Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Deployment Guide Part Number: H17977.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2019 –2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................... 5 Document overview.............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Audience and scope..............................................................................................................................................................
Appendix A: Persistent Memory for Azure Stack HCI........................................................................20 Configuring persistent memory for Azure Stack HCI..................................................................................................... 20 Persistent memory requirements................................................................................................................................ 20 Configuring persistent memory BIOS settings.............................
1 Introduction Topics: • • • Document overview Audience and scope Known issues Document overview This deployment guide provides an overview of Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, guidance on how to integrate solution components, and instructions for preparing and deploying the solution infrastructure. For end-to-end deployment steps, use the information in this guide in conjunction with the information in Network Configuration and Host Configuration Options.
2 Solution Overview Topics: • • • Solution introduction Deployment models Solution integration and network connectivity Solution introduction Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI include various configurations of AX-740xd, AX-640, and AX-6515 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.
Figure 1. Switchless storage networking Scalable infrastructure The scalable offering within Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI encompasses various configurations of AX-740xd, AX-640, and AX-6515 nodes. In this HCI solution, as many as 16 AX nodes power the primary compute cluster. The following figure illustrates one of the flexible solution architectures.
Figure 2. Scalable solution architecture Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI do not include management infrastructure components such as a cluster for hosting management VMs and services such as Microsoft Active Directory, Domain Name System (DNS), Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), and Microsoft System Center components such as Operations Manager (SCOM).
read-only domain controller (RODC) at the remote office. If you are using an RODC at the remote site, connectivity to the central management infrastructure with a writeable domain controller is mandatory during deployment of the Azure Stack HCI cluster. NOTE: Dell does not support expansion of a two-node cluster to a larger cluster size. A three-node cluster provides fault-tolerance only for simultaneous failure of a single node and a single drive.
3 Solution Deployment Topics: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 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
Table 2. Management services (continued) Management service Purpose Required/optional Domain Name System Name resolution Required Windows Software Update Service (WSUS) Local source for Windows updates Optional SQL Server Database back end for System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Optional Predeployment configuration Before deploying AX nodes, complete the required predeployment configuration tasks.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. At System Setup Main Menu, select iDRAC Settings. Under iDRAC Settings, select Network. Under IPV4 SETTINGS, at Enable IPv4, select Enabled. Enter the static IPv4 address details. Click Back, and then click Finish. Configuring QLogic NICs The QLogic FastLinQ 41262 network adapter supports both iWARP and RoCE. When used with the QLogic network adapters, the AX nodes are validated only with iWARP. Manually configure the adapter to enable iWARP based on the chosen network configuration.
Manual operating system deployment Dell Lifecycle Controller and integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) provide options for operating system deployment. Options include manual installation or unattended installation by using virtual media and the operating system deployment feature in Lifecycle Controller. The step-by-step procedure for deploying the operating system is not within the scope of this guide.
Updating out-of-box drivers For certain system components, you might have to update the driver to the latest Dell supported version. About this task NOTE: This section is optional if you are using Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Microsoft Windows Admin Center to update the nodes. Steps 1. Run the following PowerShell command to retrieve a list of all driver versions that are installed on the local system: Get-PnpDevice | Select-Object Name, @{l='DriverVersion';e={(Get-PnpDeviceProperty InstanceId $_.
4. 5. 6. 7. Enable RDMA for the storage adapters. Change RDMA settings on the Qlogic NICs. Configure the QoS policy. Disable DCBX Willing in the operating system. NOTE: Dell recommends implementing a nonconverged network and using physical network adapters for the storage traffic rather than using Switch Embedded Teaming (SET). However, in a nonconverged configuration, if virtual machine adapters must have RDMA capability, SET configuration is necessary for storage adapters.
NOTE: For the -IgnoreNetwork parameter, specify all storage network subnets as arguments. Switchless configuration requires that all storage network subnets are provided as arguments to the -IgnoreNetwork parameter. New-Cluster -Name S2DSystem -Node S2Dnode01, S2DNode02, S2dNode03, S2dNode04 -StaticAddress 172.16.102.55 -NoStorage -IgnoreNetwork 172.16.103.0/27, 172.16.104.
2. Run the following command to update the page file settings: $blockCacheMB = (Get-Cluster).BlockCacheSize $pageFilePath = "C:\pagefile.sys" $initialSize = [Math]::Round(40960 + $blockCacheMB) $maximumSize = [Math]::Round(40960 + $blockCacheMB) $system = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem -EnableAllPrivileges if ($system.AutomaticManagedPagefile) { $system.AutomaticManagedPagefile = $false $system.Put() } $currentPageFile = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PageFileSetting if ($currentPageFile.
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\spaceport \Parameters -Name HwTimeout -Value 0x00002710 -Verbose Restart-Computer -Force Enable jumbo frames Enabling jumbo frames specifically on the interfaces supporting the storage network might help improve the overall read/write performance of the Azure Stack HCI cluster. An end-to-end configuration of jumbo frames is required to take advantage of this technology.
4 References Topics: • • Dell Technologies documentation Microsoft documentation Dell Technologies documentation Review these links for more information from Dell.
A Persistent Memory for Azure Stack HCI Topics: • • Configuring persistent memory for Azure Stack HCI Configuring Azure Stack HCI persistent memory hosts Configuring persistent memory for Azure Stack HCI Intel Optane DC persistent memory is designed to improve overall data center system performance and lower storage latencies by placing storage data closer to the processor on nonvolatile media.
Configuring persistent memory BIOS settings Configure the BIOS to enable persistent memory. Steps 1. 2. 3. 4. During system startup, press F12 to enter System BIOS. Select BIOS Settings > Memory Settings > Persistent Memory. Verify that System Memory is set to Non-Volatile DIMM. Select Intel Persistent Memory. The Intel Persistent Memory page provides an overview of the server's Intel Optane DC persistent memory capacity and configuration. 5. Select Region Configuration.
Configuring Azure Stack HCI persistent memory hosts Three types of device objects are related to persistent memory on Windows Server 2019: the NVDIMM root device, physical INVDIMMs, and logical persistent memory disks. In Device Manager, physical INVDIMMs are displayed under Memory devices, while logical persistent disks are under Persistent memory disks. The NVDIMM root device is under System Devices. The NVDIMM root device is controlled by the scmbus.sys driver.
Managing persistent memory using Windows PowerShell Windows Server 2019 provides a PersistentMemory PowerShell module that enables user management of the persistent storage space. PS C:\> Get-Command -Module PersistentMemory CommandType Name Version Source ------------------------Cmdlet Get-PmemDisk 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory Cmdlet Get-PmemPhysicalDevice 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory Cmdlet Get-PmemUnusedRegion 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory Cmdlet Initialize-PmemPhysicalDevice 1.0.0.
121 0 GB 21 GB 008906320000 INVDIMM device 008906320000 INVDIMM device Healthy Healthy {Ok} {Ok} A12 A9 102005395 102005395 126 GB 126 GB 0 2. Run Get-PmemUnusedRegion to verify that two unused Pmem regions are available, one region for each physical CPU. PS C:\> Get-PmemUnusedRegion RegionId -------1 3 TotalSizeInBytes DeviceId ----------------------811748818944 {1, 111, 21, 101...} 811748818944 {1001, 1111, 1021, 1101...} 3.
