Disk bus type does not support clustering. Disk is on the system bus

Question

_{Wednesday, March 5, 2008 12:46 AM}

Hi,
I am trying to build a cluster (first time) on Windows 2008 Ent Server envirionment. We have two identical servers with RAID 5 drives on them. When I ran the Validation Wizard I get following for the disk I want to use in Cluster

Disk bus type does not support clustering. Disk is on the system bus. Disk partition style is MBR. Disk partition type is DYNAMIC.

I also received following
List Potential Cluster Disks
List disks visible to all nodes that will be validated for cluster compatibility. Online clustered disks will be excluded.
No disks were found on which to perform cluster validation tests. To correct this, review the following possible causes:
* The disks are already clustered and currently Online in the cluster. When testing a working cluster, ensure that the disks that you want to test are Offline in the cluster.
* The disks are unsuitable for clustering. Boot volumes, system volumes, disks used for paging or dump files, and disks that do not use NTFS are examples of disks unsuitable for clustering.
* The disks are not visible to all nodes (even though they are in shared storage). Review the "List All Disks" test to see which disks are visible to all nodes. Ensure that the disks you want to test are unmasked, that is, your masking or zoning does not prevent access to the disks. If the disks seem to be unmasked or zoned correctly but could not be tested, try restarting the servers before running the validation tests again.
* The cluster does not use shared storage. A cluster must use a hardware solution based either on shared storage or on replication between nodes. If your solution is based on replication between nodes, you do not need to rerun Storage tests. Instead, work with the provider of your replication solution to ensure that replicated copies of the cluster configuration database can be maintained across the nodes.
No disks were found on which to perform cluster validation tests.

When I tried to add disk to cluster I get following.

No disks suitable for cluster disks were found. For diagnostic information avout disks available to the cluster use the Validate a Configuration Wizard to run storage tests.

Could you please tell me where I am making a mistake?

Thank you

All replies (12)

_{Wednesday, March 5, 2008 3:48 AM ✅Answered}

Hi,

The problem is that the disk is Dynamic, I recommend you change it to a Basic MBR disk.  Dynamic Disks are not natively supported in-box on Failover Clusters.  You need to purchase Symantec Storage Foundations for Windows to enable Dynamic Disk support on Microsoft Failover Clusters.

Thanks!
Elden

_{Friday, March 28, 2008 7:45 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Yes, that is correct.  You need some sort of external SAN storage that is available to all the nodes in the cluster, this could be iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or SAS.

You can create clusters without shared disks, but then it requires data replication software to ensure all the user data is copied to all the nodes in the cluster.  There are many 3rd party replication solutions that plug into Failover Clustering.  Exchange 2007 CCR has this functionality built in, so no additional software is needed.

_{Wednesday, March 5, 2008 5:38 AM}

Elden,
I have converted both servers' disks to Basic disks but I get the same message when I ran Validation Wizard.

Disk bus type does not support clustering. Disk is on the system bus. Disk partition style is MBR. Disk partition type is BASIC

_{Thursday, March 27, 2008 3:33 PM}

I'm having the same exact problem... I have two alike servers both with two disks available for clustering... Setup as basic and MBR but the validation report says it can not find any available disks... Please help...

_{Thursday, March 27, 2008 3:57 PM}

After spending hours on the phone wih MS tech support, I was told it was not possible to add any storage to the cluster unless it was shared disk available to both servers. Initially they thougt it was te RAID controller's (none) ability to support clustering but later they told me it had to be an external shared disk for this to work.
Since I was only trying to build a cluster for Exchange 2007, I decided to go with Exchange 2007's built in CCR type clustering (instead of SCC) which I am still working on.
If you are trying to create cluster for file stroage, you will need to use external shared disc it seems.

_{Friday, March 28, 2008 7:51 PM}

Elden,

I am actually trying ot build an Exchnage 2007 CCR which was the main reasonf or building a Windows 2008 cluster.

I was able to install the first Exchange 2007 Enterprise CCR node successfuly but when I started the installation on the second CCR node, I get an error "An Error occured when setup was getting the configuration information of the current server. Setup cannot continue. Please restart Exchange Server 2007 Seup to retry."

