Categories: Windows Server

SOLVED: How To Perform a Chkdsk on a Clustered Shared Volume on an iSCSI SAN

If you have a Dell EqualLogic SAN or similar product providing shared disk for your cluster and you see:

CHKDSK SCAN NEEDED ON VOLUME

don’t panic.  In the ‘old days’ a Chkdsk could take days to complete on a large volume.  Today however, if you are running Server 2012, R2 or Server 2016, you can use the new /SPOTFIX switch to make your Chkdsk very fast.

The next concern is “should a Chkdsk be run on an iSCSI SAN dedicated disk”?  The answer is usually yes.  In my case running a Dell EqualLogic P4210 array, the hardware is block level and has no idea what the operating system is doing so you need to do what Window says.

How to Chkdsk a Cluster Shared Volume:

  1. Shut down all of the VM’s or file shares on the volume on the cluster
  2. In Cluster Server Manager, expand STORAGE and DISK
  3. Right click on the disk in question and select MORE ACTIONS > TURN ON MAINTENANCE MODE (see screen shot at top right of this page)
  4. Start up a PowerShell or a CMD prompt as an Admin
  5. Turn off any extra VSS (Volume Shadow Copy) writers.  In Dell’s EqualLogic’s case the command is C:\Program Files\EqualLogic\bin>eqlvss /unregserver
  6. Run chkdsk C:\ClusterStorage\<cluster-volume-name> /scan
  7. This will likely come back with errors and in the notes it will tell you to run Chkdsk /SPOTFIX and that is exactly what you should do
  8. When this is done it will likely tell you it found problems and you need to schedule a repair for the next reboot, agree to this by pressing Y and enter
  9. Reboot that Windows Server host in your cluster and wait just a few minutes.
  10. When that server comes back up, login and turn on any extra VSS (Volume Shadow Copy) writers.  In Dell’s EqualLogic’s case the command is C:\Program Files\EqualLogic\bin>eqlvss /regserver

SPOTFIX is amazingly fast, taking less than a second when it used to take hours.  Look at this comparison of Chkdsk /f and Chkdsk /Spotfix speed graph below:

 

 

For more information on new Chkdsk features read THIS POST.

 

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