dell poweredge microsoft private cloud fast...

Dell ESG Cloud Solutions Marketing

Dell Enterprise Solutions Group

June 2015

Dell PowerEdge R630 Configuration for

Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4

Deploying a scalable Microsoft Private Cloud on Dell PowerEdge servers

ii Dell PowerEdge Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4| Rev 1.0.

THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND

TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

Copyright © 2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. in the United States and/or other

jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

June 2015| Rev 1.0

iii Dell PowerEdge Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4| Rev 1.0.

Contents Solution overview ....................................................................................................... 5

Private Cloud Fast Track ........................................................................................... 5

Target audience ...................................................................................................... 6

Tenant VM capacity ................................................................................................. 6

Special considerations .............................................................................................. 6

Reference architecture components ................................................................................ 7

Components overview ............................................................................................... 7

Dell hardware components ......................................................................................... 7

Software components ............................................................................................... 9

Deployment ............................................................................................................ 11

Deployment overview ............................................................................................. 11

Preparing rack, power, and cooling ............................................................................ 12

Configuring networking ........................................................................................... 13

Configuring storage ................................................................................................ 18

Configuring the server hardware ................................................................................ 22

Configuring the server software ................................................................................. 23

Microsoft System Center – Creating the management VMs ................................................. 53

Private cloud validation ............................................................................................ 111

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 111

Appendix A – References ........................................................................................... 112

Appendix B – Bill of Materials ...................................................................................... 113

Appendix C – Configuring the Dell PERC ......................................................................... 114

Appendix D – Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 ............................................................... 120

Appendix E - Configuring switch stacking on the Dell Networking N4032F ................................ 121

Appendix F – Installing the Failover Clustering Feature in MS WS 2012 R2 ................................ 125

Appendix G - Creating a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2012 R2 ..................................... 130

Appendix H – NIC teaming .......................................................................................... 134

Appendix I – Alternative configurations available using Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces 137

iv Dell PowerEdge Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4| Rev 1.0.

Tables Table 1. How System Center 2012 Components Support Cloud Functionality ............................ 10

Table 2. Switch and port assignments for the Dell Networking N4032F switches and servers ........ 16

Table 3. Sample hostname and IP addressing .................................................................. 23

Table 4. VM configurations ........................................................................................ 53

Table 5. VM Distribution ........................................................................................... 54

Table 6. Bill of materials as configured ........................................................................ 113

Table 7. Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Configurations ..................................... 137

Figures

Figure 1. Dell PowerEdge solution for Microsoft Private Cloud overview. ................................. 12

Figure 2. Cabling the Dell PowerEdge solution ................................................................. 17

Figure 3. Storage technologies overview ........................................................................ 19

Figure 4. Cabling the Dell PowerEdge R730 SOFS nodes and Dell Storage MD1400 enclosures ......... 20

5 Dell PowerEdge Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4| Rev 1.0.

Solution overview

As the trajectory of today’s complex computing and application environments accelerates into the

cloud, it is critical for customers to have a defined and validated path for deploying cloud-based

architectures as part of their IT strategies. Enterprises and businesses have needs that include high

availability, flexibility, efficient use of available resources, and reduction of capital and maintenance

expenditures.

Private cloud benefits are well documented. Virtualization and high availability using failover

clustering maximizes uptime, workload placement, and optimizes disaster recovery. By running

mission-critical workloads in a validated Microsoft Private Cloud environment, organizations ensure

reliability and maximum utilization of their physical and virtual infrastructure, while also assuring

application service levels, and reduced expenditures.

This document provides customers with a flexible, scalable Dell-powered Microsoft Private Cloud

reference architecture. This reference architecture, validated by Microsoft and tested by Dell,

combines Dell PowerEdge rack servers, Dell MD-series storage, and Dell N-Series networking

components as well as management technologies to simplify the setup process for customers as they

push into private and hybrid cloud technologies.

Private Cloud Fast Track

The Dell configuration for Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4 combines Dell hardware and Microsoft

Hyper-V virtualization technologies to provide management, provision storage, supply failover

clustering of both hosts and guests, and enable multi-tenant operations.

