NEC Express5800-320Ma Quick Start Guide
NEC Express5800 Fault Tolerant Virtual Server
Quick Start Guide
Install and Configure NEC Fault Tolerant Servers to Provide
Maximum Availability to Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
For the latest information, please see
http://www.necam.com/servers/ft/
and http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1
Quick Start Guide Operating Environment ........................................................................ 1
Guide Scenario ................................................................................................................... 2
Guide Goal .......................................................................................................................... 3
STEP 1: Install the Hardware ............................ .. .. .. ... .. .......................... .. .. .. ... ...................... 4
Connecting to the Network ........... .. .. .......................... .. .. ... .......................... .. .. .. ................ 4
Adapter Fault Tolerant Teams ...................................... .. ... .. .......................... .. .. ................ 4
Switch Fault Tolerant Teams ............................................................................................. 5
Adaptive Load Balancing Teams .......................... .......................... .. .......................... .. .. ... 5
Configuring Power Inputs ................................................................................................... 5
STEP 2: Install the Operating System .............................. .. ... .. .......................... .. .. ................ 7
The Post-IPL Procedure ...................................................................................................... 7
Using Group Policy to Disable Automatic Updates ........................................................... 8
Configuring Windows for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 ....................................................... 9
STEP 3: Configure the Server Hardware ............................... .......................... .. .. ................ 11
Disk Mirroring ............................................. .. .. .. .......................... .. ... .. .. ............................. 11
Network Adapter Teaming ............................................................................................... 13
STEP 4: Install and Configure Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 ................................................. 15
Installing Virtual Server ................................................................................................... 16
Virtual Server Web Application .. ... .......................... .......................... .. .......................... ... 16
STEP 5: Installing and Configuring the Guest Virtual Machines ......................................... 19
Resource Assignment ...................................................................................................... 21
Creating the Virtual Machines ......................................................................................... 22
Virtual Machine Additions ................. .. .. ... ........................................................................ 22
Domain Controller (DC1) Build Checklist ......................................................................... 23
File Server (FS1) Build Checklist ............................................... .. ........................... .. .. .. ... 23
Email Server (EX1) Build Checklist .................... .......................... ... .......................... .. .. ... 24
Limit Virtual Machine Processor Usage .................................. .. .. ........................... .. ....... 25
Relative Weight ................................................................................................................ 25
Reserved Capacity ........................................................................................................... 25
Maximum Capacity ................... .. ... .......................... .. .. .. .. ........................... .. .. .. .. .............. 26
Configure Save State and Automatic Restart .................................................................. 26
Next Steps ..................................... .. .. .. .. .......................... ... .. .. .. .......................... .. ... .. .. . .... 27
Additional Resources .......................... .. .. .......................... .. ... .. .......................... .. .. .............. 28
The NECAM Online Server Support Guide ........................................................................ 28
The Microsoft Virtual Server Website .............................................................................. 28
Virtual Server Community ..................... ... .. .. .......................... .. .. .. ... .......................... .. .. .. . 28
Introduction
Welcome to your Quick Start Guide to configuring Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on an
NEC Corporation of America Express5800 Fault Tolerant Server (FT Server) platform. NEC designs and builds
servers that provide the highest level of reliability and performance for your Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
solution. The FT Server provides built-in fault tolerance for your virtualized environment, so you can enjoy the
benefits of virtualization, including:
• Hardware consolidation
• Optimal hardware resource usage
• Separation of applications
• Flexible operating environment
This Guide will provide you with the necessary steps to install and configure hardware and software
components for your virtual environment. In addition, the Guide will outline a solution scenario that provides you
with the necessary information to deploy virtual solutions by using FT Servers and Microsoft Virtual Server
2005 R2 SP1 in production environments.
Your first task is to prepare the server hardware for installation of the host operating system. How you configure
your hardware and create the fault tolerant environment is critical to the success of your solution.
This Guide takes you through the following procedures:
• Installing the server hardware
• Configuring Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
• Configuring the hardware
• Installing Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
• Configuring the virtual machines
Because the Guide uses a scenario to provide a context for the information, there are a number of assumptions
made regarding the operating environment. The next se ction de scribe s these assu mptio ns.
