Run a Disk Maintenance Tool Such as Chkdsk on a Clustered Disk

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

To run a disk maintenance tool such as Chkdsk on a witness disk in a cluster, or on a disk that is configured as part of a clustered service or application, you must use maintenance mode. When maintenance mode is on, the disk maintenance tool can finish running without triggering a failover.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

Running a disk maintenance tool such as Chkdsk on a clustered disk

  • Using the Windows interface

  • Using a Command Prompt window

To run a disk maintenance tool such as Chkdsk on a clustered disk by using the Windows interface

  1. In the Failover Cluster Management snap-in, if the cluster is not displayed, in the console tree, right-click Failover Cluster Management, click Manage a Cluster, and select or specify the cluster you want.

  2. If the console tree is collapsed, expand the tree under the cluster that uses the disk on which you want run a disk maintenance tool.

  3. In the console tree, click Storage.

  4. In the center pane, click the disk on which you want to run the disk maintenance tool.

  5. Under Actions, click More Actions, and then click Turn On Maintenance Mode for this disk.

  6. Run the disk maintenance tool on the disk.

    When maintenance mode is on, the disk remains online in the cluster, but the disk maintenance tool can finish running without triggering a failover.

  7. When the disk maintenance tool finishes running, with the disk still selected, under Actions, click More Actions, and then click Turn Off Maintenance Mode for this disk.

Additional considerations

  • To open the failover cluster snap-in, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Failover Cluster Management. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.

  • Maintenance mode will remain on until one of the following occurs:

    • You turn it off.

    • The resource goes offline or fails.

    • The node on which the resource is running restarts or loses communication with other nodes (which causes failover of all resources on that node).

  • You can see whether a disk is in maintenance mode by looking at the status in the center pane when Storage is selected in the console tree. When a disk is in maintenance mode, the status is Online (Maintenance).

Additional references

To run a disk maintenance tool such as Chkdsk on a clustered disk by using a Command Prompt window

  1. To open a Command Prompt window, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then either click Run as administrator or click Open.

  2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.

  3. To review the resource names of disks in the cluster, type:

    CLUSTER [cluster-name] RESOURCE /STATUS

    From the list that is displayed, identify the resource name of the disk on which you want to turn on maintenance mode.

  4. Type:

    CLUSTER [cluster-name] RESOURCE "disk-resource-name" /MAINT:ON

  5. Run the disk maintenance tool on the disk.

    When maintenance mode is on, the disk remains online in the cluster, but the disk maintenance tool can finish running without triggering a failover.

  6. As soon as the disk maintenance tool finishes running, type:

    CLUSTER [cluster-name] RESOURCE "disk-resource-name" /MAINT:OFF

Value Description

cluster-name

The name of the cluster that you want to affect.

disk-resource-name

The resource name of the disk that you want to affect.

To view the complete syntax for this command, at a command prompt, type:

CLUSTER RESOURCE /?

Additional considerations

  • To view the status of a particular disk resource, type:

    CLUSTER [cluster-name] RESOURCE "disk-resource-name" /STATUS

  • Maintenance mode will remain on until one of the following occurs:

    • You turn it off.

    • The resource goes offline or fails.

    • The node on which the resource is running restarts or loses communication with other nodes (which causes failover of all resources on that node).

Additional references