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
Introduction
Topics:
• Document scope
•
Audience and assumptions
• Known issues
• Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies 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.
This guide includes an overview of Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies, guidance to monitor and manage bare metal,
and instructions for performing operations on an Azure Stack HCI cluster and updating the cluster-aware system. This guide is
applicable only to infrastructure that is built by using the validated and certified Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies.
Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies refers to:
● Dell EMC Integrated System for Azure Stack HCI (based on Azure Stack HCI OS v20H2)
● Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server (based on Windows Server 2016/2019 OS)
Instructions in this guide are applicable only to the generally available operating system build of Windows Server 2016, Windows
Server 2019, and Azure Stack HCI operating system with the latest applicable updates. These instructions are not validated with
Windows Server version 1709. Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies do not support the Windows Server Semi-Annual
Channel release. Dell Technologies recommends updating the host operating system with the latest cumulative updates from
Microsoft before starting the cluster creation and configuration tasks.
Audience and assumptions
The audience for this operations guide includes systems administrators, systems engineers, field consultants, partner
engineering team members, and customers with a fair amount of knowledge in deploying hyperconverged infrastructures with
Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, the Azure Stack HCI operating system, Hyper-V, and Storage Spaces Direct. We
assume that deployment personnel have prerequisite knowledge, including of:
● Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies, and the deployment and configuration of BIOS and integrated Dell Remote
Access Controller (iDRAC) settings on AX nodes from Dell Technologies
● Deploying and configuring Windows Server core operating system Hyper-V infrastructure
Known issues
Before starting the cluster deployment, see Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI - Known Issues for known issues
and workarounds.
Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies
overview
Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies encompass various configurations of AX nodes from Dell Technologies to power
the primary compute cluster that is deployed as a hyperconverged infrastructure. This hyperconverged infrastructure that is
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4 Introduction