Cannot find Quorum disk in Server 2008 in Virtual Server 2005 R2

I am new to Windows Server Clustering. To simplify the environment, I decided
to start from one-node cluster. However, I encounter a problem to set up
quorum disk. I would really appreciate your great help! :) My steps are below:
1. I created three Windows Server 2008 RC1 VMs in Virtual Server 2005 R2. I
prompted one VM to DC. The name of the DC VM is MyDC. I joined another VM to
the DC. The name of the computer is Node1.
2. I added the SCSI adapter to Node1 and attached a fixed sized .VHD to the
adapter.
3. On Node1, I initialized the SCSI disk and format it in NTFS.
4. On MyDC, I run Validatation Wizard for Node1. The test items for Storage
end up with many Warnings, state the test for these items are skipped.

Seems the SCSI disk is not recognized as a suitable disk for clustering. Did
I miss anything? Many thanks!

> Seems the SCSI disk is not recognized as a suitable disk for clustering.
Did
> I miss anything? Many thanks!

you did not mis anything, except that 2008 Failover Clustering is no longer
supporting SCSI disk as clustered resources, it supports FC, SAS, and iSCSI

iSCSI is the easiest if you are running Virtual Servers

Rgds,
Edwin.

Hi Edwin,

Thanks for your help. I find some resources about iSCSI.
I removed the SCSI adapter, and attach the .VHD by using IDE.
Then I start the iSCSI Initiator in Server 2008. I am prompted to start the
corresponding service. On the Discovery tab, I add a portal by using the
local machine IP. It failed. Can you show me how to do it?

Roughly you need to do the following

1) setup a Virtual server to act like a domain controller (unless you
already have one)
2) setup a Virtual server running iSCSI target software (compliant with 2008
cluster requirements, such as starwind), this can be the same VM as 1)
3) now you can setup your 2008 nodes, with the iSCSI Initiator connecting to
your iSCSI target from step 2)
4) then continue setting up your cluster

the key here is that you need an iSCSI target to connect to

Thank you, Edwin. After I installed Starwind, the quorum drive is found
successfully. Thanks so much for your help.

One additional question (apart of this topic) is that I have to rely on
third-party software to accomplish this. I am not sure if Hyper-V already
provides the mechanism like Starwind.

I think Microsoft is bundling a version of an iSCSI target software with
their "Microsoft Windows Storage Server", which is an OEM product. So unless
you buy this from an OEM (HP, Dell and the likes) there is no other
Microsoft product out there.

Thank you so much, Edwin. You expertise helped me greatly to get my hands on
Windows Server 2008 clustering. Now I successfully created the cluster to
include the quorum disk.

Then I am going to build a "real" cluster by including a DC and two nodes. I
decide to use Hyper-V to build. To reason is that shared mode SCSI in Virtual
Server 2005 R2 does not allow you to enable undo disk. I think the snapshot
mechanism can solve this problem.

However, one other obstacle I am facing is how to create a shared disk to be
used by these two nodes. Seems Starwind can only create a virtual shared disk
on a disk that already exists in the operating system. For example, I create
a fix virtual hard disk to attach to Node1. I can use Starwind to create a
shared disk on this virtual hard disk. However, this virtual hard disk cannot
be attached to Node2 because it is already used. Then I think using SCSI
driver with shared mode to attach the virtual hard disk to both nodes, and
then I can use Starwind to create other shared disks on this virtual hard
disk. However, I cannot find the shared mode for SCSI adapter in Hyper-V.
After I attach the SCSI disk to Node1, I can no longer attach the SCSI disk
to Node2.

Do you have any suggestion? Sorry to bother you so much, Edwin.
Have a great day! :)

are you using the free version of starwind ?
(which won't work... well, I never got it to work)

you need to create a shared disk then connect from both nodes to that disk

StarWind works with the clustering thing just fine! Free license does
not permit more then one concurrent
connection and has clustering mode turned OFF. If you need to play
with clusters either don't apply free license
file at all (you'll have 30 days of the fully functional Professional
version in such a case) or simply ask RDS
staff for you free NFR license referencing the fact you're MVP or MCT
or plan to use their iSCSI target in
non-production environment only. I don't think your request is going
to be rejected :)

So, that is the reason that the free version does not work... thanks for
posting !

also, interesting to know about these NFR licenses... but I use a licensed
version already !