Benefits of this Dell configuration include easy scalability, the added performance of solid-state drives

plus high capacity hard drives, and integration of Dell management tools by leveraging the Dell

OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center. Dell OpenManage integration packages are

available as plugins for the various components of Microsoft System Center such as hardware

instrumentation in Configuration Manager using Dell Lifecycle Controller, or PowerEdge Server and

storage management via MS Virtual Machine Manager.

Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4 requirements include the following:

Fast Track infrastructures must provide a minimum of two hosts configured as a failover cluster, with the Hyper-V role enabled to support fabric management operations.

The rack or blade-chassis design must provide redundant power connectivity.

The infrastructure must support virtual machine mobility.

The infrastructure must support Hyper-V live migration.

The infrastructure must support storage migration.

All features must work with live migration.


Target audience

This reference architecture is a guide for customers and partners who want to deploy a proven solution

for MS private or hybrid cloud. This approach provides a blueprint for a highly automated, highly

available and cost-effective private or hybrid cloud solution with built-in Azure integration via Windows

Azure Pack. The capability for multi-tenancy also makes this configuration ideal as a scalable building

block for large enterprises or cloud-based businesses that sell cloud services.

Tenant VM capacity

In this reference architecture, all components of System Center 2012 R2 are virtualized and use the

same hosts as the tenant virtual machines. Each Dell PowerEdge R630 Hyper-V host used in the

reference architecture supplies the private cloud solution with 384 GB of memory, 24 cores (48 logical

CPU cores with hyperthreading enabled). Three Dell Storage MD1400 storage enclosures supply over 50

TB of mirrored, highly available storage, which includes 3.6 TB of fast SSD storage. At 60 GB per virtual

machine, the storage can contain over 900 virtual hard drives. The active/active Microsoft Scale-Out

File Server (SOFS) provides fast, reliable SMB3 access to the Dell Storage MD1400 enclosures, using

12Gbps SAS connections.

We estimate the three Dell PowerEdge R630 servers in the compute cluster should be able to support

anywhere from 57 to 1601 tenant VMs, depending on the virtual machine workload.

System Center 2012 R2 is highly scalable and supports many hypervisors and operating systems at the

host level. More hosts can be added in only a few operations. The addition of more hosts under the

management of System Center 2012 R2 will allow virtual machine capacity to be scaled up.

Special considerations

For validation purposes, we tested a fully self-contained rack to ensure end-to-end interoperability.

However, the following considerations may apply and could change the design in individual customer

environments based on common or individual best practices:

Active Directory

Most customers have an existing domain forest built using Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services,

but during validation, an AD was deployed within this stack for validation purposes.

Some components of System Center have minimum requirements for the level of the Domain

Controller. The Domain Controller must be at Windows Server 2003 SP1 or higher.

Systems Management

A common practice most customers follow is separating management servers from their active compute

clusters. For validation purposes, the management servers were deployed in the active compute cluster

on this stack.

All Microsoft System Center Components we used in the configuration appear in the later section titled

Software components, and make use of the most recent Update Rollup packages.

1For more information on this estimate, see Tenant VM Capacity Estimation in Appendix A.


Storage spaces

Dell follows Microsoft’s published best practices, using an isolated HA pair of Scale-Out File Servers,

and for a true on-premises HA storage environment, this system was deployed in a 2:3 storage node to

enclosure configuration. Customers may opt to use Azure cloud for HA instead; however, the first

recommendation should always be for no SPOF, and high availability on site.

Reference architecture components

Components overview

This reference architecture is built on a foundation of Dell servers, storage, and networking. Together,

the Dell platform for Microsoft Private Cloud provides an integrated architecture that can be quickly

and easily deployed using the steps defined in this guide.

In this section, we discuss the hardware and software components in detail.

Dell hardware components

Dell PowerEdge R630-Compute Nodes

The Dell PowerEdge R630, one of the Dell 13th generation of servers, was released in September 2014

and features the new Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 family of processors. Intel designed these processors to

increase energy efficiency, and to have a greater number of cores per socket and larger caches than

the previous generation of Intel Xeon processors.

