Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster Design by Siron, Eric -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster Design

Table of Contents Microsoft Hyper-V Cluster Design Credits About the Author About the Reviewers www.PacktPub.com

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Preface

What this book covers What you need for this book Who this book is for Conventions Reader feedback Customer support

Downloading the example code Errata Piracy Questions

1. Hyper-V Cluster Orientation

Terminology Clustering in a Microsoft environment Create a project document Purposes for a Hyper-V Server cluster

High availability High Availability Printing Balancing resources Geographic dispersion Natural replacement for aging infrastructure Test, development, and training systems Cloud hosting Resource metering VDI and RemoteFX Be open to other purposes

Goals for a Hyper-V Server cluster

Identify the resources that cannot be virtualized Consult with application vendors Involve internal stakeholders Define phases and timelines Perform further research Define success metrics Measure and predict your workload Only allow changes during the planning phase

Looking forward to the Design phase

Host computers Storage Cluster Shared Volumes SMB shares Mixing SMB 3.0 and CSV Networking

Management Cluster and Cluster Shared Volumes Live Migration Subnetting Virtual machine traffic Storage traffic Physical adapter considerations Adapter teaming

Active Directory Virtualized domain controllers Supporting software

Management tools Backup

Training

A sample Hyper-V Cluster planning document

Sample project title – Techstra Hyper-V Cluster Project

Sample project – purposes Sample project – goals

Sample project – success metrics (subsection of goals)

Review the sample project Summary

2. Cluster Design and Planning

Starting the design phase Planning for existing systems

Deciding how you will virtualize physical systems Determining requirements for existing systems

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Performance Monitor General approaches to reading the metrics Memory measurements Network measurements Disk measurements Processor measurements

Host computer components

Hyper-V Server requirements CPU Memory Host networking Host storage Management operating system

Hyper-V Server Windows Server Deciding on a management operating system Deciding between Hyper-V Server 2012 and 2012 R2

Networking

Advanced networking hardware

Shared storage

Storage area network devices Network-attached storage devices General purpose computers Shared storage performance characteristics Designing shared storage

Software licensing

Windows Server and guest virtualization rights

Software Assurance Client access licenses

Other software licenses

Hyper-V and cluster-related software planning

Remote software applications Local software applications

Blade hardware Physical placement Security

Domain separation Hyper-V isolation Network isolation

Complete the planning phase

Sample project – planning and design Sample project – hardware

Summary

3. Constructing a Hyper-V Server Cluster

Documenting the initial setup phase Build steps not covered in this book Auxiliary built-in tools Acquiring and enabling the GUI tools

Enabling the tools on Windows 8/8.1 from the GUI Enabling the tools on Windows Server 2012/R2 in the GUI Enabling the tools using PowerShell

Configuring nodes

Initial node configuration using GUI tools

Using the GUI to configure networking

Renaming network adapters Creating network teams Enable roles and features Creating or modifying a virtual switch Creating virtual adapters for converged fabric Setting IP addresses for management operating system adapters Joining the computer to the domain

Initial node configuration using PowerShell

Basic configuration

Enable roles and features

Using PowerShell to configure networking

Rename network adapters Converged fabric Creating network teams Create a virtual switch Create virtual adapters Assigning virtual adapters to VLANs Setting IP addresses for management operating system adapters Join the computer to the domain

Optional node configuration steps

Prepare other nodes Building the cluster

Cluster validation

Running cluster validation in the GUI Using PowerShell for cluster validation

Cluster creation

Creating a cluster using the GUI Creating a cluster using PowerShell

Handling cluster creation errors

Cluster post-creation steps

Prepare storage Add prepared storage Configure quorum Configure networks

Set Live Migration network preferences

Summary

4. Storage Design

Early storage planning

Physical storage characteristics

Physical disks Drive bus Traditional RAID Storage Spaces Shared storage connectivity

Hyper-V Server storage space utilization

Management operating system BIN files VSV files XML files SLP files VFD files VHD and VHDX files

IDE and SCSI virtual controllers VHD versus VHDX VHD and VHDX types Fixed Dynamic Differencing

Fixed versus dynamic disks Pass-through disks Other storage usage considerations

Hyper-V Server storage performance

Pass-through disks Expansion Fragmentation

Fragmentation and dynamic VHDX performance

Working with storage

Connecting to iSCSI storage Connecting to Fibre Channel storage Connecting to SMB 3.0 shares Enabling and using Multipath IO Managing disks Cluster Shared Volumes

Finding and renaming Cluster Shared Volumes CSV cache

Placing virtual machines on storage

Storage deduplication

Storage QoS (2012 R2 Only) Enhanced features Summary

5. Network Design

The Hyper-V virtual switch

Network virtualization Redundancy and load balancing for the virtual switch Assign virtual adapters to VLANs

Hyper-V Server networking in a cluster

Management

Redundancy and load balancing for management traffic

Cluster communications

Redundancy and load balancing for cluster communications SMB multichannel configuration

Live Migration

Redundancy and load balancing for Live Migration traffic Setting the Live Migration mode in 2012 R2

Storage connectivity The virtual switch in a cluster Adapter teaming

Teaming fundamentals Teaming modes

Switch Independent teaming Static teaming LACP teaming

Load balancing algorithms

Address Hash techniques

Transport Ports hash IP Addresses hash MAC Addresses hash

Hyper-V Port balancing Dynamic (R2 only)

The effects of teaming selections

Switch Independent with hash Switch Dependent (static or LACP) with hash Switch Independent with Hyper-V Ports Switch Dependent (static or LACP) with Hyper-V Ports Understanding the change brought by R2's Dynamic algorithm Effect of teaming on other technologies Practical teaming guidance

