Two-Node Failover Cluster with internal storage

I want to create a two-node cluster, which uses the internal storage as shared storage. I don’t have any external storage. I know about Starwind and other third-party products but I can’t use that. Is it possible to achieve this only with Microsoft products. I read a lot about this problem but I couldn’t find a simple, yes it is possible or no it isn’t. Did someone do that before or tried it and failed? Would it be better to simply use Hyper-V Replica? I use Windows Server 2012 R2 on two Dell Poweredge R720 Servers. Thanks for help

Solution 1:

You need to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 and pay super-expensive Datacenter edition tax for your both hosts just to use Microsoft built-in SDS tech similar to what "Starwind and other third-party tools" are doing: it's called Storage Spaces Direct (S2D).

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-overview

It's pretty new (released October 2016) and lacks GUI (except you go for a SCVMM which is a complete overkill for a dual host cluster setup) and isn't getting anywhere close to say StarWind, VMware VSAN or HPE VSA in terms of maturity.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san

http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san.html (doesn't exist for Microsoft environments unfortunately)

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/storage/storevirtual.html

Also make sure you realize S2D within two and three node setups (except 3-way replication with later) isn't immune to a second failure so having faulty disk during one node reboot brings whole cluster down once and forever. Performance isn't great either: you won't get anywhere close to what your physical NVMe & SSD drives can do.