Deployment Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server Deployment Guide
- Introduction
- Solution Overview
- Solution Deployment
- Introduction to solution deployment
- Deployment prerequisites
- Predeployment configuration
- Operating system deployment
- Installing roles and features
- Verifying firmware and software compliance with the support matrix
- Updating out-of-box drivers
- Changing the hostname
- Configuring host networking
- Joining cluster nodes to an Active Directory domain
- Deploying and configuring a host cluster
- Best practices and recommendations
- Recommended next steps
- Deployment services
- References
- Appendix A: Persistent Memory for Azure Stack HCI
Solution Overview
Topics:
• Solution introduction
•
Deployment models
• Solution integration and network connectivity
Solution introduction
Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server include various configurations of AX nodes. These AX nodes power the
primary compute cluster that is deployed as a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). The HCI uses a flexible solution architecture
rather than a fixed component design.
For information about supported AX nodes and operating system support for each of the AX nodes, see the Support Matrix for
Microsoft HCI Solutions.
The solutions are available in both hybrid and all-flash configurations. For more information about available configurations, see
the AX nodes specification sheet.
Deployment models
Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server offer the following types of cluster infrastructure deployments:
● Switchless storage networking
● Scalable infrastructure
● Stretched cluster infrastructure
NOTE:
Deployment instructions for stretched cluster infrastructure are not covered in this deployment guidance. For
information about this infrastructure, see the Dell EMC Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI: Stretched Cluster
Deployment Reference Architecture Guide.
Switchless storage networking
This variant of Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server offers two to four nodes in a switchless configuration
for storage traffic. This infrastructure can be implemented using any of the validated and supported AX nodes. However,
the number of nodes in a cluster varies between the AX node models and the number of network adapters that each model
supports.
Switchless storage networking offers two full-mesh configurations:
● Single-link
● Dual-link
For more information about these switchless storage networking configurations, see Network Integration and Host
Configuration Options.
NOTE: For the two-node cluster deployment, configure a cluster witness. For details, see Configuring a cluster witness.
NOTE: The switchless storage configuration has been validated with back-to-back connections for storage connectivity.
The following figure illustrates the switchless storage networking infrastructure:
2
Solution Overview 7