Q. How can I add disk resources to a Windows Server 2008 cluster from the command line?

A. To add a disk resource, you must first create a resource group for the disk, then add the disk into the new resource group. As you can see in the following sample command, which creates a resource group, I've called my resource Quorum Disk (you can name the new resource whatever you want), and I've added the resource to available storage group.

C:\>cluster res "Quorum Disk" /create /group:"Available Storage" /type:"Physical Disk"

Here’s the command’s output:

Creating resource 'Quorum Disk'...

Resource              Group                 Node          Status
-------------------- -------------------- --------------- ------
Quorum Disk           Available Storage    savdalclus01   Offline

The next step is to add one or more disks. Before you do so, you’ll need the disk ID, which you can obtain by using the DiskPart tool, as follows:

C:\>diskpart

You’ll see the following command output and prompts to enter commands (list disk, select disk, and detail disk).

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: SAVDALCLUS01

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ###  Status     Size   Free    Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0   Online      127 GB   0      B
Disk 1   Offline     512 MB   0      B
Disk 2   Offline     20 GB    0      B

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

ROCKET IMAGEFILE SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: DB2875A4
Type : iSCSI
Bus : 0
Target : 1
LUN ID : 0
Read-only : Yes
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No

There are no volumes.

You can now add a disk by running cluster.exe and specifying either the disk’s GUID (/priv DiskIDGuid) or its signature (/priv DiskSignature), then bring it online. The previous command output shows the signature—DB2875A4—in hexadecimal (a number means that it’s the signature that’s displayed and not the GUID). You’ll need to convert the hex value to a decimal value for use in the cluster.exe command, as follows:

C:\>cluster res "Quorum Disk" /priv DiskSignature=3676861860

Now, to bring the disk online, enter this:

C:\>cluster res "Quorum Disk" /on

You’ll see this output:

Bringing resource 'Quorum Disk' online...

Resource              Group               Node            Status
-------------------- -------------------- --------------- ------
Quorum Disk           Available Storage   savdalclus01    Online

The disk will now be available in the available storage area of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Failover Cluster Management snap-in and via the cluster res command, as the following screenshot shows:

The screencast below takes you through using the command line to perform this and other Server 2008 cluster-configuration tasks.