So I have a custom built server running Server 2012 Essentials. It has a storage spaces pool with a bunch of drives in parity config. I decided to upgrade to 2012 Essentials R2. I did the research and found it needed to be a clean install, but that was OK because I was planning on moving the OS off an older platter drive and install to an SSD. Then I researched migrating the storage spaces pool over once I had the new OS running. I found some people who said it was a pain, and some people who said it was easy. I found an article with the handful of powershell commands that should get my storage pool alive on R2 and upgraded to the R2 implementation of storage spaces.
So here is the mystery. I could not install the OS with the storage pool drives attached. Windows setup only saw the SSD in the screen asking what drive I wanted to install on (good), but when I would select it, it would give me a weird message of "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files." When I booted down and removed power from all the pool drives, this issue went away when I tried again and 2012 R2 essentials installed fine.
So I got ready with my powershell commands and plugged in all the storage pool drives and booted the server back up. Shockingly, the storage spaces pool was just right there when I logged in. Fully intact, writable, and healthy. I didn't have to run any powershell commands to select it, make it writable, bring it online, convert it, etc... it just worked. I did try to run the update commandlet to bring the storage space current, and it asked me to confirm, but then it didn't seem to do anything after that, and calling the cmdlet to get current jobs showed nothing running.
So I am not complaining, but I don't get why I was able to do this without any special steps, while every article and doc I found with people in similar situations had to jump through all sorts of hoops.
Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com