Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > White Papers > Deploying Dell EMC SRDF/Metro Smart DR with Microsoft SQL Server for Physical and Virtual Environments > Step 2: Customize cluster disks or convert them to CSVs
SRDF/Metro disks added to the cluster are shared resources across all cluster nodes. Any cluster node will have consistent Read/Write access to those disks whether the nodes are on the R1 side or the R2 side of the SRDF/Metro RDF group. These disks can be used as shared disk resources across the cluster, or they can be converted to cluster shared volumes (CSVs).
The disks that are added to failover cluster will appear as reserved disks on the disk manager for safety. This will prevent any operation on them outside the control of the cluster manager. However, they can be renamed as desired by using the cluster manager.
To customize the disks added to the failover cluster, follow these steps:
Figure 27. Add second node to existing cluster
While we can use the disks as a shared available storage resource in the cluster, using CSVs provides a consistent shared name space across all cluster nodes. CSVs are owned by a cluster node, which will act as an arbitrator. Other cluster nodes can also access the CSVs under the coordination of this node. This allows very quick access to any cluster node and ownership can be transferred to other nodes very easily for load balancing or failover.
To convert available disks to CSVs, follow these steps:
Figure 28. Converting available disks to CSVs