Building Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Clusters on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX Startup Guide Paul Marquardt
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 4 Requirements ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Chassis setup .............................................................................................................................................
Tables Table 1. Software requirements ....................................................................................................................... 4 Table 2. Hardware requirements ..................................................................................................................... 5 Table 3. Cluster requirements .......................................................................................................................... 5 Table 4.
Introduction This guide provides instructions on how to configure the Dell™ PowerEdge™ VRTX chassis with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 in a supported failover cluster environment.
Table 2. Hardware requirements Hardware Ethernet Network cable for the chassis CMC Ethernet Network cables for each of the blade NICs Table 3.
Chassis setup This section provides information on proper chassis location, as well as instructions on setting up the chassis using the LCD display and cabling the CMC and VRTX IOM network modules. This information includes the port mappings for the VRTX I/O Module (IOM) pass-through module to their corresponding blade slots and VRTX IOM switch module port listings. Chassis placement and CMC cabling 1.
I/O module network cabling and mappings Configure your chassis networking; for a VRTX IOM pass-through module, use Step 1, or if you are using the VRTX IOM switching I/O module, use Step 2. 1. VRTX IOM pass-through module: Connect an Ethernet cable to each port associated with the server node(s) installed in the system. Refer to Table 1 for port mapping relationships, and Figure 2 for port locations and mappings. Table 4. Figure 2.
2. VRTX IOM switch module: Connect at least one Ethernet cable to the I/O module. Refer to Figure 3 for more details on the external port listings. Note: For additional port listings or switch configuration refer to the I/O module Getting Started Guide and the I/O module GUI available by selecting Launch I/O Module GUI from the I/O Module Overview submenu. Figure 3.
Windows installation and configuration on VRTX supported server node(s) This section provides an overview of the OS installation process using bootable optical media. Following the OS installation instructions are steps for configuring the OS roles and features. Steps are provided for the SPERC driver installation and required registry entries. Steps are also provided for validation and creation of failover clustering.
Role and feature configuration steps 1. Open Server Manager. 2. Select Add roles and features from the Manage menu to start the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
3. Select Next on the Before you begin screen. 4. On the Select installation type screen, select the Role-based or feature-based installation radio button, then select Next.
5. Select the local server from the Server Pool list on the Select destination server screen. 6. Click Next. 7. On the Select server roles screen, select the checkbox next to Hyper-V. 8. Click Next.
9. Verify the Include management tools (if applicable) checkbox is checked on the Add features that are required for Hyper-V screen. 10. Click Add Features.
11. On the Select features screen, select the checkbox next to Failover Clustering. 12. Click Next.
13. Verify the Include management tools (if applicable) checkbox is checked on the Add features that are required for Hyper-V screen. 14. Click Add Features.
15. Check the checkbox labeled Restart the destination server automatically if required. 16. Click Install to complete the installation of the Hyper-V role.
Required registry entries The following registry entries are required on each node of the cluster to enable them to see the drives on the shared PERC8. Table 5. Registry entries Location Entry type Property Value HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ClusDisk\Parameters DWORD AllowBusTypeRAID 0X01 1. Open the registry using the run prompt. 2. Type REGEDIT and press Enter. 3. Navigate to HKey_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ClusDisk\Parameters. 4.
Storage configuration This section describes the process for creating virtual disks available through the shared PERC8, and assigning the disks to the corresponding server node(s). These are the shared disks used in the installation of failover clustering. Virtual disks are required for the operating system to pass the validation steps of the cluster creation steps in the Cluster validation and creation section of this guide.
3. Select Controllers under Storage and verify that the property labeled Rollup Status listed has the value OK.
4. Select Physical Disks and verify that all physical disks are accounted for in the chassis shared disk enclosure, and that each disk has a State of either Online or Ready.
5. Select Virtual Disks, and select Create from the top menu.
6. On the Create Virtual Disk page, enter QUORUM in the Name field. 7. Select RAID 1 from the RAID Level drop-down menu. Be sure to check the capacity limits as listed in the Select Physical Disks table. Leave the default values for all properties. 8. Select Physical Disk 0:0:0 and Physical Disk 0:0:1 from the Internal Disks table by checking the associated check box. 9. Click Create Virtual Disk. 10. Click OK on the message stating “Operation Successful.” 11. The Quorum virtual disk setup is complete.
Creating a virtual disk for CSV use 1. Select Create from the top menu. 2. On the Create Virtual Disk page, enter CSV in the Name field. 3. Select RAID 10 from the RAID Level drop-down menu. Be sure to check the capacity limits listed in the Select Physical Disks table. Leave the default values for all properties. 4. Select Physical Disk 0:0:2, Physical Disk 0:0:3, Physical Disk 0:0:4, Physical Disk 0:0:5 from the Internal Disks table by checking the associated check box. 5. Click Create Virtual Disk. 6.
