Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server: Managing and Monitoring the Solution Infrastructure Life Cycle Operations Guide Dell Technologies Solutions Part Number: H17518.
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Contents Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................. 4 Document scope.................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Audience and assumptions................................................................................................................................................ 4 Known issues..
1 Introduction Topics: • • • • • Document scope Audience and assumptions Known issues Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server overview Deployment guidance Document scope This operations guide focuses on operational aspects of a hyperconverged infrastructure solution on Azure Stack HCI with Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct.
figure illustrates one of the flexible solution architectures. It consists of a compute cluster alongside the redundant top-of-rack (ToR) switches, a separate out-of-band network, and an existing management infrastructure in the data center. NOTE: Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server are available in both hybrid and all-flash configurations. For more information about available configurations, see the solution overview. Figure 1.
Deployment guidance For deployment guidance and instructions for configuring a cluster using Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI, see Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies. This operations guidance is applicable only to cluster infrastructure that is built using the instructions provided in the deployment documentation for AX nodes.
2 Day 0 Operations Topics: • • • • • Introduction Azure onboarding for Azure Stack HCI OS Licensing for Azure Stack HCI for Windows Server 2016 and 2019 Creating virtual disks Managing and Monitoring Azure Stack HCI Cluster using Windows Admin Center Introduction After deploying the Azure Stack HCI cluster, complete day 0 operations. This chapter provides details about the day 0 operations.
● Ensure that the storage pool has enough reserve capacity for any in-place volume repairs arising out of failed disk replacement. The reserved capacity should be at least equivalent to the size of one capacity drive per server and up to four drives. For general guidance on planning volume creation, see Planning volumes in Storage Spaces Direct.
Adding the HCI cluster connection About this task For monitoring and management purposes, add the hyperconverged cluster that is based on Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI as a connection in Windows Admin Center. Steps 1. Go to Windows Admin Center > Cluster Manager, as shown in the following figure. Figure 3. HCI cluster navigation 2. Click Add. The Add Cluster window is displayed. 3. Enter the cluster FQDN and select Also add servers in the cluster, as shown in the following figure. Figure 4.
Accessing the HCI cluster To view the dashboard for the HCI cluster that you have added to Windows Admin Center, in the Cluster Manager window, click the cluster name. This dashboard provides the real-time performance view from the HCI cluster. This view includes total IOPS, average latency values, throughput achieved, average CPU usage, memory usage, and storage usage from all cluster nodes. It also provides a summarized view of the Azure Stack HCI cluster with drives, volumes, and VM health.
Figure 6. Servers: Inventory tab NOTE: The metrics in the figure are for a four-node Azure Stack HCI cluster with all-flash drive configuration. Viewing drive details About this task View the total number of drives in the cluster, the health status of the drives, and the used, available, and reserve storage of the cluster as follows. Steps 1. In the left pane, select Drives. 2. Click the Summary tab, as shown in the following figure. Figure 7.
To view the drive inventory from the cluster nodes, from the left pane, select Drives, and then click the Inventory tab. Figure 8. Drives: Inventory tab The HCI cluster is built using four AX-740xd nodes, each with two 1.92 TB NVMe drives. By clicking the serial number of the drive, you can view the drive information, which includes health status, slot location, size, type, firmware version, IOPS, used or available capacity, and storage pool of the drive.
Figure 9. Volumes: Summary tab The Inventory tab provides the volume inventory from the HCI cluster nodes. The volumes can be managed and monitored. Figure 10. Volumes: Inventory tab Creating volumes in Storage Spaces Direct About this task Create volumes in Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Admin Center as follows. Steps 1. Go to Volumes > Inventory. 2. Click Create. The Create volume window is displayed. 3. Enter the volume name, resiliency, and size of the volume, and then click Create.
Managing volumes About this task Open, expand, delete, or make a volume offline as follows. Steps 1. Go to Volumes > Inventory. 2. Click the volume name. 3. Click Open to open the volume folder. 4. Click Offline or Delete to make the volume offline, or to delete the volume. 5. Click Expand to expand the volume. The Expand volume window is displayed. 6. Enter the additional size of the volume. 7. Select the volume size from the drop-down list and click Expand.