Converged fabric

Practical converged fabric guidance

Planning the physical layout Firewall settings

Remote desktop PowerShell Firewall rules Summary

6. Network Traffic Shaping and Performance Enhancements

Windows Server Quality of Service

Policy-based QoS Hyper-V QoS Data Center Bridging

802.1p tagging Assigning applications and traffic types to QoS classes Setting bandwidth on DCB QoS classes The default class

Changing advanced settings on network adapters

Advanced adapter settings in the GUI Advanced adapter settings in the registry Advanced adapter settings in PowerShell Jumbo frames

VMQ

VMQ and adapter teaming VMQ interrupt coalescing

RSS

vRSS (R2 only) RSS tuning

RDMA SR-IOV

SR-IOV tuning

Other hardware-assisted offloading technologies Virtual adapter networking control Practical advice for network performance design Further possibilities Summary

7. Memory Planning and Management

Understanding physical memory characteristics

Memory types

U-DIMM R-DIMM FB-DIMM LR-DIMM

Memory speed

Practical guidance on memory speeds

Memory ranks Mirroring, sparing, ECC, and other options

Practical memory protection

Memory channels

Practical multi-channel memory implementation

NUMA

Practical NUMA configuration

Physical memory installation How Hyper-V Server uses memory

Host memory Hypervisor memory usage

Hyper-V Server and NUMA Virtual machine memory

Practical virtual machine memory sizing Virtual machines and NUMA

NUMA in a cluster Practical virtual machine NUMA configuration

Dynamic Memory

Dynamic Memory requirements and restrictions Startup RAM, Minimum RAM, and Smart Paging

Practical virtual machine memory implementation Cluster memory shortages Summary

8. Performance Testing and Load Balancing

Initial and on-going performance measurement General performance measurement

Server Performance Advisor Performance Monitor Real-time monitoring with Performance Monitor Trend tracking with Performance Monitor Selecting counters practically Alternative ways to read performance logs

Subsystem testing

Disk I/O testing

Practical IOMeter usage for disk analysis

Network testing

IOMeter for network testing Practical IOMeter usage for network analysis NTttcp for network testing

Memory testing

Baseline and comparative performance measures Cluster load balancing

Preferred owners

Setting preferred owners using Failover Cluster Manager Setting preferred owners using PowerShell

Possible owners

Setting possible owners using Failover Cluster Manager Setting possible owners using PowerShell

Anti-affinity

Summary

9. Special Cases

Non-highly-available virtual machines in a cluster

Local virtual machines Switching to or from high availability mode

Converting a local virtual machine to high availability

Restricted highly available virtual machines

A cluster with only one virtual machine

Single-VM cluster in a small environment

A cluster with a single host Virtualized domain controllers in a Hyper-V Cluster

Discomfort with virtualization of a vital infrastructure role Concern that Hyper-V Server will not start Concern that domain controllers will be unavailable Concern over clock drift in a virtual environment Concern over effects of snapshots on domain controllers Concerns over Saved States of domain controllers Security concerns for virtualized domain controllers Implementing virtualized domain controllers in a cluster

Windows domain time synchronization

Storing a single virtual machine's files in different locations Geographically distributed clusters

Cluster networking with multiple subnets

Cluster name object in a multiple subnet cluster Configuring subnet traffic handling Virtual machine networking in a multiple subnet cluster

Using non-virtualized hardware in a cluster Pass-through disks in a cluster Summary

10. Maintaining and Monitoring a Hyper-V Server Cluster

Cluster validation

When to perform validation Running the validation wizard in Failover Cluster Manager Validating a cluster in PowerShell Reading the validation report Other cluster reports

Best Practices Analyzer for Hyper-V

Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer in Server Manager Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer in PowerShell

Updating Hyper-V Server hosts

Cluster-Aware Updating

Configuring Cluster-Aware Updating Enabling CAU using the GUI Enabling CAU using PowerShell

Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services Hotfixes

Monitoring Hyper-V Server

Event logs Services Metering

Summary

11. High Availability

What does high availability mean?

Service level agreements Fault tolerance

Creating a highly available virtual machine

Using Failover Cluster Manager to create a highly available virtual machine Using Failover Cluster Manager to make an existing virtual machine highly available Using PowerShell to create and convert a highly available virtual machine Removing high availability from a virtual machine

High availability beyond Hyper-V

Cluster within a cluster

Shared VHDX in R2 Network adapter configurations for guest clusters

Migrations

Practical high availability migration guidance

Cluster responses to failures

Automatic Stop Action Automatic Start Action Failback Failover limits Network protection in R2

Quorum

Configuring quorum using Failover Cluster Manager Configuring quorum using PowerShell

R2-only quorum PowerShell operations

Practical quorum guidance

Recovering from quorum loss

Snapshots or checkpoints

Practical snapshot guidance

Summary

12. Backup and Disaster Recovery

Knowing your risks

Physical loss Data loss Data corruption Risk analysis Risk mitigation

Planning for disaster recovery Backup

Choosing a backup solution Architecting a backup solution

Choosing what to back up Choosing when to back up Deciding how long to keep backup data Hybrid solutions Storage for backup

Deploying a backup solution

Windows Server Backup

Hyper-V Replica

Architecting a Hyper-V Replica solution

Choosing where to send replicas Choosing what to replicate Deciding how many recovery points to keep

Deploying Hyper-V Replica

Practical Hyper-V Replica guidance

Verifying your disaster recovery plan Summary

Index

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