# Storage Spaces - Expanded Drive/Volume Showing Free Space, but Not Using it



## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

Hello, and thanks to all for taking the time to read this,

I am running Server 2012 R2 and created a Storage space using 4x4TB drives. I then created a thinly provisioned virtual drive with parity of 10.9TB with a volume, V:, of the same size.

I have since added a 5th 4TB drive to the storage pool and increased the virtual drive size accordingly along with the volume. The Storage Pool, virtual drive and volume are all showing the increase in size.

It looks like the volume or disk is not writing to the new drive:
-------------------------------------

Drive usage is: (PhysicalDisk0 was the 5th drive added)

Name Status Capacity Free Space Bus Media Type
PhysicalDisk0 OK 3.64TB 2.98TB ATA HDD
PhysicalDisk2 OK 3.64TB 0.00 B SATA HDD
PhysicalDisk3 OK 3.64TB 256 MB SATA HDD
PhysicalDisk4 OK 3.64TB 0.00 B SATA HDD
PhysicalDisk1 OK 3.64TB 256 MB SATA HDD

-------------------------------------


My issue is that while everything appears to see the newly expanded space on the drive and the volume, I am still getting "not enough space" errors, as below:

File Information:
02/14/2009 01:18 PM 4,152,023,040 Sabayon-Linux-x86-4-1.iso

V:\ServerFolders\ISO\Sabayon>dir v:\
Volume in drive V is V_12TB_VIRT
Volume Serial Number is B4FC-C5CE

Directory of v:\

12/24/2014 11:42 AM <DIR> GPOStore
12/24/2014 05:54 PM <DIR> ServerFolders
0 File(s) 0 bytes
2 Dir(s) 3,403,208,982,528 bytes free


V:\ServerFolders\ISO\Sabayon>copy SabayonLinux-x86-3.4a.iso v:\
There is not enough space on the disk.
0 file(s) copied.


-----------------------------------------

Volume information from PS is:

PS C:\Users\lynn> Get-Volume -DriveLetter v

DriveLetter FileSystem FileSystem DriveType HealthStat SizeRemain Size
----------- ----------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----
V V_12TB_VIRT ReFS Fixed Healthy 3.1 TB 14.5 TB

------------------------------------------

Storage Pool information is:

PS C:\Users\lynn> Get-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName "Primary Virtual Disk" | FC

class CimInstance#ROOT/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/MSFT_VirtualDisk
{
ObjectId = {1}\\SAMMY2012\root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage/Providers_v2\SPACES_
VirtualDisk.ObjectId="{d48177fe-46a0-11e3-80b0-806e6f6e6963}:VD:{99949966-85a
e-11e4-80ed-bc5ff4c7e2fa}{99949c33-85ae-11e4-80ed-bc5ff4c7e2fa}"
PassThroughClass =
PassThroughIds =
PassThroughNamespace =
PassThroughServer =
UniqueId = 339C9499AE85E41180EDBC5FF4C7E2FA
Access = Read/Write
AllocatedSize = 12541841375232
DetachedReason = None
FootprintOnPool = 16722455166976
FriendlyName = Primary Virtual Disk
HealthStatus = Healthy
Interleave = 262144
IsDeduplicationEnabled = False
IsEnclosureAware = False
IsManualAttach = False
IsSnapshot = False
LogicalSectorSize = 4096
Name =
NameFormat =
NumberOfAvailableCopies =
NumberOfColumns = 4
NumberOfDataCopies = 1
OperationalStatus = OK
OtherOperationalStatusDescription =
OtherUsageDescription = Primary Virtual Disk - 4TB Drives
ParityLayout = Rotated Parity
PhysicalDiskRedundancy = 1
PhysicalSectorSize = 4096
ProvisioningType = Thin
RequestNoSinglePointOfFailure = False
ResiliencySettingName = Parity
Size = 15986942017536
UniqueIdFormat = Vendor Specific
UniqueIdFormatDescription =
Usage = Other
WriteCacheSize = 33554432
PSComputerName =
}

----------------
I was really counting on being able to increase storage space dynamically as needed, but at this point I am really flustered.

Any information is greatly appreciated. I would really rather not have to rebuild this array (as it is currently at 12TB), if possible, although I can if necessary...it will just be a huge pain.

Thanks you in advance.

-Lynn


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

Hi Lynn
Welcome to TSF 

What Raid Card are you using or Sata Controller? 

Can you post a screen shot of your "Computer Management" > Disk Management?


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

No RAID controller. I am running on 5 of the 8 internal SATAIII ports on the motherboard.

Thanks, btw, for the welcome.


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

Can you post a screen shot? 

Under your Server Manager and Files and Storage area 
Have you added the new Drive to the existing pool?