Quick Start Guide Operating Environment
FT Servers provide optimal fault tolerance and performance for a number of server roles and IT services. When
combined with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, a single FT Server can operate a number of these roles and
services concurrently. This Guide walks you through the process of creating this type of virtualized operating
environment.
This Guide makes the following assumptions about your current network environment:
• You want to install the FT Server specifically for the deployment of Microsoft Virtual Server R2 SP1 and
virtual machines, and you do not want to run any other applications.
• You will deploy the virtual servers to a branch office. The branch office has good connectivity to the main
office and runs infrastructure and application services including one each of the following:
• Domain controller;
• File server; and
• Exchange 2003 mail server.
Currently, NEC FT systems do not support 64-bit applications so the email virtual machine will run Exchange
2003 instead of Exchange 2007.
• You install Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later. There are no extra
services or applications running on the Virtual Server Host.
NEC Express5800 Fault Tolerant Virtual Server Quick Start Guide 1
This Guide makes the following assumptions about the environment into which you deploy the FT Server:
• You do not have any other servers running Windows on your network. (You can have other Windows
servers on your network, but they are not required.)
• You are installing Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 R2.
• Your servers are members of an Active Directory environment.
• You install Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later.
• You configure Exchange Server 2003 as a stand-alone server, not as part of a Windows cluster.
• You install the Microsoft Virtual Machine PCI SCSI Controller driver on the guest operating system.
• You do not enable the virtual hard disk Undo feature.
Guide Scenario
The scenario for the Guide includes three physical servers that provide infrastructure and application services.
Figure 1 shows the initial environment.
Figure 1: Initial environment.
You will deploy virtual machines to replace these physical servers. This enables you to use Virtual Server to
address cost, reliability, management, and performance issues.
The virtualization solution uses three virtual machines (domain controller, file server, and email server) which
will run on the FT Server.
Figure 2 shows the target virtual environment.
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Figure 2: Virtual environment.
Guide Goal
The goal of this Guide is to get you started as quickly as possible. It does not go into detailed explanat ions or
descriptions of FT Server technologies or Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 features and capabilities.
If you want to learn more about the capabilities of FT Servers, you can read more on the NECAM website:
http://support.necam.com/servers/ft
If you want to learn more about the capabilities of Microsoft Virtual Server R2 SP1, you can read more on the
Microsoft website:
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver
To set up your Virtual Server solution in a high availability configuration, you must perform the following five
steps:
• STEP 1: Install the hardware
• STEP 2: Install the operating system
• STEP 3: Configure the server hardware
• STEP 4: Install and configure Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
• STEP 5: Install and configure the guest virtual machines
The rest of this Quick Start Guide walks you through each of these steps.
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STEP 1: Install the Hardware
You must ensure that you have the necessary hardware to create your virtual machine solution and that you
have installed it correctly. Infrastructure solutions that use Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 run multiple
virtual machines on a single physical server. Because this type of solution runs multiple servers on a single
piece of hardware, it is important to make sure that you configure the hardware correctly.
An FT Server provides your virtual solution with hardware fault tolerance and performance. To use the fault
tolerance built into the NEC servers, you must configure the hardware components correctly. Specifically, to
provide redundancy for network connectivity, you must install multiple network adapters. In addition, to maintain
operation in the event of a power outage, you must configure the power inputs correctly.
Connecting to the Network
All of the virtual machines that run on the server rely on the same network connectivity for client connection to
the services and applications that the virtual machines provide. Because a failure in the network connectivity of
the server has an impact on a large amount of network functionality, you must include fault tolerance for
network connections.
To provide fault tolerance for network connections and to enhance performance, configure the network
adapters into teams. In a network adapter team, one adapter is the primary or active adapter and all other
adapters are secondary or backup adapters.
If the active adapter fails in a fault tolerant team, the backup ad apter becomes active and seamlessly continues
operation. In a performance team, network traffic distributes between the adapters. In addition to increasing
performance, a performance team can also provide fault tolerance if an adapter fails.
You are going to create an Adapter Fault Tolerant (AFT) team. The Guide describes the configuration of AFT
teams in STEP 3: Configure the Server Hardware. For now, we are going to connect the network adapters to
the network and create an AFT team.
To connect the embedded Ethernet controllers to the network:
1. Provide an unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable with RJ-45 connectors for each of the four Ethernet
adapters.