The Dell PowerEdge R630 is a 1U, two-socket server with support for up to 768 GB of memory. Twenty-

four DIMM slots provide flexibility and support 4/8/16/32 GB DDR4 memory modules. The Dell

PowerEdge R630 also can house up to three half-height PCIe cards for additional IO options. Redundant

power supplies are available in several different wattages and efficiency standards. Integrated NICs

offer multiple port, speed, and interface options, eliminating the need for many PCIe NICs.

For internal storage, the Dell PowerEdge R630 can be configured with twenty-four 1.8-inch SATA SSDs,

ten 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs (with a PCIe SSD option), or eight 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs. Dell offers four integrated

RAID solutions for the PowerEdge R630, including the PERC S130 (Software RAID), PERC H330, PERC

H730, and the PERC 730P. In addition, there are internal storage on SD cards for embedded

hypervisors.

For more information about the PowerEdge R630, refer to the PowerEdge R630 manuals page:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r630/manuals

Dell PowerEdge R730-Scale-Out File Server Nodes

The Dell PowerEdge R730 was released in September 2014 and features the new Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3

family of processors. Intel designed these processors to increase energy efficiency, and to have a

greater number of cores per socket and larger caches than the previous generation of Intel Xeon

processors.

The Dell PowerEdge R730 is a 2U, two-socket server with support for up to 768 GB of memory. Twenty-

four DIMM slots provide flexibility and support 4/8/16/32 GB DDR4 memory modules. The Dell

PowerEdge R730 also can be configured with up to three half-height and four full-height PCIe cards for

additional IO options. Redundant power supplies are available in several different wattages and

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r630/manuals


efficiency standards. Integrated NICs offer multiple port, speed, and interface options, eliminating the

need for many PCIe NICs.

For internal storage, the Dell PowerEdge R730 can be configured with sixteen 2.5-inch drives, or eight

2.5-inch or 3.5-inch HDD/SSDs. Dell offers four integrated RAID solutions for the PowerEdge R730,

including the PERC S130 (Software RAID), PERC H330, PERC H730, and the PERC 730P. There is also

internal storage on SD cards for embedded hypervisors. For external storage, such as the Dell Storage

MD1400 that we use in this reference architecture, Dell offers the 12Gbps SAS HBA for connectivity.

For more information about the PowerEdge R730, refer to the PowerEdge R730 manuals page:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r730xd/manuals

Dell Storage MD1400

The Dell Storage MD1400 direct-attached storage is an external storage enclosure that can support up

to 12 hot-pluggable 3.5-inch Near-Line SAS hard drives, or 2.5-inch SSDs, for up to 72 TB of raw storage

in just a 2U enclosure. The MD1400 enclosure offers redundant power supplies, dual enclosure

management modules (EMMs), and supports redundant path cabling.

MD1400 direct-attached storage enclosures are connected to servers with mini-SAS HD cables. Servers

that utilize the MD1400 storage using Microsoft Storage Spaces can use the Dell 12Gbps SAS HBA. These

Dell SAS HBA cards present the enclosure to Microsoft Storage Spaces, which supports direct control

over the drives and manages data redundancy, scalability, provisioning, and administration.

For more information on the PowerVault MD1400 storage enclosure, please refer to spec sheet and

other online documentation: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/shared-content~data-

sheets~en/documents~dellstorage_md1400_md1420_082114.pdf

Dell Networking N4032F

The Dell Networking N4000 series switches provide cost-effective and energy-efficient networking that

enables users to modernize their datacenters. Using only 1U of rack space, Dell Networking N4000

series switches can have up to 64 10GbE ports using breakout cables.

