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
1. Pass cluster validation and SES device compliance tests.
2. Verify that the nodes are compliant with the firmware baseline.
3. Update the hardware timeout configuration for the Spaces port.
4. After the node configuration, update Microsoft Windows to bring the node to the same level as the cluster.
Adding server nodes manually
NOTE: The procedure is applicable only if the cluster and Storage Spaces Direct configuration is done manually.
To manually add server nodes to the cluster, see https://technet.microsoft.com/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-
spaces/add-nodes.
Storage Spaces Direct storage expansion
In an HCI cluster, expanding storage by adding drives on the available slots on the cluster nodes adds storage capacity to the
cluster and improves storage performance. Before the storage expansion, ensure that all disk types and the amount in each
node are the same and are equal to that of the node in use. Do not combine two different disk types in the same cluster or node.
For example, you cannot combine SATA and SAS HDD/SSD drives in the same node or cluster.
The following options for expanding the storage capacity of the cluster are supported:
● Option 1: Expand the storage with the same drive manufacturer, capacity, endurance, latest model, and latest firmware.
Determine if it is available on the AX node support matrix.
● Option 2: Expand the storage with a different drive manufacturer, model, firmware, and the same capacity and endurance.
Determine if it is available on the AX node support matrix.
When new disks are added to extend the overall storage capacity per node, the Azure Stack HCI cluster starts claiming the
physical disks into an existing storage pool.
After the drives are added, they are shown as available for pooling (CanPool set to True) in the output of the Get-
PhysicalDisk command.
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 : 15.09 TB
CapacityVolumesTotal : 16.88 TB
IOLatencyAverage : 908.13 us
IOLatencyRead : 0 ns
IOLatencyWrite : 908.13 us
IOPSRead : 0 /S
IOPSTotal : 1 /S
IOPSWrite : 1 /S
IOThroughputRead : 0 B/S
IOThroughputTotal : 11.98 KB/S
IOThroughputWrite : 11.98 KB/S
MemoryAvailable : 472.87 GB
MemoryTotal : 768 GB
After all available disks are claimed in the storage pool, the CapacityPhysicalUnpooled is 0 B.
The storage rebalance job might take a few minutes. You can monitor the process by using the Get-StorageJob cmdlet.
Extending volumes
You can resize volumes that are created in Spaces Direct storage pools by using the Resize-VirtualDisk cmdlet. For more
information, see https://technet.microsoft.com/windows-server-docs/storage/storage-spaces/resize-volumes.
Day 0 Operations
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