Running Failover Cluster with Windows 2008 R2 SP1–Microsoft Cluster Team recommends strongly to apply KB2531907!

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Clustering Team has published an post on their blog where they strongly recommends to apply hotfix KB2531907 when you are running SP1 and failover clustering which fixes validate “issues” during the tests in the storage section.

PLEASE NOTE: This validation “issue” is (only) reported when following conditions does apply:

  • You configure a failover cluster that has three or more nodes that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
  • You have cluster disks that are configured in groups other than the Available Storage group or that are used for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV).
  • These disks are online when you run the Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test or the List Potential Cluster Disks storage validation test.

This “issue” causes the validation tests to run also the validate storage tests (Online/Offline, Failover, PR…) against disks which are NOT in the “Available Storage Group” and “Online”! Normally those disks are excluded from validation tests and only disks in the “Available Storage Group” will be used for validation tests in storage section! More information’s around  validate storage tests can be found here:

Understanding Cluster Validation Tests: Storage
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771259.aspx

Therefore it is strongly recommended to apply this hotfix after you had installed SP1 and before you run validation tests - which are required due to Microsoft Support Policy - due to the system change for supportability reasons.

The hotfix can be downloaded here:

Validate SCSI Device Vital Product Data (VPD) test fails after you install Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907

Clustering team blog post regarding this recommendation can be found here:

Recommended Service Pack 1 Failover Cluster Hotfix
https://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2011/04/28/10159228.aspx

Reported “issues” during validate storage can be:

List disks visible to two or more nodes that will be validated for cluster compatibility. Online clustered disks will be excluded.

Disk with identifier 8220b506 has a Persistent Reservation on it. The disk might be part of some other cluster. Removing the disk from validation set

Disk with identifier {71fb2320-2d3b-412a-a536-1a649c96b3d6} has a Persistent Reservation on it. The disk might be part of some other cluster. Removing the disk from validation set

and

Failed to get SCSI page 83h VPD descriptors for cluster disk 2 from node servernode1.contoso.com status 2

Regards

Ramazan