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
Configuring a cluster witness
A cluster witness must be configured for a two-node cluster. Microsoft recommends configuring a cluster witness for a
four-node Azure Stack HCI cluster. Cluster witness configuration helps maintain a cluster or storage quorum when a node or
network communication fails and nodes continue to operate but can no longer communicate with one another.
A cluster witness can be either a file share or a cloud-based witness.
NOTE: If you choose to configure a file share witness, ensure that it is outside the two-node cluster.
For information about configuring a cloud-based witness, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-
clustering/deploy-cloud-witness.
Azure onboarding for Azure Stack HCI operating system
Clusters deployed using Azure Stack HCI operating system must be onboarded to Microsoft Azure for full functionality and
support. For more information, see Connect Azure Stack HCI to Azure.
Best practices and recommendations
Dell Technologies recommends that you follow these guidelines.
Disable SMB Signing
When SMB Signing is enabled, Storage Spaces Direct uses RDMA for SMB (storage) traffic, which reduces network
performance. Disable SMB Signing to improve performance.
For more information, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/help/4458042/reduced-performance-after-smb-encryption-or-
smb-signing-is-enabled.
NOTE:
By default, SMB Signing is disabled. If SMB Signing is enabled in the environment through a Group Policy Object
(GPO), you must disable it from the domain controller.
Update the hardware timeout for the Spaces port
For performance optimization and reliability, update the hardware timeout configuration for the Spaces port.
The following PowerShell command updates the configuration in the Windows registry and induces a restart of the node at the
end of the registry update. Perform this update on all Storage Spaces Direct nodes immediately after initial deployment. Update
one node at a time and wait until each node rejoins the cluster.
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. However, support for jumbo frame sizes varies among software, NIC, and switch vendors. The lowest value within
the data path determines the maximum frame size that is used for that path.
For the storage network adapters in the host operating system, enable jumbo frames by running the Set-
NetworkAdapterAdvancedProperty cmdlet.
NOTE:
Network adapters from different vendors support different jumbo packet sizes. The configured value must be
consistent across the host operating system and network switch configuration.
For information about configuring jumbo frames at the switch port level, see https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/t/sample-
network-switch-configuration-files-2/.
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Solution Deployment