WSEE 2019 Storage Spaces
I have been testing the Server Essentials for 2019 install, specifically around the storage spaces control as I am moving from Server 2012R2 with several large Storage Spaces setup and want to simply move them to 2019, upgrade the Storage Pool, and use the enhanced features of 2019 for the Storage Pool.
In my testing this has worked well, I can simply disconnect the drives from the storage pool I created on Server 2012, attach them to the 2019 server, it sees the pool right way, lets me take ownership of the pool in 2019 and upgrade the pool from 2012 to 2019. I then see the new features in the control panel applet for that storage pool (optimize drive usage, prepare for removal, etc) but I am getting one odd item, which is this indication that “Information Inaccessible by user action” That should normally be a Green OK or show if the space has an error. I didn’t change anything in the config, so not sure what “user action” it is seeing and was wondering if perhaps it was something in the WSEE load?
- DavidK asked 5 years ago
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Alas, I’m afraid that I haven’t seen this one crop up before (and I can’t currently reproduce it in my limited testing scenarios). Admittedly, I don’t use Storage Spaces too much though (and so I don’t have a lot of experience with it).
As you’re well aware, Windows Server doesn’t natively include a “Storage Spaces” applet in its Control Panel. However, Microsoft includes one with the Windows Server Essentials Experience (WSEE) server role in all of the (prior) versions of Essentials. With Windows Server 2019 Essentials being the complete and utter abomination that it is (and having nothing whatsoever to do with all prior versions of Essentials), it doesn’t include a “Storage Spaces” applet in its Control Panel either.
However, since Windows Server 2019 is based upon the UI of Windows 10 v1809, I went ahead and excised the “Storage Spaces” Control Panel applet from it and then stitched it into Windows Server 2019 (with WSEE installed) via the WSEE Installer. Therefore, the issue that you’re seeing here could well be an incompatibility (or possibly a bug) between the server and client editions of Windows as far as the applet is concerned. I’ll certainly look into it a bit more, but I’m not sure that there will be too much that I can do about it at this point I’m afraid. It may just be something that we’ll need to live with. And, as you’ve mentioned, since the core functionality of the applet appears to be working (i.e. it’s just the information that’s not showing up properly in the applet), it’s probably not all that big of an issue in the larger scheme of things.
Thanks for the heads up on this one.
EDIT: I found the following article on the web, which briefly mentions the “Inaccessible by user action” issue. Can you take a look at it just to see if anything it says happens to correct the issue for you (seeing as you’ll know way better than me I’m sure):
From Windows Server 2012 to 2012 R2: A storage pool nightmare
- Mike answered 5 years ago
- last edited 5 years ago
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Nice catch on that link, that was indeed the issue, all is looking good now. Thanks for the help!
- DavidK answered 5 years ago
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That’s great news! I’m very glad to hear that the fix within the article resolved the issue for you, and that it isn’t a problem with the way I’ve implemented the Storage Spaces applet in 2019. Thanks for the follow up.
- Mike answered 5 years ago
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