Deployment Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server Deployment Guide
- Introduction
- Solution Overview
- Solution Deployment
- 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 services
- References
- Appendix A: Persistent Memory for Azure Stack HCI
Changing the hostname
By default, the operating system deployment assigns a random name as the host computer name. For easier identification and
uniform configuration, Dell Technologies recommends that you change the hostname to something that is relevant and easily
identifiable.
Change the hostname by using the Rename-Computer cmdlet:
Rename-Computer -NewName S2DNode01 -Restart
NOTE: This command induces an automatic restart at the end of rename operation.
Configuring host networking
Dell EMC HCI Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server can be configured to implement a fully converged or nonconverged
network for storage and management connectivity.
Complete the following steps to configure host networking:
1. Create VM switches (based on topology).
2. Create VM adapters, and configure VLANs and IP addresses.
3. Map the VM storage adapters (based on topology).
4. Enable RDMA for the storage adapters.
5. Change RDMA settings on the QLogic NICs.
6. Configure the QoS policy.
7. Disable the DCBX Willing state in the operating system.
NOTE:
Dell Technologies 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.
For information about each of the preceding steps and all possible topologies within both fully converged and nonconverged
solution integration (including switchless storage networking solution integration) and host operating system network
configuration, see Network Integration and Host Network Configuration Options.
NOTE:
The host operating system network configuration must be complete before you join cluster nodes to the Active
Directory domain.
Joining cluster nodes to an Active Directory domain
Before you can create a cluster, the cluster nodes must be a part of an Active Directory domain.
NOTE:
Connecting to Active Directory Domain Services by using the host management network might require routing to
the Active Directory network. Ensure that this routing is in place before joining cluster nodes to the domain.
You can perform the domain join task by running the Add-Computer cmdlet on each host that will be a part of the Azure Stack
HCI cluster.
NOTE:
Optionally, you can add all newly created computer objects from the cluster deployment to a different
Organizational Unit (OU) in Active Directory Domain Services. In this case, you can use the -OUPath parameter along
with the Add-Computer cmdlet.
$credential = Get-Credential
Add-Computer -DomainName S2dlab.local -Credential $credential -Restart
NOTE: This command induces an automatic restart at the end of the domain join operation.
Solution Deployment 17