The Dell Networking N4032F switch used in this reference architecture has twenty-four 10GbE SFP+

auto-sensing ports, one hot-swap expansion module bay, and dual 460W hot-swappable power supplies

for redundant power. When used in a stacked configuration for redundancy, the Dell Networking

N4032F can support up to 160Gbps stacking speed. The Dell Networking N4032F with 40GbE uplinks (via

the 40GbE QSFP+ module) is used in this setup. Switch options & details can be found online

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/networking-n4000-series/pdf

Management of the Dell Networking N4000 series switches can be performed through either a CLI, or

the Dell OpenManage GUI, served from a small Web server that runs on the switch. The Dell Networking

N4000 series switches can receive an IP address from a DHCP server, or can be configured through the

console to have a static IP address for management.

You can download the user’s manual for the switch from www.dell.com/support.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r730xd/manuals

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/shared-content~data-sheets~en/documents~dellstorage_md1400_md1420_082114.pdf

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/shared-content~data-sheets~en/documents~dellstorage_md1400_md1420_082114.pdf

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/networking-n4000-series/pd

http://www.dell.com/support


Software components

The software components used in this reference architecture each play an important role in the high

availability, management, virtualization, ease of use, and automation of the Microsoft Private Cloud

solution.

Microsoft Storage Spaces

As software-defined storage increases in popularity, it becomes a large consideration for many

organizations. Microsoft offers built-in storage virtualization in Windows Server 2012 R2. Called Storage

Spaces, the technology allows JBOD enclosures to be used to create highly available storage for

virtualized or physical infrastructures. Dell was an early supporter of Microsoft Storage Spaces, and we

leverage the software defined storage model in this configuration.

Customers using Microsoft Storage Spaces can lower costs and create storage pools using less-expensive

direct-attached SAS JBOD storage enclosures to build their storage environment. Software capabilities

and features of Storage Spaces (i.e., Mirror Spaces, Parity Spaces, tiering and thin provisioning) provide

redundancy and flexible provisioning.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

Microsoft released Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, their flagship server operating system, in

October 2013. Included with the Datacenter version of Windows Server 2012 R2 is unlimited

virtualization rights, essential to an enterprise-class private cloud solution. Microsoft Windows Server

2012 R2 Datacenter is deployed on the compute nodes of this solution to support workload VMs. The

Standard version of Windows Server 2012 R2 can be deployed on the Scale-Out File Server nodes since

they do not require Hyper-V and the same virtualization licensing as the compute nodes.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 includes many features that we use in this reference architecture.

These features include Automated Tiering in Storage Spaces, which stores frequently accessed files on

the fastest media, SMB 3.0 improvements that allow Hyper-V to perform live migrations over SMB, and

other frequently used technologies such as Windows PowerShell.

Included with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 is Microsoft Hyper-V, a native hypervisor. Hyper-V

requires x86-64-based hardware to create and run virtual machines. Supported virtual machine

operating systems include Windows Server (2000 and newer), Windows client operating systems (XP and

newer), and common Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL and CentOS.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V includes many enterprise-ready features such as Live

Migration, Virtual SANs, Virtual Switches, and the ability to store virtual machines on shared storage via

failover clustering. Live migration allows the failover of a virtual machine to another physical host

while remaining online. This can be used to redistribute hardware resources among VMs, or enable a

physical host to be maintained.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V in a failover cluster, allows virtual machines to

minimize unexpected downtime that can occur if a host crashes or loses power. Additionally, this

feature allows host server maintenance and upgrades without loss of service. It also enables hardware

load balancing by migrating virtual machines to other nodes. A correctly configured Hyper-V failover

cluster provides high availability with no single point of failure.


Microsoft System Center 2012 R2

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 is a suite of software solutions that offer a full cloud capability in a

unified management scheme that can reduce IT administration costs while increasing flexibility and

agility. Because System Center 2012 R2 automates many standard and repeatable tasks that an IT

administrator must perform, System Center 2012 R2 can save time and streamline efficiency. In-depth

diagnostics, data integrity, and backups are achieved through the use of the integrated components of

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2. System Center 2012 R2 is composed of the following core

applications:

App Controller - App Controller contains an interface for deploying and configuring virtual machines across hybrid cloud scenarios.

