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Storage Spaces: Cannot create Parity layout virtual disk with Usage=ManualSelect

Question

Thursday, July 28, 2016 3:43 PM

Problem in Windows Server 2016 Storage Spaces.

I get error while creating virtual disk (Parity layout) on physical disks with Usage=ManualSelect

Steps:

  1. Have 4 physical disks of the same size.
  2. Create Storage pool with PS command:
    New-StoragePool -FriendlyName pool -PhysicalDisks (Get-PhysicalDisk -CanPool $true) -StorageSubSystemFriendlyName (Get-StorageSubsystem).FriendlyName
  3. Change disks Usage to ManualSelect:
    Get-PhysicalDisk -StoragePool (Get-StoragePool -FriendlyName pool) | Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage ManualSelect
  4. Create virtual disk:
    New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName pool -FriendlyName data -NumberOfColumns 4 -PhysicalDiskRedundancy 1 -PhysicalDisksToUse (Get-PhysicalDisk -Usage ManualSelect) -ProvisioningType Fixed -ResiliencySettingName Parity -UseMaximumSize

Error occurs:

New-VirtualDisk : Not Supported

Extended information:
The storage pool does not have sufficient eligible resources for the creation of the specified virtual disk.

Recommended Actions:
- Choose a combination of FaultDomainAwareness and NumberOfDataCopies (or PhysicalDiskRedundancy) supported by the storage pool.
- Choose a value for NumberOfColumns that is less than or equal to the number of physical disks in the storage fault domain selected for the virtual disk.

Activity ID: {63c2cf05-b67a-48f0-947c-9121c0f2858d}
At line:1 char:1
+ New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName pool -FriendlyName data -Number ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (StorageWMI:ROOT/Microsoft/...SFT_StoragePool) [New-VirtualDisk], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : StorageWMI 1,New-VirtualDisk

- Changing command parameters does not resolve the problem.

  • While using GUI the same error occurs.
  • If disk Usage is AutoSelect, the commands succeed.
    - If I create virtual disk with Mirror or Simple layout, the commands succeed.
    - The error occurs in Technical Preview 5 and Windows Server 2016 build 14393, that is going to be release.
    - No error occurs in Technical Preview 4 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

So Parity layout virtual disks in useless in Windows Server 2016.

Can be it fixed?
Is there a workaround?

All replies (4)

Saturday, July 30, 2016 11:36 AM âś…Answered | 1 vote

Found a workaround (command line only):

  1. Set usage of physical disks you want to create virtual disk on to AutoSelect (with Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage command).
  2. Create virtual disk with New-VirtualDisk command without specifying -PhysicalDisksToUse parameter. The virtual disk will be created on physical disks with AutoSelect Usage set in the previous step.
  3. Restore physical disks usage.

Friday, July 29, 2016 4:31 AM

Hi ZagSer 168,

Thanks for your post.

In server 2012 we could create the resiliency first, and the tier 2nd. http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/10/21/storage-spaces-how-to-configure-storage-tiers-with-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx

In server 2016, I'm not sure, you issue seems not to be the rare case.You might refer to the thread discussed before.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/c91c7780-4c82-47b2-9efe-c8306b8e2aef/virtual-disk-windows-server-2016-tp4?forum=WinServerPreview

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/75410ae9-939a-4fe5-bb83-db144228ccb0/storage-spaces-direct-tierscache?forum=WinServerPreview

Since it is still in Technical Preview version, we couldn't do the test for you. We might need to wait for the official document to explain that.

Best Regards,

Mary

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Friday, July 29, 2016 7:58 AM

Hi Mary, your links are related to storage tiers, using SSD and HDD. But I just try to create RAID5 array on HDD in storage spaces. It is not rare case.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017 9:52 AM | 1 vote

I found a workaround in the GUI....

Create your vDisk, but specify a small size rather than maximum (I selected 10Tb as I have 23Tb capacity), it then creates the vDisk without error.

Once created, right-click the vDisk and extend and the select Maximum & it'll extend it it out to the maximum capacity for you.