Reference Guide
Table Of Contents
- Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: Managing and Monitoring the Solution Infrastructure Life Cycle Operations Guide
- Contents
- Introduction
- Day 0 Operations
- 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
- Installing Windows Admin Center
- Adding the HCI cluster connection
- Accessing the HCI cluster
- Viewing server details
- Viewing drive details
- Managing and monitoring volumes
- Enabling data deduplication on Storage Spaces Direct
- Monitoring and managing VMs
- Managing virtual switches
- Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center
- Prerequisites for managing AX nodes
- Installing the Azure Stack HCI license (Ready Nodes only)
- Managing Azure Stack HCI clusters
- Full Stack Cluster-Aware Updating prerequisites for AX-7525 and AX-6515 nodes (offline update)
- Full Stack Cluster-Aware Updating for Azure Stack HCI clusters using the OpenManage Integration snap-in
- Updating a stand-alone node before adding it to the cluster
- Known issues
- Firmware updates using Dell EMC OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center for System Center Virtual Machine Manager
- Firmware and driver updates using the manual method
- Restarting a cluster node or taking a cluster node offline
- Expanding the Azure Stack HCI cluster
- Extending volumes
- Performing AX node recovery
- Operating system recovery
Placing an AX node in maintenance mode
About this task
After ensuring that the prerequisites are met and before performing the platform updates, place the AX node in maintenance
mode (pause and drain). You can move roles or VMs and gracefully flush and commit data in the AX node.
Steps
1. Run the following command to put the node in maintenance mode (pause and drain). Verify that all the roles and virtual
drives are drained properly and operational in other nodes after they are moved:
Suspend-ClusterNode -name “Hostname” -Drain
2. Place the target node in maintenance mode:
Get-StorageFaultDomain -type StorageScaleUnit | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -eq
"<Hostname>"} | Enable-StorageMaintenanceMode
3. Run the Get-Physical Disk command, and ensure that the Operational Status value is in maintenance mode for the
drives that belong to that server.
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.
You can generate the firmware catalog along with the firmware and drivers by using Dell EMC Repository Manager (DRM) and
copy it to a shared path.
Steps
1. Install DRM version 3.0.1.423 or later.
2. On the DRM home page, click the Dell EMC Repository Manager drop-down list.
3. In the Manage section, click Application Preferences.
The Preferences window is displayed.
4. Click Plug-ins.
5. Select all the plug-ins and click Update.
A message is displayed about the successful completion of the update.
6. Click Catalogs.
7. Select all the catalogs and click Update.
8. Click Close to close the Preferences window.
9. On the home page, click Add Repository.
The Add Repository window is displayed.
10. Enter the Repository name and Description.
11. Select Index Catalog-
<version>
from the Base Catalog drop-down menu.
12. Select Update Catalog for Microsoft HCI Solutions from the Catalog Group.
13. Select the latest catalog from the Catalogs section.
14. Click Save.
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Day 0 Operations