How to Add Local Storage to Failover Cluster in Windows Server, Help
I set up two file servers with Windows Server 2012, installed failover clusters on each server, and created clusters with them. What is the best way to add this local storage to the cluster? I tried to add the disks in the failover cluster manager, but it failed, saying they were offline.
Best Answered by
Cici· Answered on Mar 28, 2025
You can use the Failover Cluster Manager or the Failover Cluster Windows PowerShell cmdlet to add disks to the available storage groups of the cluster. The following are the simple steps:
1. Expand Storage after expanding the cluster name in Failover Cluster Manager's console tree.
2. Choose Add Disk from the context menu when right-clicking Disks. The disks that can be added to a failover cluster are listed when the list is displayed.
3. Choose the targeted disk and click "OK."
Then, you can see the disks are assigned to the Available Storage group.
If you want to use Windows PowerShell, try this command: Get-ClusterAvailableDisk | Add-ClusterDisk.
Suppose you cannot use that method, and the easiest way to gain HA is to turn to third-party software.
You can install StarWind on a file server VM. StarWind will convert it to a single 500 GB device that your file-sharing cluster can use as a share. The three devices in the video might be the cluster's witness disks and 2 VM storage devices (LUNs), one for each cluster node. Once you have the StarWind devices up and running, you can submit them to the cluster validation tool, which will be very effective.
Hope the above solutions will be helpful for you. If you need to manage your disks or partitions, you use EaseUS Partition Master Server to help you.