2. Install the Ethernet adapters in pairs, one in the same numbered slot in each module. For example,
for the first team, install an adapter in slot one in each module.
3. Connect one end of each cable to a network port on the server and the other end to a switch.
The following sections explain the different types of network adapter teams.
Adapter Fault Tolerant Teams
An AFT team is a set of two or more network adapters that provide redundant connections to a single switch. In
an AFT team, a single adapter is active on the network until a failover occurs (usually caused by failure of the
adapter); at this point, a secondary adapter becomes active.
In an AFT team, both adapters connect to the same switch. Therefore, if the switch fails, both adapters become
unavailable, and network connectivity is lost.
Figure 3 shows an AFT configuration and the outcome of adapter and switch failure.
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Figure 3: Outcome of adapter and switch failure with AFT.
Switch Fault Tolerant Teams
A Switch Fault Tolerant (SFT) team is similar to an AFT team, except that SFT enables you to connect the team
members to separate switches for increased fault tolerance. An SFT team must contain only two network
adapters, and you must connect each adapter to a different switch that supports the Spanning Tree Algorithm.
As in an AFT team, the primary adapter is active on the network. The secondary adapter becomes active after
adapter failover, which usually occurs because the primary adapter fails or if its link to the switch fails.
In a SFT team, each adapter connects to a different switch; this configuration can continue operation if a switch
fails.
Figure 4 shows the SFT configuration and the outcome of adapter and switch failure.
Figure 4: Outcome of adapter and switch failure with SFT.
Adaptive Load Balancing Teams
In an Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) team, both the primary and secondary adapters transmit data to provide
an increase in performance. However, only the primary adapter receives data. To prevent packet-order
problems, one adapter in an ALB team transmits all packets to a particular destination. In addition, only the
primary adapter transmits broadcast packets and non-Internet Protocol (IP) packets. You must connect all
adapters in an ALB team to the same switch or to two or more hubs that connect to the same switch.
In addition, an ALB team provides fault tolerance for the network connection, but because both adapters
connect to the same switch, like an AFT team, if the switch fails, network connectivity is lost.
Configuring Power Inputs
Irrespective of the amount of resources in your system and fault tolerant configurations, if your system loses
power, not only will its resources be unavailable, but you may also lose or corrupt data. When the server is
running multiple virtual machines, sudden loss of power to the server will have a critical impact on your network
infrastructure.
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To protect the system against power outages, so that it can continue processing or shut down gracefully and
minimize the likelihood of data loss or corruption, you must connect the server to an uninterruptible power
supply (UPS).
For the Guide scenario, you will connect the FT server to two separate power supplies to provider greater fault
tolerance.
Connect your server to the power supplies as follows:
1. Locate two black power cords and two labels, A and B.
2. Attach an A label to one power cord and a B label to the other.
3. Connect one end of cable A to the receptacle on one of the modules. Connect the other end to the
UPS.
Make sure that the power interlock mechanism is unlocked when you insert the power cord.
4. Connect one end of cable B to the receptacle on the second module. Connect the other end to a
second, separate power source.
5. At the front of the system, make sure that you fully insert the modules in the shelf unit by tightening
the thumbscrews, if necessary. Then, at the rear of the system, turn the power interlock
mechanisms into the locked position.
Now that you have constructed your hardware platform, you can configure the operating system to utilize the
FT Server’s fault tolerant capabilities.
For more information about correctly locating your server in your rack, see the FT Server Site Planning Guide
on the NECAM website:
http://support.necam.com/servers/ft/320Ma/NR573.pdf
For more information about server installation and power requirements, see the FT Server System Installation
Guide on the NECAM website:
http://support.necam.com/servers/ft/320Ma/NR575.pdf
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STEP 2: Install the Operating System
It is important that the operating system and the FT Server interact effectively to provide your virtual solution
with all fault tolerant capabilities. Because the NEC Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 solution gains its fault
tolerance from the hardware configuration, it is important that you install the necessary NEC hardware drivers
and utilities to enable the fault tolerant capabilities of the server.
NEC FT servers are designed to deliver complete system redundancy. Memory, processors and Input–Output
components are all redundant, which helps to eliminate potential failure points and ensure data is continually
processed and not lost. This active lockstep processing delivers sustained system integrity to the operating
systems and applications by ensuring continuous processing – even in the event of a hardware failure.