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

What do you want a screenshot of exactly?


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

Sorry, Ioda, I need to learn to read...the last two sentences kind of blended in together with your tag when I was reading it.

Yes, the drive was added and the virtual disk and volume on the virtual disk was extended to the max available.

Here is the screen shot of the storage space, the drives and the drive usage data. Thanks!


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

Go to server manager 
Click on tools on top right hand corner 
Click on system management 
Go to disk management 
Right click on your partition and hit extend


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

According to Primary Virtual Disk Properties only the ATA drive has free space available.

Storage pools shows 18.2TB with only 2.98TB free. The iso file is 3.1TB which makes it too large for the available space.

Same is true of the virtual disk. It's 14.5 but has used 11.4 which only leave 3.1TB.

You can't copy 3.1TB to a 3.1TB space. There has to be available space on the drive for the temp files being written.

This command also does not make sense
*V:\*ServerFolders\ISO\Sabayon>copy SabayonLinux-x86-3.4a.iso *v:\*

Why are you coping the same file on the same drive under a folder to the root of the same drive V:? You should move it not copy it.


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

Thanks, but the ISO file is only 4.1GB, not 3.1TB, and I was copying to the same volume because all my larger files are on this volume. The fact of whether or not the file is on the same volume doesn't have any bearing on the issue of the drive space.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

It would matter if the free space was equal to the file size which you say is not the case.

Can you create a folder and copy this iso to the folder on v: instead of to the root of v:?


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

02/14/2009 01:18 PM 4,152,023,040 Sabayon-Linux-x86-4-1.iso

No, I can't copy the file anywhere. The problem is that Storage Spaces doesn't seem to be using the 5th drive I installed. I don't know if this is something to do with my misunderstanding of how Storage Spaces worked with thinly provisioned drives, or whether or not there is something wrong my configuration or simply that something is broken with my current configuration.

Either way it is very frustrating, and I would be willing to rebuild the array if I understood how it was "breaking" at this point. However, without the information on how it is supposed to behave versus what is happening (if they are diffeerent) then I am hesitant to rebuild the array with Storage Spaces without some answer as to what is happening and how I can ensure it won't happen again.

Thanks.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Can you make a folder on v:\?

If not this can indicate a issue with the configuration or permissions.

One issue I see is the inconsistent display information. Primary virtual disks properties screen shows zero or 256mb free space. Only the ATA disk shows 2.98TB which corresponds exactly to the storage pools free space.

It is usually a problem when you mix drive types due to caching and access timing. I was surprised you added the ATA disk to the mix.


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

This is a soft provisioning from within the 2012r2 OS so like windows raid which does allow you to add mismatching disks.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Oh I know you can add them just like you could with software raid but there are known issues in doing so.

The question here is why is the ATA disk the only one showing free space?


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

> The question here is why is the ATA disk the only one showing free space?


That is a very good question I have just spent bit of a time reading about storage pools parity to see if for some reason it does not allow adding of extra drives but according to every article I read it should allow. Unless I am not understanding this logic myself?? :banghead:
At this point, I would suggest to remove the drive0 from the pool and re-add it to see if it makes a difference


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

All drives are identical. They are all 4TB WD Red. Original storage space was set to 12TB volume on a 12TB parity drive on a 16TB Storage Pool. The drive is thinly provisioned and the volume is set to only the same size as the drive.

It is not a permissions issue, I was able to create drives and copy up until the original free space was used up. The system now hangs whenever access to the drive is initiated. The drive span is not using the free space on the drive I added to the volume.

I am about to give up on it at this point. I appreciate all the offers of help, but apparently I am not getting my point across in what the issue is.

Everything was working fine, i started to run out of space, i added a 5th drive, expanded the virtual disk, expanded the volume, once the original space was used up the volume never initiated using the available space on the 5th drive. Everything indicates the space is there, except for actual usage. However, at this point any attempt to access the volume using either Storage Spaces GUI, powershell, Explorer, ANYTHING, locks up the volume entirely and I can't even reboot the server with a shutdown -r command. I can only physically reset the server with the reset button.

I have configured a test storage pool on a test server, using smaller drives in order to fill them faster, and copying large amounts of data to the volume causes reboots of the server after 50GB or so. Because of this I am unable to fill the volume to capacity and attempt to duplicate my issue to see if I can rectify it.

I have just about lost all confidence in Storage Spaces at this point and am looking for an alternative solution.

Thanks, guys.


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## SlitelyOff (Dec 29, 2014)

I think I found my answer: Storage Spaces: Understanding Storage Pool Expansion - Ask Premier Field Engineering (PFE) Platforms - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Thanks.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Yep that looks like a pretty good explanation. You need more disks :-(


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