Figure 11.
Figure 12. VMs: Summary tab You can perform the following tasks from the Windows Admin Center console: ● View a list of VMs that are hosted on HCI cluster. ● View individual VM state, host server information, virtual machine uptime, CPU, memory utilization, and so on. ● Create a new VM. ● Modify VM settings. ● Set up VM protection. ● Delete, start, turn off, shut down, save, delete saved state, pause, resume, reset, add new checkpoint, move, rename, and connect VMs.
Figure 13. Virtual switches Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center enables IT administrators to manage the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) that is created by using Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server. OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center simplifies the tasks of IT administrators by remotely managing the AX nodes and clusters throughout their life cycle.
2. Select Configuration > Licenses. 3. Select Import, browse to and select the license, and then click Upload. Managing Azure Stack HCI clusters Steps 1. In the upper left of Windows Admin Center, select Cluster Manager from the menu. 2. In the Cluster Connections window, click the cluster name. 3. In the left pane of Windows Admin Center, under EXTENSIONS, click OpenManage Integration. 4.
● Temperatures Selecting the Critical or Warning section in the overall health status doughnut chart displays the nodes and components that are in the critical or warning state respectively. Select sections in the doughnut chart to filter the health status of the components. For example, selecting the red section displays only the components with critical health status. Selecting sections of the chart for individual components shows the respective nodes with the component health status listed.
Figure 15. iDRAC dashboard Settings Use the Settings tab in the Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center UI to view the latest update compliance report, update the cluster, and configure proxy settings. Update tools To view the latest update compliance report and update the cluster using an offline catalog, OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center requires that you configure the settings for the update compliance tools.
To use an offline catalog, the update tools must be configured under the Settings tab, and the catalog file must be exported using the Dell Repository Manager and placed in a shared folder. See Obtaining the firmware catalog for AX nodes or Ready Nodes using Dell EMC Repository Manager. 2. Click Next: Compliance Details to generate the update compliance report. By default, all the upgrades are selected, but you can make alternate selections as needed. Figure 16. Compliance Details 3.
Figure 17. Update Summary 4. To schedule the update for a later time, click Schedule later, select Date/time and click Next cluster aware update to download the required updates. To use the schedule later feature, download the required downloads and keep them ready to update at the specified time. 5. Click Next: Cluster Aware Update to begin the update process and click Yes at the prompt to enable Credential Security Service Provider (CredSSP) to update the selected components.
Figure 18. Cluster Aware Update When the update job is completed, the compliance job is triggered automatically. Full Stack Cluster-Aware Updating for Azure Stack HCI clusters using the OpenManage Integration snap-in About this task Windows Admin Center with the Dell EMC extension makes it easy to update an Azure Stack HCI cluster using the cluster aware update feature. The feature updates the operating system as well as Dell EMC-qualified firmware and drivers.
5. On the Hardware updates page, review the prerequisites listed to ensure that all nodes are ready for hardware updates and then click Next: Update Source. Click Re-Run to run the prerequisites again. You must meet all the prerequisites listed on the Prerequisites tab, otherwise you cannot proceed to the next step. 6. To generate a compliance report against the validated Azure Stack HCI catalog, follow these steps on the Update source page: ● a.
3. Enter the node name and click Add. 4. Under All connections, select the server and click Manage as. 5. Select use another account for this connection, and then provide the credentials in the domain\username or hostname\username format. 6. Click Confirm. 7. In the Connections window, click the server name. 8. In the left pane of Windows Admin Center, under EXTENSIONS, click OpenManage Integration. 9.
Table 1. Known issues (continued) Issue Resolution/workaround (Get-ClusterNetwork -Name $usbNICClusterNetwork.ToString()).Role = 0 } While triggering full stack updates, the Tests Summary page may appear. As a workaround, verify whether the pre-update or postupdate scripts are part of the cluster role.
