Dell PowerEdge R7415 User Manual

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

2-Node Hyperconverged Back-to-Back Connected Infrastructure

June 2019

REV 08

Deployment Guide

Dell EMC Solutions

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Dell EMC

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2	Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Chapter 1	Overview	5
	Introduction..................................................................................................	6
	Audience and scope......................................................................................	6
	Assumptions.................................................................................................	6
	Known issues................................................................................................	7
Chapter 2	Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes	9
	Overview.....................................................................................................	10
	R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node...................................................	12
	Storage Spaces Direct................................................................................	13
Chapter 3	Solution component integration	15
	Overview.....................................................................................................	16
	Network connectivity..................................................................................	16
Chapter 4	Virtualized infrastructure deployment by using Dell EMC Ready
	Nodes	19
	Overview....................................................................................................	20
	Deployment prerequisites...........................................................................	20
	Software versions..........................................................................	20
	Dell EMC validated firmware matrix...............................................	21
	Deployment checklists................................................................................	21
	Management environment checklist...............................................	21
	Network configuration checklist.....................................................	21
	Host OS network checklist............................................................	22
	Predeployment configuration.....................................................................	23
	Network switch configuration........................................................	23
	iDRAC and BIOS configuration......................................................	24
	QLogic NIC configuration..............................................................	26
	Firmware baselining.......................................................................	29
Chapter 5	Hyperconverged infrastructure deployment	31
	Overview....................................................................................................	32
	Deploy operating system............................................................................	32
	Manual OS deployment..................................................................	32
	Factory-installed OS......................................................................	32
	Update out-of-box drivers..........................................................................	33
	Install roles and features.............................................................................	34
	Change hostname.......................................................................................	34
	Configure firewall.......................................................................................	34
	Configure host networking.........................................................................	35
	VM switch and adapter configuration............................................	35

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Contents

	AD domain join............................................................................................	37
	Create host cluster.....................................................................................	38
	Configuring Storage Spaces Direct............................................................	38
	Change RDMA mode on QLogic NICs—iWARP only..................................	39
	Update page file settings............................................................................	39
	Enabling jumbo frames...............................................................................	40
	Remove host management network from Live Migration............................	40
	Update hardware timeout for Spaces port..................................................	41
	Configuring a cluster witness......................................................................	41
	Recommended next steps...........................................................................	41
Chapter 6	Deployment services	43
	Overview....................................................................................................	44
Appendix A	Additional resources	45
Appendix B	Firewall port requirements	47
Appendix C	Sample deployment checklists	49

4	Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

CHAPTER 1

Overview

This chapter presents the following topics:

•

Introduction.........................................................................................................	6
Audience and scope.............................................................................................	6
Assumptions.........................................................................................................	6
Known issues........................................................................................................	7

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Overview

Introduction

This guide focuses on deploying a 2-node back-to-back connected hyperconverged infrastructure solution for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI. The guide includes an overview of the solution infrastructure, guidance on how to integrate the solution components, and instructions for preparing and deploying the solution infrastructure. This guide is applicable only to infrastructure that is built by using the validated and certified Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes.

Audience and scope

The audience for this document includes systems engineers, field consultants, partner engineering team members, and customers with a fair amount of knowledge in deploying hyperconverged infrastructures with Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct.

Customers who do not have Volume License agreements with Microsoft can order Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes with the operating system preinstalled at the factory with OEM license or bare metal.

The Storage Spaces Direct Cluster deployment can be done in two ways:

•Dell EMC Services led: Certified deployment engineers can deploy the solution, which ensures accuracy and speed, reduced risk and down time.

•Customer led: Customers can deploy the solution by referring to this deployment guide, provided they have the qualified level of technical expertise.

Note: Instructions in this deployment guide are applicable only to the generally available OS build of Windows Server 2016 with the latest applicable updates and Windows Server 2019 GA build with latest OS updates. These instructions are not validated with Windows Server, version 1709. Storage Spaces Direct Ready nodes do not support the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel release. Dell EMC recommends that you update the host OS with latest cumulative updates from Microsoft before starting the cluster creation and configuration tasks.

Note: While the instructions in this deployment guide can be used with other Dell

EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes, R640 Storage Spaces Direct

Ready Node has been used as an example for the deployment instructions.

Assumptions

This deployment guide makes certain assumptions about the necessary prerequisite knowledge of the deployment personnel. This includes the prerequisite knowledge of:

•Dell EMC Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes and deploying and configuring BIOS and iDRAC settings

•Deploying and configuring Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 Hyper- V infrastructure

6	Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Overview

Known issues

Before starting the cluster deployment, ensure that you review the known issues and workarounds. See https://www.dell.com/support/article/sln313305.

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Overview

8	Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

CHAPTER 2

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

This chapter presents the following topics:

•

Overview............................................................................................................	10
R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node..........................................................	12
Storage Spaces Direct........................................................................................	13

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

Overview

Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI encompasses various configurations of R740xd, R740xd2, and R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node and PowerEdge R440 servers to power the primary compute cluster deployed as a hyperconverged infrastructure. This hyperconverged infrastructure built by using these Ready Nodes uses a flexible solution architecture rather than a fixed component design. Figure 1 illustrates one of the flexible solution architectures consisting of compute cluster alongside the redundant top-of-rack switches, a separate out-of-band (OOB) network, and an existing management infrastructure in the data center.

The Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI based on Dell EMC Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes is available in both hybrid and all-flash configurations.

For more information on available configurations, see Dell EMC Ready Nodes for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct with Hyper-V Solution Overview.

Note: For the 2-node cluster deployment, it is mandatory that a cluster witness is configured. See the section on configuring cluster witness for available options and other references to deployment instructions.

10 Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

Figure 1 2-Node hyperconverged virtualized solution using Dell EMC Ready Nodes

Dell EMC Solutions for Azure Stack HCI does not include management infrastructure components such as a cluster for hosting management VMs and services such as

Active Directory (AD), Domain Name Service (DNS); Windows Server Update Services (WSUS); and System Center components such as Operations Manager (OM). Therefore, the instructions in this guide do not include deployment of any of these services and components, and assume that at least an Active Directory domain controller is available in the existing management infrastructure.

When deployed in a remote office scenario, Dell EMC recommends that you deploy either an Active Directory replica or Ready-Only Domain Controller (RODC) at the remote office. If you are using a RODC at the remote site, connectivity to the central management infrastructure with a writeable domain controller is mandatory during deployment of the 2-node cluster.

The subsequent sections provide an overview of the hardware and software components in the virtualized solution based on Dell EMC Ready Nodes.

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node

R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node, a 1U rack server based on the PowerEdge R640, is optimized for software-defined storage implementations that enable hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) implementations. This Ready Node supports up to two CPU sockets, with a wide range of options for the number of cores per CPU socket, and 1.5 TB of memory when using DDR4 DIMMs.

The R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node in a back-to-back connected configuration is available only in a 10-drive chassis configuration in both hybrid and allflash configurations. For more details about the configuration, see https:// www.dell.com/learn/shared-content~data-sheets~en/documents~microsoft- storage-spaces-direct-ready-nodes-solution-overview-en.pdf.

Figure 2 Disk configuration in a Dell EMC Ready Node based on R640 Storage Spaces Direct

Ready Node with 10 drives (hybrid)

Figure 3 Disk configuration in a Dell EMC Ready Node based on R640 Storage Spaces Direct

Ready Node with 10 drives (all-flash)

The R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node in a back-to-back connected configuration supports only one add-in network adapter.

12 Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

The following table provides an overview of the R640 Storage Spaces Ready Node in the solution.

Table 1 System components

Component	Specification


Compute cluster node	R640 Storage Spaces Ready Node

NIC	1 x Mellanox Connectx-4 LX 25 GbE SFP add-in adapter
	or
	1 x QLogic FastLinQ 41262 25 GbE SFP28 add-in adapter
	and
	Dual-port 10 GbE or dual-port 1 GbE rNDC

Storage adapter	HBA 330 Mini

Boot device	BOSS S.1 with 2 x BOSS M.2 devices in RAID 1

Drives	See Dell EMC Ready Nodes for Microsoft Storage
	Spaces Direct with Hyper-V Solution Overview

Because this 2-node configuration implements back-to-back connectivity of the servers using either the Mellanox or QLogic RDMA-capable NICs, a data center bridging (DCB) policy or RoCE for RDMA configurations in the host operating system are not needed.

If the nodes are configured with QLogic FastLinQ 41262 adapters, Dell EMC recommends using iWARP for RDMA.

For a list of switches that are supported in this configuration, see the Support Matrix at https://www.dell.com/azurestackhcimanuals.

Storage Spaces Direct

Storage Spaces Direct was first introduced in Windows Server 2016. This storage feature uses the local disks within the nodes to create highly available softwaredefined storage. This feature is enhanced further in Windows Server 2019 with the addition of support for deduplication among many other features and enhancements.

Two deployment options are possible for Storage Spaces Direct. In the first option, the storage and compute cluster are kept separate. This method, which is known as converged or disaggregated deployment, allows for scaling of storage and compute clusters in a manner that is independent of each other. The second deployment option, known as hyperconverged deployment, enables running the virtualization services directly on top of the servers that host Storage Spaces Direct. This method ensures that there is no need to configure and maintain file services separately in a different cluster and, therefore, reduces the need for additional physical servers.

This deployment guide focuses on a hyperconverged deployment of Storage Spaces Direct. For more information about Storage Spaces Direct and these deployment options, see https://technet.microsoft.com/EN-US/windows-server-docs/storage/ storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-overview.

This guide provides the deployment instructions for implementing a Storage Spaces Direct hyperconverged cluster that is built using Dell EMC Ready Nodes. The following figure provides an overview of the deployment.

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

Virtualization infrastructure with Dell EMC Ready Nodes

Figure 4 Deployment overview

14 Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

CHAPTER 3

Solution component integration

This chapter presents the following topics:

•

Overview............................................................................................................	16
Network connectivity.........................................................................................	16

Dell EMC Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI

+ 35 hidden pages

Dell PowerEdge R7415 User Manual

CONTENTS

Introduction

Audience and scope

Assumptions

Known issues

Overview

R640 Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node

Storage Spaces Direct