WHS 2011 - Splits LSI 12TB

[The_Tango]

Well I put in a new boot drive, installed WHS 2011 & ran into a problem. The 12TB raid 5 drive on a LSI 84916E card shows up a bunch of separate 2TB drives. Whenever I go into the LSI software the 12TB drive shows up.

Anyone point me to a solution?

 

[stevech]

Well I put in a new boot drive, installed WHS 2011 & ran into a problem. The 12TB raid 5 drive on a LSI 84916E card shows up a bunch of separate 2TB drives. Whenever I go into the LSI software the 12TB drive shows up.

Anyone point me to a solution?

A solution to the shortcomings of WHS 2011?

 

[00Roush]

Off the top of my head I wondered if this was related to MBR partitions vs GPT partitions. I think MBR partitions are limited to 2TB. Also I think WHS has a maximum backup size of 2TB. With that WHS 2011 might automatically partition your drive into 2TB chunks so it is easier to manage.

Shouldn't be that hard to change. Just open the disk management control panel. I think the easiest is to click the Server Manager icon that is already on the taskbar then select the Storage\Disk Management section. From here you can delete the existing partitions and change the disk type to GPT. Basically the same as how Server 2008 R2 works. Might be able to do the same thing using the dashboard but not sure of the steps.

Let me know if that helps.

00Roush

 

[The_Tango]

"MBR partitions vs GPT partitions" - Will give it a look but the LSI card is making the 2TB drives into one large drive, isn't this what WHS should see.

This was not a problem with Server 2003.

 

[The_Tango]

Back to Server 2003 - WHS 2011 is back on the shelf.

 

[00Roush]

Fyi WHS 2011 is basically Server 2008 R2 except it has stripped down functions and the WHS front end added. Almost the same as how the original WHS was basically a stripped down Server 2003. You can choose to not use the WHS front end and use it like Server 2008 R2 and it would be very similar to Server 2003. Except much more up to date.

I am sure WHS is seeing the full 12TB disk but by default the WHS front end is probably setup to automatically break larger disks into 2TB partitions so that backups are easier. If you use the disk management tool you should be able to setup the disk partition(s) however you want.

00Roush

 

[The_Tango]

The only problem is unless I can keep it from automatically breaking the large drive apart then the drive has to be rebuilt and files copied over from backup.
This takes a lot of time - days.

"If you use the disk management tool you should be able to setup the disk partition(s) however you want." - I don't know how to do this

Thanks

 

[00Roush]

I am pretty sure once you format your 12TB volume WHS 2011 won't break it apart. I believe it will just warn you that you will not be able to backup the volume using the backup features that are included with WHS 2011 (Server 2008 R2). I will check on this though. It will give me a reason to check out WHS 2011 again.

To open disk management control panel just type diskmgmt.msc in run box or command prompt. If you are not familiar with the disk management tool here is a how to that might help... http://www.7tutorials.com/how-manage-your-disks-using-disk-management-utility.

I will see if I can't test out WHS 2011 to see how it deals with volumes larger than 2TB if I don't use the WHS dashboard.

00Roush

 

[00Roush]

I got WHS 2011 setup in a VM and was able to format a 2.6TB volume and then was able to use it in the WHS dashboard without any issues. My understanding is if you use the WHS dashboard interface to setup and format disks that is when they will be broken up into 2TB chunks (partitions).

If you already have your 12TB volume formatted the way you want it you can use it with WHS 2011 fairly easily. Just open the disk management tool and right click on the volume then select change drive letter and paths. With that you can assign a drive letter to your volume and then it can be used with the WHS dashboard interface. You might have to re-setup shared folders and such but it should keep all your data intact.


Additional things I found while testing...
WHS 2011 works just like Server 2008 R2 if you log in locally and ignore the Dashboard and other built in WHS software.
You can use RDP to log into WHS 2011 and manage the server.
You can use a boot disk smaller than 160 GB if you want. Instructions are here.

Hope the info helps.

Cheers,
00Roush

 

[coxhaus]

Home Server 2011 only supports up to 2 TB boot drives. Install Home Server on a separate SSD or hard drive. Then after the server is running add LSI controller and drivers if need be.

PS
I am assuming you have data on the RAID already. If you are starting fresh with no data and want to use the RAID as the boot drive then create a container in the LSI card using the LSI firmware which is less than 2 TB. Then create a container using the rest of hard drive space which can be any size or multiple containers. The second container will turn out to be the D drive in Home Server. The C drive has to be 2 TB or less.