Enterprise Storage Project

Shared Storage and iSCSI Infrastructure

Design, deployment, administration, and validation of resilient shared storage using Windows Storage Spaces, parity, iSCSI targets, dedicated storage networking, and connected Hyper-V hosts.

Windows Server 2022Storage SpacesiSCSI Target ServeriSCSI InitiatorHyper-VPowerShell

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Project Overview

Resilient shared storage for virtual infrastructure

This project recreated an enterprise-style shared storage environment capable of supporting multiple virtualization hosts and high-availability infrastructure.

Windows Storage Spaces was used to combine several virtual disks into a managed storage pool. A parity virtual disk was then created to provide capacity efficiency and resilience against disk failure.

The resulting storage was presented to two Hyper-V hosts using the iSCSI protocol across a dedicated private storage network. This provided the foundation required for cluster-shared workloads and failover testing.

Architecture

Shared-storage architecture

Layer 1Physical Disks

Layer 2Storage Spaces Pool

Layer 3iSCSI Target

Layer 4Hyper-V Hosts

Multiple virtual disks were combined into a Windows Storage Spaces pool. A parity virtual disk provided resilient storage, which was exposed through an iSCSI target and connected to both Hyper-V hosts using dedicated storage-network adapters.

Implementation

Major tasks completed

✓Deployed a dedicated Windows Server storage virtual machine.
✓Attached multiple virtual disks to simulate enterprise storage hardware.
✓Created a Storage Spaces storage pool from available physical disks.
✓Configured a parity virtual disk to provide storage resiliency.
✓Created and formatted a storage volume for shared infrastructure workloads.
✓Installed and configured the iSCSI Target Server role.
✓Created a virtual iSCSI disk and assigned it to a storage target.
✓Configured iSCSI initiators on two Hyper-V hosts.
✓Established a dedicated private network for storage traffic.
✓Connected both Hyper-V hosts to the shared iSCSI target.
✓Validated storage visibility, connectivity, and disk availability.
✓Prepared the shared storage for Windows Failover Clustering.

Validation

Functional testing performed

Storage pool health verified
Parity virtual disk created successfully
iSCSI target service operational
Hyper-V hosts connected through iSCSI initiators
Shared disk visible from both virtualization hosts
Private storage-network connectivity confirmed
Storage access persisted after server restart
Environment prepared for cluster validation

Technologies Used

Windows Server 2022Storage SpacesiSCSI Target ServeriSCSI InitiatorHyper-VPowerShellPrivate Storage NetworkWindows Admin Center

Business Value

Centralized storage for resilient infrastructure

Shared storage allows multiple virtualization hosts to access the same workload data and supports high-availability technologies such as failover clustering and live migration. Storage pooling also improves capacity utilization, simplifies administration, and provides resilience against individual disk failures.