How to Create a File Share from a Storage Pool in VMM

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager

As of System Center 2012 R2, you can use Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) to create storage pools from physical disks, and then use these storage pools to create file shares on Scale-Out File Server clusters. When you create the file share on a Scale-Out File Server running a supported operating system such as Windows Server 2012 R2, the storage type for a file share can be a storage pool, a local path, or a volume.

Use the following procedure to create a new file share from a storage pool by using the VMM console. You can set Resiliency and Redundancy values to configure these file shares as follows:

• Configure as two-way mirror (or single parity), which can tolerate the failure of one disk

• Configure as three-way mirror (or dual parity), which requires more resources, but it can tolerate the failure of two disks

The default settings for a new file share use the NTFS file system format and a three-way mirror configuration. The file share is supported by a cluster shared volume that is formatted with NTFS (referred to as a CSV file system or CSVFS).

To create a file share from a storage pool

1. Open the Fabric workspace.

2. In the Fabric pane, click Storage, and then on the Home tab, click Create File Share.

3. In the Create File Share dialog box, select the File server where you want to add the file share. Enter the remaining necessary information for creating the file share as follows:

   • In Storage type, click Storage pool, and then select one of the storage pools that you previously created.

   • Click Resiliency, and then choose Redundancy options as follows:

     • For Parity, you can select Single or Dual.

     • For Mirror, you can select Two-way or Three-way.

4. Click Create.

Configuring Storage in VMM