Orchestrator - Orchestrator automates the creation, deployment, and monitoring of various resources in your private / hybrid cloud.

Operations Manager - Operations Manager automates health and performance monitoring of bare-metal servers and virtual machines.

Service Manager - Service Manager automates IT best practices and includes processes for disaster recovery.

Virtual Machine Manager - Virtual Machine Manager manages hosts, networking, storage, and other cloud resources. Virtual Machine Manager supports hypervisors from multiple vendors.

Table 1 presents a matrix of typical cloud functionality mapped to the module(s) of System Center

providing that function:

How System Center 2012 Components Support Cloud Functionality Table 1.

Customer Scenario

Industry Capability System Center 2012 Component

Application Management

Application Self-Service App Controller, Service Manager

Application Performance Management Operations Manager

Application Management Across Clouds Virtual Machine Manager

Service Delivery & Automation

IT Service Management & Reporting Service Manager

Process Automation & Orchestration Orchestrator

Infrastructure Management

Cloud Creation & Delegation Virtual Machine Manager

Data Protection & Disaster Recovery Data Protection Manager

Monitoring Operations Manager

Configuration & Compliance Configuration Manager

More information on Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 is available at technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh546785.aspx.

Dell management tools and other software

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 must be deployed on a highly available Microsoft SQL Server instance.

In this reference architecture, the SQL Server instance is built as a high-availability cluster on the same

management host cluster as the other components of System Center 2012 R2.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh546785.aspx



Dell also provides the Dell OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center. These extensions

and plugins allow components of System Center 2012 R2 to integrate with Dell management tools like

Dell Lifecycle Controller, Dell iDRAC, storage management interfaces and other tools.

The Microsoft Windows Azure Pack (WAP) is available as a free collection of technologies for existing

Microsoft customers. The Windows Azure Pack allows IT staff to simplify management of a System

Center 2012 R2 cloud solution with an easy-to-use Web portal. From the Web portal, users can create

private and hybrid clouds, administer and create virtual machines, and much more. For more

information on the Windows Azure Pack, see www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-

cloud/products/windows-azure-pack/.

Deployment

Deployment overview

The hardware used in this reference architecture includes the following:

Three Dell PowerEdge R630 1U rack servers in a Hyper-V cluster which will contain the management VMs and tenant VMs

Two Dell PowerEdge R730 2U rack servers as Scale-Out File Server nodes

Three Dell Storage MD1400 direct-attached storage enclosures

Two Dell Networking N4032F switches

Microsoft System Center will be installed on various virtual machines, which will be virtualized using

Microsoft Hyper-V included with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2.

In Figure 1, we show the high-level topology of this Dell reference architecture. In subsequent sections,

we show more details on both cabling and logical layout.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-azure-pack/

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-azure-pack/


Dell PowerEdge solution for Microsoft Private Cloud overview. Figure 1.

Preparing rack, power, and cooling

Best practices guides for racking, power and cabling are available in PDF from www.dell.com/support.

These guides describe and walk through the cooling, power, and cabling best practices for the modern

datacenter. Guides for all Dell-branded rack enclosures are available.

This configuration achieved full power redundancy through redundant power supplies per hardware

component, with each of the two power supplies going to a separate PDU and circuit. Power

distribution units, or certain servers in the cluster can be connected to UPS battery backup power or

generator power in case of the loss of commercial power.

Cooling is provided by moving air in logical patterns that follow principles of convection and air

conditioning units keep datacenter temperatures at proper operational levels for performance and

energy efficiency.

The guides at www.dell.com/support describe optimum cooling scenarios.

Dell servers are energy smart and provide capability for fresh-air cooling within a wide range of

operating parameters. Be sure to consult with your datacenter facilities team as well as your Dell




representatives to ensure you are making the most of Dell PowerEdge energy efficiency features and

available OpenManage tools. For more info visit www.dell.com/freshair.

Configuring networking

A combination of switch stacking and NIC teaming creates redundancy for the network in this reference

architecture. This guide makes use of previously published Dell documentation written for the Dell

Networking N4000 series switches. The User’s Configuration Guide, CLI Reference Guide, and Stacking

Guide for Dell Networking N4000 switches are available at www.dell.com/support.

