Hyper-v : Building a small S2D cluster

Setting up a small two-node Storage Spaces Direct cluster feels heavy at first, but the flow is clear once you see the steps. You prepare both servers, restart them, create the cluster, set the quorum, turn on S2D and then create a volume you can use right away.

The first step installs the features the servers need. Both nodes get clustering, the file server role and Hyper V.

Invoke-Command STORM-S2D1,STORM-S2D2 {
    Install-WindowsFeature FS-FileServer,Failover-Clustering,Hyper-V -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools
}

A restart finishes the feature setup on both nodes.

Invoke-Command STORM-S2D1,STORM-S2D2 { Restart-Computer }

When the servers come back online, you create the cluster. You give it a name, add both nodes and assign a static address so the cluster has a stable identity on the network.

New-Cluster -Name STORM-S2D -Node STORM-S2D1,STORM-S2D2 -StaticAddress 10.10.20.201 -NoStorage

A cluster needs a quorum to stay stable if one node goes offline. Here, you point it to a simple file share witness.

Set-ClusterQuorum -Cluster STORM-S2D -FileShareWitness "\\NanoStorm\witness"

Next, you turn on Storage Spaces Direct. This pools the local disks from both servers into shared storage.

Enable-ClusterStorageSpacesDirect -CimSession STORM-S2D -CacheState Disabled

The last step creates your first volume. It uses ReFS and gives the volume a friendly name.

New-Volume -CimSession STORM-S2D -FriendlyName StormDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D -FileSystem CSVFS_ReFS -Size 20GB