Build WS2012 R2 Storage Pools, Virtual Disks, And CSVs Using PowerShell

I’ve been building, tearing down, and rebuilding Storage Spaces in the lab over and over, and that will continue for the next few years Rather than spend a significant percentage of my life clicking on wizards, I decided to script what I want done.

The below script will:

• Build a storage pool from all available disks
• Prep 2 storage tiers from SSD and HDD
• Create 3 different virtual disks with different configs (customize to your heat’s content!)
• Then run the PrepCSV function to turn those virtual disks into CSVs just the way I like them

How do I like a CSV?  I like them formatted and the names consistent all the way: virtual disk, cluster resource name, volume label, and CSV mount point in C:ClusterStorage.  None of that “Cluster Disk (X)” or “Volume 1” BS for me, thank you.

It might be possible to clean up the stuff in the function.  This is what I have working – it works and that’s the main thing.  There’s a lot of steps to get disk ID so I can create and format a volume, and then bring the disk back so I can turn it into a CSV.

What’s missing?  I have not added code for adding the SOFS role or adding/configuring shares.  I’m not at that point yet in the lab.

Function PrepCSV ($CSVName)
{
#Rename the disk resource in FCM
(Get-ClusterResource | where {$_.name -like “*$CSVName)”}).Name = $CSVName

#Get the disk ID
Stop-ClusterResource $CSVName
$DiskID = (Get-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName $CSVName).UniqueId
Start-ClusterResource $CSVName

#Format the disk
Suspend-ClusterResource $CSVName
Get-disk -UniqueId $DiskID | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel “$CSVName” -Confirm:$false
Resume-ClusterResource $CSVName

#Bring the CSV online
Add-ClusterSharedVolume -Name $CSVName
$OldCSVName = ((Get-ClusterSharedVolume $CSVName).SharedVOlumeInfo).FriendlyVolumeName
Rename-Item $OldCSVName -NewName “C:ClusterStorage$CSVName”
}

# The following Storage Pool and Virtual Disk cmdlets taken from Bryan Matthew’s TechEd  …
# … Session at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2013/MDC-B217#fbid=TFEWNjeU9XP

# Find all eligible disks
$disks = Get-PhysicalDisk |? {$_.CanPool -eq $true}

# Create a new Storage Pool
New-StoragePool -StorageSubSystemFriendlyName “Clustered Storage Spaces on Demo-FSC1” -FriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -PhysicalDisks $disks

# Define the Pool Storage Tiers
$ssd_tier = New-StorageTier -StoragePoolFriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -FriendlyName SSD_Tier -MediaType SSD
$hdd_tier = New-StorageTier -StoragePoolFriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -FriendlyName HDD_Tier -MediaType HDD

 

#Transfer ownership of Available Storage to current node to enable disk formatting

Move-ClusterGroup “Available Storage” -Node $env:COMPUTERNAME

 

# Creation of a 200 GB tiered virtual disk with 5 GB cache
New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -FriendlyName CSV1 –StorageTiers @($ssd_tier, $hdd_tier) -StorageTierSizes @(50GB,150GB) -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -WriteCacheSize 5GB
PrepCSV CSV1

 

# Creation of a 200 GB non-tiered virtual disk with no cache

New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -FriendlyName CSV2 -Size 200GB -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -WriteCacheSize 0
PrepCSV CSV2

 

# Creation of a 50 GB virtual disk on SSD only with 5 GB cache

New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName “Demo-FSC1 Pool1” -FriendlyName CSV3 –StorageTiers @($ssd_tier) -StorageTierSizes @(50GB) -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -WriteCacheSize 5GB
PrepCSV CSV3

 

EDIT1:

This script broke if the cluster group, Available Storage, was active on another node.  This prevented formatting, which in turn prevented adding the virtual disks as CSVs.  Easy fix: move the Available Storage cluster group to the current machine (a node in the cluster).