About switch stacking

Dell Networking N4032F switches are stackable, meaning they can be configured to operate as a group

of switches that emulates many functions of a single, larger Layer 3 switch. In stacking the Dell

Networking N4032F switches, you can achieve failover capability and redundancy for the networking

layer of the Microsoft Private Cloud Hyper-V cluster.

When the switches are in a stack, there is a single interface or IP address for the administration of the

entire stack. This is managed by the master switch. All switches in the stack must have the same Dell

firmware revision, and switches joining the stack can automatically update their firmware to that of

the master switch. The switches can be stacked using the permanent ports, or ports provided by an

expandable module. The switch ports used for stacking must be configured to stack mode using either

the GUI or the CLI. The CLI method is described in Appendix E; the GUI method is outlined in the guide

‘Stacking Dell Networking Switches: N4032, N4032F, N4064, N4064F’ available at

www.dell.com/support. In this walkthrough, we will outline how to configure two stacked and identical

Dell Networking N4032F 10GbE switches.

Networking configuration steps

In this section, we review specific steps on configuring and cabling your Dell Networking N4032F

switches in a stack and preparing them for use in the Microsoft Private Cloud Hyper-V cluster.

The walkthrough in this section assumes the switches have been stacked in the manner described in

Appendix E. It also assumes access to both the CLI (through console/telnet/ssh) and the Web-based

GUI.

For specific details on switch stacking and initial switch setup, see Appendix E.

http://www.dell.com/freshair




Below, we outline the GUI approach to configuring the ports correctly for LACP and LAG.

1. Log onto the Dell OpenManage Switch Administrator from a Web browser.

2. Expand the Switching category.

3. Expand the Link Aggregation category.

4. Select LAG Membership.


5. Configure the switch as shown. Ensure that both physical switches are configured identically,

and apply the changes. The Unit field is the identifier for each physical switch in the stack.

6. Once LACP is enabled and the LAGs are configured, the LAGs must be placed into trunk mode,

so all VLAN traffic is passed-both tagged and untagged. This traffic will be filtered by the host

machines.

7. Navigate to Switching > VLAN > LAG Settings.


8. For Po1 – Po5, put the LAG into Trunk mode.

9. Cable the Dell Networking N4032F as outlined in Table 2 and Figure 2.

Switch and port assignments for the Dell Networking N4032F switches and servers Table 2.

Switch Port Server

1 1 FILESERV01

1 2 FILESERV02

1 3 HYPERV01

1 4 HYPERV02

1 5 HYPERV03

2 1 FILESERV01

2 2 FILESERV02

2 3 HYPERV01

2 4 HYPERV02

2 5 HYPERV03


Cabling the Dell PowerEdge solution Figure 2.

System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager Networking

Virtual Machine Manager extends the capabilities of the traditional Microsoft Hyper-V virtual switch by

introducing a feature called a Logical Switch. With this, users can leverage NIC teaming, QoS,

bandwidth control, SR-IOV, and create multiple virtual network adapters that all use a single NIC team

or physical NIC in the host. This enables the use of separate networks – these can either be separated

by VLAN tagging and setting the switch for VLAN trunking on all used ports, as we do in this

configuration, or by using different subnets.

Logical networks can be isolated or can also allow traffic from the hosts. To allow virtual machines to

use networking capabilities, Virtual Machine Manager allows the creation of a VM Network which can

use network virtualization to connect more than one VM Network to each Logical Network, or simply

pass traffic directly through to the Logical Network.

While these settings will not be available until Virtual Machine Manager is installed later in the guide,

below is a short description of the network settings used in this reference architecture through Virtual

Machine Manager.

The VMM Networking setup techniques used in this reference architecture include the following:

A Management network that uses DHCP for IP addressing. This has a pass-through VM Network

that is associated with it for use by all management virtual machines, the System Center VMs.

DHCP is provided by an AD/DNS/DHCP server.

