topic Re: SnapCenter vs. SnapDrive - How to Create a LUN in a Windows Failover Cluster in Data Protection

SnapCenter vs. SnapDrive - How to Create a LUN in a Windows Failover Cluster

TMADOCTHOMAS — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:13:41 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to create a LUN in a Windows Failover Cluster for the first time using SnapCenter after having used SnapDrive for years. I'm running across two very confusing elements and wondered if someone could provide insight. Specifically:

In the Disk Type screen I of course select Shared Disk, but then it requires that you type in the Windows Cluster Resource Group. In SnapDrive you just selected it from a drop-down list. I'm not sure if the name should be the full name as shown in Windows Failover Cluster ("SQL Server (APPNAME)") or just the app name (APPNAME). Any ideas?
When selecting the initiators, I choose each host in the cluster and select the initiator on each host as I did before in SnapDrive. However, on the Group Type screen that follows, you can only choose one iGroup! In SnapDrive, I select Automatic which attaches the LUN to two igroups, one for each node in the cluster. I can't do that here!

I did read in NetApp documentation (below) the line "You need only create the disk on one host in the failover cluster." Does that indicate I should only connect to one of the initiators in the Map LUN screen and select the matching initiator group in the Group Type screen? If so, does the wizard automatically add mapping to the additional nodes?

Any help will be appreciated!

http://docs.netapp.com/ocsc-41/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.ocsc-ag%2FGUID-7A7D7B1D-EB19-4739-BC03-BE94730FA7F5.html

Re: SnapCenter vs. SnapDrive - How to Create a LUN in a Windows Failover Cluster

Ontapforrum — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 03:35:11 GMT

Hi,

Your observations are right. Igroup must be created for each MSCS Node.

This is a nice KB that describes setting up MSCS without SnapDrive ( not very comprehensive but good enough).

https://kb.netapp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1035123/~/how-to-create-an-mscs-cluster-with-shared-disk-resources-without-using

Thanks!

Re: SnapCenter vs. SnapDrive - How to Create a LUN in a Windows Failover Cluster

TMADOCTHOMAS — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:39:59 GMT

Thanks @Ontapforrum . Since posting this, I've discussed with a NetApp rep who has given me some insight on this. Once I've fully tested / perfected the process from within SnapCenter I'll post an update. One thing is for certain: it is extremely non-inutitive, at least to me.