LABE L" QUICK
h ASSIGN LETTER= Y (where Y is an available disk letter)
NOTE: If your configuration has a large number of disks and will exceed the
26 drive letters available, mount points can be utilized. For more information
on mount points, refer to the Microsoft TechNet article, Assign a mount point
folder path to a drive at technet.microsoft.com.
2 If the disk is to be utilized for a highly available VM, make the disk a
cluster resource.
3 Create VHDs for the virtual machine using Hyper-V Manager.