You can use the Provision Storage Wizard in Share and Storage Management to create logical unit numbers (LUNs) on Fibre Channel and iSCSI disk drive subsystems that are connected to your server. You can then assign the LUN to your server or to other servers on the network. While creating the LUN, you can also create a volume on that LUN and format it.

A LUN is a logical reference to a portion of a storage subsystem. A LUN can comprise a disk, a section of a disk, a whole disk array, or a section of a disk array in the subsystem. Using LUNs simplifies the management of storage resources because they serve as logical identifiers through which you can assign access and control privileges.

To provision a LUN on a disk storage subsystem, you need to first verify that all the following requirements are met:

  • The storage subsystem supports Virtual Disk Service (VDS).

  • The VDS hardware provider for the storage subsystem is installed on your server.

  • There is storage space available on the subsystem.

  • The storage subsystem is attached directly to your server or is accessible over the network.

  • If you want to assign the LUN to a server or cluster other than the server on which you run the wizard, the server connections have been configured by using Storage Manager for SANs. For more information, see Manage Server Connections (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=94431).

    Note

    Storage Manager for SANs is an optional feature and is not installed by default. If you have not already installed it, you can do so using Server Manager (in the Features node, click Add Features).

  • If the LUN that you are creating is on an iSCSI subsystem, the iSCSI initiators and targets in your SAN have been configured. For more information about iSCSI, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93543.

  • If the server that you will be assigning the LUN to will access the LUN through more than one Fibre Channel port or iSCSI initiator, Multipath I/O has been installed and is running on that server.

    Caution

    Data loss can occur if you assign the LUN to a server that does not have Multipath I/O installed and that will access the LUN through more than one Fibre Channel port or iSCSI initiator. For more information, see Support for Multipath I/O (MPIO).

  • If you want to assign the LUN to a cluster, the cluster has been fully configured by installing Failover Clustering.

    Caution

    To prevent data loss, make sure that each server is a member of only one cluster and that Failover Clustering has been installed on each server in the cluster. For more information about installing Failover Clustering, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=86168.

Membership in Administrators, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

To provision storage

  1. In the Actions pane, click Provision Storage.

  2. On the Storage Source page, select the On a storage subsystem option, and click Next.

  3. Follow the steps in the wizard to create and configure the LUN.

Additional considerations

  • If there are no disk storage subsystems connected to your server, the VDS hardware providers are not installed, or there is no storage space available in any of the subsystems, the On a storage subsystem option in the Provision Storage Wizard will not be available.

  • If you create a LUN but do not create a volume on it, you can use Disk Management to create the volume later.

  • To open Share and Storage Management, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Share and Storage Management.

Additional references

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