Using Storage Spaces Direct S2D on VMware Workstation

While working through my new demos for SQL Server 2016 on Windows Server 2016 I had to rebuild my hyper-converged SQL Failover Cluster environment using local storage and Storage Spaces Direct for the cluster shared storage instead of configuring a iSCSI SAN environment or SMB File Share as I have done in the past. However, there is a catch with the virtual disks under VMware Workstation by default, they don’t expose the SerialNumber which is required for S2D to be able to use the drives in the pool. In PowerShell, Get-PhysicalDisk on a new VMware Workstation VM looks like this:

To fix the issue, the VMX file for the VM must be modified to add the following line:

disk.EnableUUID=”true”

Once the VM is rebooted, the SerialNumber is populated in Powershell for Get-PhysicalDisk, and S2D will be able to use the disks in the storage pool.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Other articles

SqlClient Configurable Retry Logic – ICYMI

While I was doing some research for a client on how to accomplish a specific task, I happened across a BOL topic that caught my

Upgrading/Migrating Large Replicated Databases Without Reinitializing

This is a topic that comes up a lot for us as consultants and I realized recently that I have never blogged about it. Usually

More About AT TIME ZONE

This post is a follow up to my previous post on the performance impacts of the AT TIME ZONE implementation in SQL Server based on

AT TIME ZONE Performance Issues

This only demonstrates that the performance impact is the result of AT TIME ZONE. To see how to work across date ranges read my follow

Stop Planning a Backup Strategy

I feel like I have had this discussion multiple times over the last few months with clients, so I decided to turn those discussions into

Bitten by SSD Bit Rot

Back in 2012, I wrote a post titled Looking at External Disk Performance using USB 3.0 and eSATA with SSD, where I tested a number

Imagine feeling confident enough to handle whatever your database throws at you.

With training and consulting from SQLskills, you’ll be able to solve big problems, elevate your team’s capacity, and take control of your data career.