● The Azure Stack HCI cluster has been deployed by using OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center. For more information about deploying an Azure Stack HCI cluster, see the user guide at https://www.dell.com/support/ home/us/en/04/product-support/product/omimssc-sccm-scvmm-v7.2/docs. Discovering the Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes To perform compliance checks and firmware updates, first discover the Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes. Steps 1. Launch SCVMM. 2.
● For Location, enter the shared path location: \\. ● For Credentials, create a credentials profile or use an existing profile to connect to the shared path. c. Click Test Connection to test the connection to the shared path. d. Click Save. Updating the firmware on a bare-metal server With OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center on a bare-metal server, you can update firmware or schedule firmware updates. Steps 1. Launch SCVMM. 2.
● At Schedule Update, select Run Now or schedule an update for a later time. ● At Update Method, select an update method. ○ Agent Free Update—Updates are applied, and the system restarts immediately. ○ Agent-Free Staged Update—Updates that do not require a system restart are applied immediately. Updates that require a restart are applied when the system restarts. 9. Click Finish.
You can also run the following command and verify that the drives all belong to the paused node: Get-Storagepool -IsPrimordial 0 |Get-PhysicalDisk | ? operationalstatus -eq 'In Maintenance Mode' |Get-StorageNode -PhysicallyConnected 4. Turn off the System Lockdown mode. Obtaining the firmware catalog for AX nodes or Ready Nodes using Dell EMC Repository Manager About this task For a qualified set of firmware and drivers for AX nodes or Ready Nodes, we recommend that you use an Azure Stack HCI catalog.
The Firmware Update page is displayed. 3. On the Update tab, select Network Share as the file location. 4. Provide the details of the network share, as shown in the following figure: Figure 19. Check for updates 5. Click Check for updates. A list of available updates is displayed, as shown in the following figure. Figure 20. Select updates 6. Select the updates and click Install Next Reboot to install and reboot the system.
After the drivers are downloaded, copy the identified drivers to AX nodes from where you can manually run the driver DUP files to install the drivers and restart the node. Alternatively, to install the drivers silently, navigate to the folder and run the following command: DriverUpdate.
Azure Stack HCI node expansion In an HCI cluster, adding server nodes increases the storage capacity, improves the overall storage performance of the cluster, and provides more compute resources to add VMs. Before adding new server nodes to an HCI cluster, complete the following requirements: ● Verify that the processor model, HBA, and NICs are of the same configuration as the current nodes on the cluster and PCIe slots.
Within a few minutes, the newly added disks are claimed in the existing pool and Storage Spaces Direct starts the rebalance job. Run the following command to verify that the new disks are a part of the existing pool: PS C:\> Get-StorageSubSystem -FriendlyName *Cluster* | Get-StorageHealthReport CPUUsageAverage : 2.66 % CapacityPhysicalPooledAvailable : 8.01 TB CapacityPhysicalPooledTotal : 69.86 TB CapacityPhysicalTotal : 69.86 TB CapacityPhysicalUnpooled : 0 B CapacityVolumesAvailable : 15.
2. Go to Storage > Controllers. Figure 22. View controllers 3. Go to Configuration > Storage Configuration > Virtual Disk Configuration, and then click Create Virtual Disk. Figure 23. Create a virtual disk 4. Provide a virtual disk name and select BOSS M.2 devices in the physical disks. Figure 24.
Figure 25. Set Physical Disks 5. Click Add Pending Operations. 6. Go to Configuration > Storage Configuration > Virtual Disk Configuration. Figure 26. Initialize configuration 7. Select the virtual disk, and then select Initialize: Fast in Virtual Disk Actions. 8. Reboot the server. NOTE: The virtual disk creation process might take several minutes to complete. 9. After the initialization is completed successfully, the virtual disk health status is displayed.
Figure 27. Virtual disk health status Operating system recovery This section provides an overview of steps involved in operating system recovery on the Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI. NOTE: Ensure that the RAID 1 VD created on the BOSS M.2 drives is reinitialized. NOTE: Do not reinitialize or clear the data on the disks that were a part of Storage Spaces Direct storage pool. This will help in reducing repair times when the node is added back to the same cluster after recovery.
