Sign in
Microsoft.com
 
Microsoft
 
 
 

locked
Prevent the "SYS/OS" Drive from Participating in the Storage Pool RRS feed

 > 

  • Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
     I can't find an answer to the following question about how WHS drive pooling works.  I have a 640GB drive for the OS that I would like to not have ANY of it participate in the drive storage pool.  I bought it with the intention of ONLY being an OS drive.  However, it looks like it creates the small OS partition (SYS, 20GB) and then allocates the rest of the "OS" (DATA partition) drive to the pool.  I don't want this.  The reason I don't want this is that I buy storage hard drives in pairs (ie 2x 1.5TB drives at a time) and then duplicate (ie sync) ALL the data between them.  I don't intend to have ANY data on ANY of my storage drives that is not set to duplicate.  So, the way WHS is handling it, the way I understand it, I would have to purchase an additional 640GB drive to "match" my OS drive.  I'd rather not do this; it's a waste of hot swap drive bay space in the Norco 4020 (I'd rather throw at least 1TB drives in there).  So, is there any way from preventing the DATA partition on my WHS OS drive from participating in the storage pool?
    Friday, April 3, 2009 5:11 AM

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    You can't prevent Windows Home Server from using the rest of the system drive (what's left over after it alloctes 20 GB for the system partition) as the start of the storage pool. However, you don't have to add drives in matched pairs, so you can use 1 TB drives in your external enclosure.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Friday, April 3, 2009 5:41 AM
    Moderator

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    You can't prevent Windows Home Server from using the rest of the system drive (what's left over after it alloctes 20 GB for the system partition) as the start of the storage pool. However, you don't have to add drives in matched pairs, so you can use 1 TB drives in your external enclosure.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Friday, April 3, 2009 5:41 AM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Thanks for the reply.  I am aware that I don't have to add drives in matched pairs, technically.  However, to accomplish what I wish I really do have to.  Think of it this way, I fill 1TB of space which I intend to 100% duplicate.  Well, to do that I have to have another 1TB space to duplicate to.  I find it the easiest to keep track of if I always buy drives in matched pairs so that I always know that I have enough space to fully duplicate a storage drive to.  Adding a 640GB drive to the "storage" pool without a match duplicating the data on it makes it more complicated to know wether I have the proper duplication space or not so it's not my preferred option.

    So, if there is no supported way to do this am I really down to only two solutions?

    1.  Buy 2 more 1.5TB drives and use 1 for the OS?
    2.  Follow the instructions in this post http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/7b895a02-0300-4738-8d74-e9ca88691137/ and simply resize the sys partition to 620GB or so?
    3.  Fill the space outside of the DE folder with some blank, large files I don't care about to prevent data being placed on the pooled part of the D: partition?
    4.  I also assume you can't just safely 'remove/format' the start of the storage pool?

    Thanks again for the reply!

    -Pirivan-
    • Edited by Pirivan Friday, April 3, 2009 3:30 PM
    Friday, April 3, 2009 5:56 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I think you're obsessing about a detail that, in the end, is completely unimportant. :)

    1. This is the only supported option.
    2. You can do this, but there is no guarantee that it will work as you expect, that a hypothetical future update will work correctly, or that your server will even be able to receive updates like Power Packs 1 and 2.
    3. If you do this, Windows Home Server will begin to report network health issues; in normal operation a small amount of space is always kept free as a buffer against file growth, etc.
    4. No.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Friday, April 3, 2009 11:31 AM
    Moderator
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    Well, it sounds like perhaps there really is no good way to accomplish this; the potential solutions all have drawbacks (performance or otherwise).  It sounds like the best option (outside of buying 2 more 1.5TB drives and using 1 for the OS) is to 'monitor' the algorithm that DE is using and just make sure I have enough free space on my other 'data' drives.  It sounds like it will try to avoid using this partition if there is any free space on the other disks. so as long as I maintain some free space on the other drives, it will avoid storing anything here.  I'm not wholly happy with it (I don't like the loss of granular control over file storage) but I think that is part of the WHS goal; trading flexibility and control for simplicity and easy of management.

    "This is the algorithm Drive Extender uses to decide which volume to place your files

    i.Use the volume with the least amount of free space but greater than 10GB

    ii.Use the volume with the most amount of free space so long as it has more space than the Primary Volume (D volume)

    iii.Use the Primary Volume (D volume)"


    Friday, April 3, 2009 3:36 PM