Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct. Building #SOFS with Storage Spaces Direct #winserv #win2016 #S2D #howtopics

Windows Server 2016 enables service providers to deploy Microsoft storage solutions using Storage Spaces Direct with Direct Attached Storage (DAS). Today’s Microsoft storage solutions are dependent on and require storage hardware that is inherently shareable, such as Fibre Channel, or iSCSI SAN, or Storage Spaces with Shared SAS. Storage Spaces with DAS hardware support in Windows Server 2016 enables Microsoft Storage Solutions to use hardware that is not shareable by design.

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

The Microsoft Storage Solution in Windows Server 2016 is an evolution of the investments in Scale-Out File Server (SOFS), Clustered Shared Volume File System (CSVFS), Storage Spaces and Failover Clustering.

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

What’s New in the Windows Server Technical Preview http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn765472.aspx

What’s New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn765474.aspx

What do we need to create a Windows Server Storage Spaces Direct  ?

Well just a cluster based on windows server Technical preview and some local disks any disks ? no not just any disk it can’t be USB disk but this can be used with the normal storage spaces. as shown here http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2012/10/10/windows-server-2012-storage-spaces-is-it-for-you-could-be.aspx

A basic cluster with a bunch of drives is al you need

In this case I have a two node cluster and  20 disks on node 1 and 9 disk on node 2.

Remember these are local disk and not clustered. We can transfer this in a Storage Space and use it for Hyper-v

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

But Suppose we could use this for a cluster then our “old” disks would be use full to other functions.

Of course there are some question marks here  but let me show you how to build this and this could be helpful.

If I take a look at the disk storage on my first node I see 21 disk

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and not that much storage on node 2

So on our two node cluster I can’t add local storage this will not work unless..

Unless we set an extra Cluster Property and then we can use this disk as cluster storage but with a star*

I’ll do this in the GUI in PowerShell it is way to easy ( did you hear that …odd a few years ago it was reversed )

If we take a look at the Cluster Property’s we will see that there is a new option in DASMODE

DASModeEnabled        0
DASModeBusTypes        134144
DASModeOptimizations        1
DASModeIOLatencyThreshold        10000

 

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

When setting all the options we can use all the disks in the cluster nodes.

Setting the DASModeEnabled=1 will allocate all the local disk to the Storage Pool.

(Get-Cluster).DASModeEnabled=1

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

in the enclosures there is a huge list with all the Disks, these disk are all local disks Winking smile

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

Now we are creating Storage Spaces I’ll show you this in the GUI and this way you can see what is changed in the cluster. After this you can do this in PowerShell like in de blogs below

More info can be found here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822937.aspx Deploy Clustered Storage Spaces

Step-by-step for Storage Spaces Tiering in Windows Server 2012 R2

http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2013/08/28/step-by-step-for-storage-spaces-tiering-in-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx

Now that all my disk converted to a SES enclosure and as you can see this is published in the Cluster under the new Enclosure under storage.

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Creating a new Storage spaces direct

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct 

As you can see I can create Multiple Spaces

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You will need at least 3 disk to create a Storage Space.

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Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

Selecting the Disks for the Storage Space

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Next create a Virtual disk in the just created Storage Space

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I have no storage tier so for this demo I choose a simple setup

 

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Now that the disk is created we need to create a volume on the Disk.

 

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As you can see there are several steps needed to create a disk/ volume in a Storage space. This has nothing to do with Storage spaces direct.

when look at the cluster I see now a Disk in the pool that I can use as a Cluster Disk for a Clustered Resource.

 

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces DirectWindows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

In this case I used Only a simple setup but you can create a bigger setup and getting more lops or redundancy

 

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

In this case I created a Scale out file server with Storage Spaces Direct. This is demo only!

Windows Server 2016 with Storage Spaces Direct

So these are the basic steps to use , you can use a tiered storage space direct.

If you want more info about this checkout the Techdays NL Agenda

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https://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/techdays/spreker.aspx?name=robert-smit&theme=yellow

Or view the Sessions from Ignite on Channel 9

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK3474

 

 

Happy clustering

Robert Smit

@clusterMVP

http://robertsmit.wordpress.com

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Posted May 12, 2015 by Robert Smit in windows server 2016

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PowerShell Place custom VM into Windows Azure Pack Subscription #wapack #cloud #scvmm #Microsoft

During migrations there is always the trouble of all those settings and things to do before everything is running smoothly.

Well during my migration I needed to move several Machines to a private cloud subscription in Azure Pack.

