General storage configuration tips for server clusters

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

General storage configuration tips for server clusters

Before adding or removing hardware from a server cluster, make sure the drive letter assigned to the system partition (typically C or D) is fixed. The drive-letter assignment must remain constant because references to this drive letter are recorded in the system registry, and your server cluster is affected by these references.

It is also necessary for drive letters on the cluster storage device to remain constant and for the drive-letter assignments to be the same on each cluster node. In addition, drive letters for the cluster storage device must not conflict with any local drive letters.

If you assign drive letters to the shared cluster storage devices, the Windows Server 2003 family operating system limits the total number of such devices to 23. Mounted drives are not subject to this limit, so you can use mounted drives to access more than 23 shared cluster storage devices in your server cluster.

For more information on using mounted drives, see Using NTFS mounted drives.

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