Enhanced disk resource private properties when using Cluster Server

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This article was previously published under Q223023

SUMMARY

Windows 2000 includes enhanced disk resource private properties when you are using Cluster Server. Some of these enhancements provide administrators better control over when Chkdsk is run against a cluster disk.

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MORE INFORMATION

Differences between Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000

When you run a command to display the private properties of the resource named Disk E: as displayed in Cluster Administrator, note the difference in output between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000:

Windows NT 4.0 Cluster

Command: cluster clustername res "Disk E:" /priv

Listing private properties for 'Disk E:':

R Name                             Value
- -------------------------------- -----------------------
  Signature                        1415371731 (0x545cdbd3)
  DiskInfo                         <Unknown Type>

Windows 2000 Cluster

Command: cluster clustername res "Disk E:" /priv

Listing private properties for 'Disk E:':

T  Resource             Name                           Value
-- ----------- ------------------------------ --------------------
D  Disk <?xm-deletion_mark author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800" data="Q"?><?xm-insertion_mark_start author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800"?>E<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>:     Signature                      1415371731 (0x545cdbd3)
D  Disk <?xm-deletion_mark author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800" data="Q"?><?xm-insertion_mark_start author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800"?>E<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>:     SkipChkdsk                     0 (0x0)
D  Disk <?xm-deletion_mark author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800" data="Q"?><?xm-insertion_mark_start author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800"?>E<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>:     ConditionalMount               1 (0x1)
B  Disk <?xm-deletion_mark author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800" data="Q"?><?xm-insertion_mark_start author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800"?>E<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>:     DiskInfo                       03 00 00 00 ... (264 bytes)
B  Disk <?xm-deletion_mark author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800" data="Q"?><?xm-insertion_mark_start author="meidx" time="20071204T161506+0800"?>E<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>:     MountVolumeInfo                D3 DB 5C 54 ... (104 bytes)

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New private properties in Windows 2000

The new private properties for Windows 2000 are:

SkipChkdsk
ConditionalMount
MountVolumeInfo

The behavior of Chkdsk depends on the values assigned to the SkipChkdsk and ConditionalMount properties. If the disk is found to be corrupt by checking the dirty bit, or in the case of the quorum drive the MSCS folder is inaccessible, Chkdsk behaves as follows:

If SkipChkdsk = 1 , The Cluster service does not run Chkdsk against the dirty drive and mounts the disk for immediate use.

Note SkipChkdsk = 1 overrides the ConditionalMount setting and the Cluster service behaves the same no matter what the ConditionalMount property is set to.

Note Setting the private property 'Skipchkdsk=1' on the quorum disk has no effect, because Chkdsk cannot be skipped on the cluster quorum drive. The setting is effective for all other physical disk resources in the cluster.
If SkipChkdsk = 0 and ConditionalMount = 0, the Cluster service fails the disk resource and leaves it offline.
If SkipChkdsk = 0 and ConditionalMount = 1, the Cluster service runs "chkdsk /f" against the volume found to be dirty and then mounts it. This is the current default behavior for Windows 2000 clusters and the only behavior for Windows NT 4.0 clusters.

These resource private properties can be modified using the following commands:

cluster clustername res "Disk E:" /priv Skipchkdsk=0[1]
cluster clustername res "Disk E:" /priv ConditionalMount=0[1]

The MountVolumeInfo property is used to track changes made in disk management and contains the same information as DiskInfo (which is used by Windows NT 4.0) but is easier to understand because the values are fixed in length.

This sample MountVolumeInfo information

D3DB5C540400000000020000000000000000400600000000010000000746000000024006000
0000000FE3F060000000002000000074B00000000800C000000000000400600000000030000
00074C00000040C0120000000000C03F06000000000400000007490000

is interpreted as follows:

signature: D3DB5C54
number of volumes: 04000000

 starting offset   partition length volume # type letter  fill
00020000.00000000 00004006.00000000 01000000  07   46     0000
00024006.00000000 00FE3F06.00000000 02000000  07   4B     0000
0000800C.00000000 00004006.00000000 03000000  07   4C     0000
0040C012.00000000 00C03F06.00000000 04000000  07   49     0000

DiskInfo is retained in the properties of the disk resource for compatibility in a mixed-node cluster in which one node is running Windows 2000 and one is running Windows NT 4.0.

The information in the DiskInfo and MountVolumeInfo properties is updated when the disk resource is brought online. The Cluster service checks the system's physical disk configuration, then makes corrections to these registry entries accordingly. Updates made to these values regarding drive letters are performed dynamically when changes are made using Disk Manager.

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