Setting assignment mode Virtual disks can be assigned from one server slot to another by mapping the virtual adapter. For the example used in this guide, the assignment mode should be set to Multiple Assignment. By default, virtual disks are set to Single Assignment. 1. Select Storage on the left pane. 2. Select Setup from the top menu. 3. After the page populates, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the Multiple Assignment radio button. 4. Click Apply.
Assigning virtual disks 1. Select Virtual Disks under Storage. 2. Select Assign from the top menu. 3. In the Assign Virtual Disks table, select Full Access from the drop-down menus provided for all populated virtual adapters assigned to the row labeled Quorum. 4. In the Assign Virtual Disk table, select Full Access from the drop-down menus provided for all populated virtual adapters assigned to the row labeled DataDisk. 5. Click Apply. 6. Assigning virtual disk this may take several seconds. 7.
Installing the shared PERC8 driver This section describes how to manually install the shared PERC8 driver for Windows Server 2012. Have your device driver available on removable media or a network location prior to completing these steps. REQUIREMENT: The shared PERC8 driver must be the same version on each node of the cluster. 1. Open the Server Manager window and select Computer Management from the Tools menu. 2. Select Device Manager. 3.
Offline Shared Disk Configuration Steps 1. Open the Server Manager window and select Computer Management from the Tools menu.
2. Select Disk Management. It may take a few seconds to populate the disk information in the right pane.
3. Right-click Disk 1 and select Offline. 4. Repeat Step 3 for Disk 2. 5. Repeat Steps 1 to 4 on all servers which have assigned shared storage.
Shared Storage Configuration Steps 6. Open the Server Manager window and select Computer Management from the Tools menu.
7. Select Disk Management. It may take a few seconds to populate the disk information in the right pane.
8. Right-click Disk 1 and select Online.
9. Repeat Step 3 for Disk 2. 10. Right-click Disk 1 and select Initialize.
11. Verify both checkmarks are selected and MBR is selected on the Initialize Disk window. 12. Select OK to initialize the disks.
13. Right-click the Unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.
14. Click Next to start the New Simple Volume Wizard. 15. Click Next to accept the default entry.
16. Select Q from the drop-down menu and click Next. 17. Enter Quorum in the Volume label field and click Next.
18. Click Finish to complete the process. 19. Repeat steps 7-12 for Disk 2.
Changing the computer name and domain membership 1. Open the Server Manager window. 2. Select Local Server. 3. Select the Computer name in the Properties section.
4. Click Change in the System Properties window. 5. In the Computer name field enter the new name, such as VRTX-N1.
6. Select the Domain radio button and type the name of the domain, such as OSELab.local. 7. Click OK. 8. Click OK.
9. Enter domain admin credentials to join the system to the domain, and click OK. 10. Click OK. 17. Click Restart Now to reboot the system and complete the process. 11. Repeat this process for all blade servers in the cluster, giving each server node a unique name.
Cluster validation and creation This section describes the steps to complete cluster validation and cluster creation. The validation process finds hardware or configuration issues before a failover cluster can go into production. The cluster validation wizard determines if the current hardware and software configuration meets the supported configuration guidelines. Validating clusters 1.
2. To open the Cluster Validation Wizard, in Failover Cluster Manager window, select Validate Configuration from the Actions menu.
3. Select Next to start the Validate a Configuration Wizard. 4. Enter the names of the servers to add to the cluster in the Enter Name field, separated by a comma. 5. Click Add.
6. Click Next. 7. Verify the Run all test (recommended) radio button is selected. 8. Click Next.
9. After all fields are populated on the Confirmation window, select Next. 10. You will see the progress bar as the validation process gathers information for the report.
11. In the validation summary, verify that each node tested shows as Validated. If a node does not show as validated, click View Report to open the report and review the issue(s) for each node not validated. 12. Once all failures are fixed, rerun the validation wizard and click Finish to begin the cluster creation. Note: You may see some warnings in the validation report. Check to be sure all shared disks are validated.
Creating clusters 1. Click Next to start the Create Cluster Wizard. 2. Enter a name for the cluster, such as CLUS1-VRTX, in the Cluster Name field. 3. Click Next.
4. Click Next. 5. You will see the progress bar while the cluster is created. Once the cluster service starts on all nodes, the Summary window opens.
6. Verify the information is correct on the Summary screen.
Once cluster creation is complete, the Failover Cluster Manager window lists all of the resources.
