3.4.0 Matrix Server Installation Guide

Chapter 2: Install PolyServe Matrix Server 14

NOTE: When using WLDM to manage your SAN disks, be sure to set the

disk type to “Basic.” If the disk type is currently set to “Dynamic,”

right-click on the disk and select “Convert to Basic disk.” Matrix

Server will not be able to access your SAN disks if the disk type is

set to “Dynamic.”

Matrix Server supports both MBR basic disks and GPT basic disks.

For MBR basic disks, you can use either primary partitions or

extended partitions with logical drives.

When you configure the matrix later in this procedure, you can create

Matrix Server membership partitions on the partitions that you just

created.

If you are unable to create LUNs on your disk array, you can place the

membership partitions on regular disk partitions. You can use the

Windows Logical Disk Management utility to create the appropriate

partitions.

Partitions Containing Windows Filesystems

If you will be using an existing partition for a membership partition and

that partition currently contains a Windows filesystem, then that

filesystem must be destroyed. One method for doing this is to delete the

partition and then recreate it. This is best done before multiple servers

have access to the disk. If that is not possible, all other servers with access

to the disk must be forced to recognize the changes, either by rebooting

all those systems, or by manually disabling the ports on the FibreChannel

switch that connect those systems to the SAN. If using the second

method, disable the ports before making the partition table change, and

then reenable the ports afterwards.

Changes to the Disk Partition Table

We recommend that you do all necessary partitioning on disks that will

contain membership partitions before assigning the membership

partitions. It is best to do the partitioning before multiple servers have

access to the disk. If this is not possible, ensure that all servers having

access to the disk through the SAN detect the partition table changes

before continuing on with membership partition initialization.