Windows 2008 Cluster says goodbye to Parallel SCSI

Late last year we began formally migrating over to Windows 2008, specifically addressing single points of failure.  In our production data center we’ve recently deployed a fibre channel SAN, whereas Windows 2008 clusters have played very nicely, enabling our SQL instances to benefit from a more robust storage subsystem.

Tonight however, I began migrating a slightly older system, HP DL560s with an HP Modular Storage Array 500.  After a brief six hours, tracking down updated drivers, firmware and iLOs + controller and array config utilities, I happen to find out Windows 2008 has dropped support for Parallel SCSI, in support for iSCSI, SAS and of course fibre channel.  More info can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/947710 

Therefore, if you’ve got legacy Direct Attached Storage (DAS) SCSI Arrays in use, they WILL NOT migrate to Windows 2008 clusters!  So now I must revert back to W2k3 R2 SP2 – which still provides support for Parallel SCSI.  Too bad, have really enjoyed my experience with W2K8 boxes of late, but it looks like W2K3 will have to live on for a while longer..