To install hardware support to enable this functionality, use the NEC ExpressBuilder CDs to perform the initial
program load. The NEC ExpressBuilder CDs contain customized drivers that are required to run an FT Server
optimally.
The following two procedures are necessary to install the operating system, associated drivers, and utilities on
the FT Server:
• Initial program load (IPL)
• Post initial program load (Post-IPL)
NEC engineers typically complete the IPL procedure before you receive the server, which completes
installation of the following:
• Operating system files and customized drivers specific to NEC Fault Tolerant Servers.
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1.
• NEC Fault Tolerant Server software, including ftServer drivers, ftServer Manager, and Software
Availability Manager (SAM).
• Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) for the Virtual Technician Module (VTM) console.
• System documentation.
The post-IPL procedure includes:
• Installation programs for third-party software. It is important to install the third-party software, because
NEC does not support systems where installation of this software has not taken place.
This Guide assumes the IPL procedure is complete for the system you want to use, so you only need to
complete the post-IPL procedures.
The Post-IPL Procedure
To complete the post-IPL procedure:
1. Turn on the FT Server.
2. Using the Welcome to the Windows Setup Wizard, provide the relevant information for regional
settings, names, and passwords. When this Mini-Setup is finished, the system restarts.
3. When the Welcome to Windows dialog box appears, press the CTRL+ALT+DELETE keys.
4. Log on by using the Administrator account and the password that you entered during the Mini-
Setup, and then click OK.
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5. Two separate End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs) appear. Read the agreements and click
Continue for both of them to install the software.
6. The installation programs for third-party software run after you click Continue. You must install the
software, because NEC does not support servers that lack this software.
a. When the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Wizard starts, follow the prompts to install the
JRE, and accept the license agreement and the default settings in the remaining dialog
boxes. (If the progress bars partially obscure the JRE Setup dialog box, click the JRE Setup
dialog box to bring it forward.)
If the Setup Complete dialog box for any third-party software appears, click No, I will restart my computer
later, and then click Finish. If you restart the system now, the installation does not complete properly.
7. When Setup displays the IPL Completed dialog box, click Restart.
8. Restore the default BIOS settings to enable boot monitoring and to enable Option ROM on the PCI
slots. While the system is starting, press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup program. In the BIOS Setup
program, press F9 to restore the default settings, and then press F10 to exit from the BIOS Setup
program. You must enable boot monitoring to maintain fault tolerance.
Make sure that you enable boot monitoring or you will compromise the fault tolerance of the system. The IPL
Procedure turns off boot monitoring.
9. After the system has restarted, log on. The Post Installation Check window appears for several
minutes.
10. The Post Installation Check Tool dialog box appears and runs automatically. This tool verifies that
the install was successful. Click Exit to dismiss the Post Installation Check Tool dialog box.
11. The
Has the NEC ExpressCluster Web service been set up? message box may appear during the
NEC ExpressCluster SRE installation, but it will automatically disappear after 5 seconds. DO NOT
react to this prompt, or the system may appear to hang.
The IPL and post-IPL procedures install the drivers and utilities that are necessary for the server to operate and
fail-over successfully. However, neither process configures other fault tolerant components, such as disk
mirroring and network adapter teaming. It is necessary to complete these configurations after the post-IPL
procedure completes. STEP 3: Configure the Server Hardware describes these procedures.
Using Group Policy to Disable Automatic Updates
The installation of updates from the Microsoft Windows Update site may introduce compatibility problems with
the FT Server. For this reason, you should disable Automatic Updates and install all updates from the NECAM
support website. To ensure that this setting is persistent, you must put your FT Server in an organizational unit
in Active Directory and apply a Group Policy that disables Automatic Updates.
To configure Group Policy to disable Automatic Updates:
1. Create a new organizational unit for the FT Server and move the server into it.
2. Open Group Policy Editor for the organizational unit that contains your NEC Fault Tolerant Server.
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows
Update.
4. In the right-hand pane, double click Configure Automatic Updates and set the value to Disabled.
Figure 5 shows this setting.
5. Click OK.
6. Close Group Policy Editor.
NEC Express5800 Fault Tolerant Virtual Server Quick Start Guide 8
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