Recovering from a disk failure

Recovering a cluster disk (i.e. disks managed by the cluster on a shared storage interconnect) can be a complex process. The Server Cluster Recovery Utility aims to simplify the process and make it less error prone so that in the event of a disk failure, a shared disk can be brought back quickly and application availability can be restored.

Note: Microsoft recommends that shared disks on the cluster provide some level of redundancy to protect against disk failures (such as RAID-1 or RAID-5), however, in catastrophic cases disk recovery may be necessary.

A server cluster has a special disk known as the quorum disk. This disk is used to store cluster configuration and such things as resource checkpoint files. The quorum disk needs additional work to recover in the event of a failure and we will cover that separately.

Note: This recovery procedure is ONLY valid for disks that are managed in the cluster using the physical disk resource type. The recovery procedures for other types of cluster disk will vary depending on the configuration and the features. You should contact your vendor if you are using disks that are not exposed to the cluster as physical disk resource types.

Related topics:
Recovering a shared disk; Recovering a quorum disk;