I have Windows Server 2012 Essentials with the following configuration:

• 3 physical disks (2x 4TB and 1x 2TB)
• 1 Storage Space using all 3 physical disks
• 2 virtual disks (D and E) created in this Storage Space
• D is a thin provisioned, mirrored, ReFS drive
• E is a thin provisioned, simple, ReFS drive

I have freed a bunch of space on the mirrored drive (allocated space is 2.90TB, used space is 1.24TB). I would like to reclaim the now freed space from the mirrored drive so that it can be consumed by the simple drive.

It is my understanding that the way to do this is using the Optimize-Volume cmdlet (or the Optimize Drives tool). The Optimize Drives tool tells me optimization has never run for this volume (despite being configured weekly since the server was built a few months ago). Running Optimize-Volume against the volume in question seems to hang indefinitely. Below is the extent of what I see in PowerShell.

Any ideas what might be wrong here and how to fix it?

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this issue?

PS C:\Windows\system32>Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter D -Analyze -Verbose
VERBOSE: Invoking slab consolidation on Mirrored ReFS (D:)...
VERBOSE: Slab Analysis:  0% complete...

Hi,

I think it should be resize-virtualdisk. See:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848658.aspx

Resize-VirtualDisk

Resizes an existing virtual disk to be larger or smaller.

I am not looking to resize the virtual disks. The disk in question is thin provisioned and is currently using much less than the space it has been allocated. I want to return the unused space in this drive to the pool.

Can you help me figure out why Optimize-Volume does not work for this drive?

Damon,

Could you open "Resource Monitor" while Slab Analysis is making slow progress? Do you see any CPU activity from "svchost.exe (defragsvc)"? Do you see any Disk activity? Did the operation eventually finish? Could you also try running slab consolidation by running "defrag.exe /v /k d:"? Could you look at the Application Event Log to see if there are any interesting events from the Defrag Source?

Thanks,

As far as I can tell, Slab Analysis is making no progress.  Shortly after running Optimize-Volume, Resource Monitor shows no CPU or Disk activity for svchost.exe (defragsvc).  In previous attempts, I have let Optimize-Volume run for 12+ hours and Slab Analysis never gets past 0% complete.  The only events from the Defrag source I see in the event log say that "The storage optimizer successfully completed retrim on Simple ReFS (E:)".  I see nothing about the drive (D:) where I am having this issue.

I tried defrag.exe /v /k d: as well.  The results appear to be the same.  Resource Monitor shows no CPU or Disk activity for svchost.exe (defragsvc).  There is nothing about this drive from the Defrag source in the event log.  It has been running for ~3 hours now, and this is all I have on the console:

C:\Windows\system32>defrag.exe /v /k d:
Microsoft Drive Optimizer
Copyright (c) 2012 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking slab consolidation on Mirrored ReFS (D:)...

Hey Damon,

did you ever get anywhere with this?

I'm seeing the same thing in Server 2012 R2 Essentials, though on an NTFS partition.

One exception, I am seeing CPU usage "svchost.exe (defragsvc)" of around 44% on a dual Core machine.  But still no disk activity.

Thanks
Craig