Any advice?

Thank you

cemkur

_{Saturday, April 5, 2008 9:51 PM | 1 vote}

Do you have your file share witness set-up properly in a location where it is accessible to both potential cluster nodes?

Installation of CCR on Windows Server 2008 occurs in several different phases:

1. Configuring hardware setup, starting with the cluster network formation and configuration.
2. Forming the cluster, beginning with the first node and then the second.
3. Configuring the cluster networks and tolerance for missed cluster heartbeats.
4. Configuring and securing the file share witness.
5. Installing the active and passive Mailbox server roles into the cluster.

Note the first 4 steps - you must complete these properly before configuring anything Exchange related...

This is the documentation you need:

Installing Cluster Continuous Replication on Windows Server 2008

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629714(EXCHG.80).aspx

_{Monday, December 14, 2009 9:42 AM}

Hi, Am facing the same problem with the cluster, I want to make Exchange 2007 Mailbox cluster CCR but you have to start first with Windows 2008 cluster.

I have 2 servers HP DL380 G5 with 6 SAS HD ( 146GB*2, 300GB*4), I installed Windows server 2008 Ent SP2 on both servers, also configured the Public network and Private network. When I run the Cluster Validation It shows the Following:

List All Disks

Validate Disk Access Latency

Please Help 

_{Friday, July 23, 2010 2:38 AM}

Bump has any one got this to work because i am having the same problems on my 380 g6

I would love to set this up as a fail over print server

two drive as raid 1 and the other as raid 0

same for both servers

_{Friday, July 23, 2010 10:17 AM}

Hi, Am facing the same problem with the cluster, I want to make Exchange 2007 Mailbox cluster CCR but you have to start first with Windows 2008 cluster.

Validate Disk Access Latency

Please Help 

With CCR clustering, no disks are needed in the cluster, therefore this is correct, you can proceed.

HTH,

Edwin.

_{Friday, July 23, 2010 10:18 AM}

I would love to set this up as a fail over print server

For a Failover Print Server, you do need shared disks, e.g. external disks which are presented to all cluster nodes.

HTH,

Edwin.

_{Friday, July 22, 2011 2:53 PM}

[I will start a new thread, but just wanted to add to the fray and say that this is STILL happening! The error about 'unsuitable disks']

This is really TWO Windows Clustering questions:

QUESTION #1: WHY are we getting this error, even though all hardware and software and connections are in place properly?

Here it is July 22nd 2011, and I get this exact same error! What is the deal? I have the scsci array, both nodes see it from OpenManage, but only one node sees the disks from the O/S level (i.e. Windows Sever 2008 R2 SP1, "Server Manager, Storage, Disk Management"); and I am told that it is 'normal' for ONE NODE ONLY to see the disks from teh o/s level.

So, on the one 2008 server that sees the disks, where I formatted them, I ran the validation tool, and

"Disk bus type does not support clustering. Disk partition style is MBR. Disk partition type is BASIC."

Even though this is a FULLY SUPPORTED raid array in a supported configuration, in supported hardware, with the little 'dip switch' set to 'cluster' and with both servers having the cable connected to the array (and as I said, OpenManage shows that both nodes 'see' all the drives).

So... what are we missing here? I saw some notes about using 'iscsi initiator' - but I don't think that is even needed?

QUESTION #2: What is needed regarding 'crossover' cables - since MS says "heartbeat no longer needed?"

Also, on differemt note, Microsof's own documentation says "no heartbeat" is needed any longer (2008 R2 clusters). so does that mean we no longer need a crossover cable at all between the 2 secondary NICs? When I ran validate, it said the other NICs

Re: The Windoze cluster side - heartbeat not needed; not recommended for 2008 clusters.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/258750

Snippet:

Note The information in this article does not apply to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clusters. Implementing these recommendations on these versions of failover clustering can cause adverse behavior. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clusters do not have to have a private heartbeat network and the networking settings in this article are not needed and may cause unwanted behavior.

tnjman