As I’m not the Biggest Powershell Guru I like to keep things simple and I’m a big fan of the “ select Name “  and the  “ Out-GridView “

Options these options give you much more detail and make powershell a but more GUI ( don’t shoot )

#Set your SCVMM server and use -ForOnBehalfOf to make use of Service Provider Foundation.
Import-Module -Name virtualmachinemanager
$VMMSERVER = Get-SCVMMServer -ComputerName YOUR OWN VMM Server-ForOnBehalfOf

#Select WAP Cloud
$Cloud = Get-SCCloud -Name (Get-SCCloud | select Name | Out-GridView -Title "Select WAP Cloud" -PassThru).Name

#Select Select WAP User Subscription
$User = (Get-SCUserRole | Where-Object Cloud -Match $Cloud).Name | Out-GridView -PassThru -Title "Select WAP User Subscription"

# Show WAP Subscription User
$WAPUserrole = Get-SCUserRole | Where-Object Cloud -Match $Cloud | Where-Object Name -Like $User*
$WAPUserrole |ft name

# Select Single VM to WAP
$WAPVM = (Get-SCVirtualMachine ($Cloud | Get-SCVirtualMachine | select Name | Out-GridView -Title "Select Single VM to WAP" -PassThru).Name)

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# show Selected VM to WAP Subscription
$WAPVM|ft name

#Place VM in WAP Subscription
Set-SCVirtualMachine -VM $WAPVM –UserRole $WAPUserrole –Owner $User

As there is a pick list there is no typo there when moving the VM

When Checking the Windows Azure Portal you will see after a refresh a VM that is migrated to Azure Pack.

 

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Happy clustering

Robert Smit

@clusterMVP

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com

Posted April 14, 2015 by Robert Smit in Azure

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Build a G5 G-Series #azure VM SQL Server 2014 Cluster With shared cloud Storage #yam

This Morning I thought why not build a rocking Fast SQL Cluster in Azure. But the Next next Cluster operation is way to easy I decided to build this with the G series and with the Windows technical preview with the latest options.  A G5 Server has 32 Cores and 448GB memory and only 6TB disk space. In this demo setup I used 3 G5 Servers and a  little disk space

So I created a fresh new network for this.

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and later I can create a hybrid S2S VPN to my other Clusters.  See My other Blog post about VPN

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/how-to-setup-azure-vpn-for-site-to-site-cross-premises-or-create-a-virtual-network-for-point-to-site-vpn-azure-winserv/

I Create a DC that is holding my Service Accounts and I use Azure For the Cloud Witness

Check my blog on how to configure Cloud Witness

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/configuring-advanced-quorum-configuration-as-a-cloud-witness-windows-azure-files-cloud-azure-winserv-witness/

 

Doing a quick performance test on the G5 Machine.  D and C drive

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The same on a A1 machine D and C drive

 

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The G5  CPU

As we Create the Cluster and I added some disk to the Cluster we have the following Configuration

With SQL 2014 I can use a CSV for the Database files So I created a CSV from 300GB this is more than enough to hold this test install and hold my two G5 Series SQL Server 2014 Ent. instances 

 

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To save Time and Costs I use the SQL ini file that I used in the first SQL Instance for the Second instance, This will not bring the fully automatic install as I don’t use the Service accounts But a Quick Next Next Finish will do the trick.

 

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Using the CSV as Storage

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On the Second instance I do a Install From ini file based setup.  If you need more info on how to do this read my previous blog posts

Installing the SQL server is just as described in my blog post below 

AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances SQL Server 2014

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/alwayson-failover-cluster-instances-sql-server-2014-in-part2-azure-winserv-sql-msteched/

Windows 2012R2 Failover Cluster With SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn Options

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/windows-2012r2-failover-cluster-with-sql-server-2014-alwayson-options-part1-cloud-azure-winserv-sql-msteched/

If you want to see the installation Steps I created a movie with about the same steps. the whole Process creating and install SQL in just 15 Minutes. not fully untended just for showing you what is possible.

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/windows-server-2012-r2-with-sql-server-2014-cluster-installation-in-less-than-15-minutes-winserv-rocks-movie/

 

Now that We have 2 SQL servers Running One instance on both nodes

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The First node is holding my CSV volume ( more about this on another blog )

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for demo I can’t fully load the SQL and this is only for showing that you can build a SQL Server 2014 Cluster Based on a CSV in Windows Azure.

 

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And you can resize the G5 VM’s to a smaller size if needed. 

But keep in mind the D drive is a temporary drive and will not hold data if the server is turned off !!

With the vNext there a re a lot off new options possible. For now I burned my Azure Credits See you next time.

 

Happy clustering

Robert Smit

@ClusterMVP

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Azure File service,Windows,Server,Clustermvp,Blob,cloud witness

Posted February 2, 2015 by Robert Smit in Azure

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