A Live Migration Logical Network that uses Static IPs assigned by Virtual Machine Manager. This

is where all live migration traffic will pass through.


A Logical network providing access to the outside world, the Internet. A VM network created

on top of this for use by Gateways or other VMs.

QoS / Bandwidth settings. The Live Migration network is limited to 90 percent of the teamed

10GbE SFP+ NICs. The Management Network is limited to using up to 10 percent of the teamed

10GbE SFP+ NICs.

For more information on Virtual Machine Manager Networking, see technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/gg610596.aspx.

Configuring storage

Storage overview

This guide makes use of the Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Deployment Guide, available at

www.dell.com/dsmsmanuals . The aforementioned Dell guide is a complete hardware deployment of

the storage solution.

We used three Dell Storage MD1400 enclosures, direct-attached to each server. This method makes use

of the two EMMs in the MD1400 storage enclosures to ensure two physical paths to every storage

enclosure. Each mini-SAS HD cable coming from each storage enclosure is connected to separate HBAs

in each of the two separate Dell PowerEdge R730 servers used as Scale-Out File Server nodes. For

additional supported Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces configurations, see Appendix I.

Additionally, Storage Spaces offers a technology called Tiering. When using this technology, data that

is used most often is stored on the high-performance SSDs, while remaining data is stored on the high-

capacity HDD-based storage. In Figure 3, a high-level diagram of the storage hardware and software

used provides a conceptual view of the storage technologies used.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610596.aspx


http://www.dell.com/dsmsmanuals


Storage technologies overview Figure 3.


Cabling the Dell PowerEdge R730 SOFS nodes and Dell Storage MD1400 enclosures Figure 4.

Dell Storage MD1400 configuration steps

The Dell Storage MD1400 storage enclosures require none of the configuration procedures that a SAN

requires. Instead, all management of virtual disks and sharing is done by Microsoft Storage Spaces,

which we will configure later in this reference architecture.

In this configuration, a combination of SSDs and HDDs are used to provide both high performance and

high capacity. Each Dell Storage MD1400 has 12 drive bays—the first three are filled with 800GB SAS

SSDs, and the remaining nine with 4TB 7200RPM NL-SAS HDDs. With 38.4 TB of raw storage per

enclosure, and 57.6 TB for the three-enclosure setup with two-way mirroring, there is sufficient

capacity for over 900 virtual hard drives assuming each is approximately 60 GB.

1. Place the drives into their drive carriers. Instructions for this are available at

www.dell.com/support.

2. Place the drives into the enclosures. To make organization easier, place SSDs in the first drive

slots.

3. Connect the enclosures to the HBAs in the Scale-Out File Servers nodes as shown in Figure 4.

4. Connect both of each enclosure’s power supplies to power, and ensure the switches on each of

the power supplies are turned on.

The firmware version of the Dell Storage MD1400 enclosures should be checked using Windows Server

2012 R2 Device Manager before any configuration using Microsoft Storage Spaces.



1. Open Device Manager.

2. Expand System devices.

3. Find Generic SCSI Enclosure Device, select it, and open the Properties dialog.

4. Navigate to the Details tab, and select Hardware Ids from the Property drop-down menu.

5. The end of the first entry will contain the firmware version. This can be checked against the

versions available on www.dell.com/support to ensure the firmware is up to date. Update the

firmware if necessary.



Configuring the server hardware

Hardware update steps

To prepare the Dell PowerEdge servers for deployment, Microsoft and Dell recommend ensuring all

firmware and BIOS versions are up to date with the latest versions available from

www.dell.com/support. Dell 13G PowerEdge servers can use a built-in utility to update all firmware

and BIOS versions. Called Dell Lifecycle Controller, the firmware can be automatically updated as long

as the server has an Internet connection.

To use Dell Lifecycle Controller:

1. Reboot the server and press F10 to enter Dell Lifecycle controller when prompted in the upper

left portion of the screen. Wait for Dell Lifecycle Controller to finish loading.



2. Enter the Firmware update area, select Launch Firmware Update, choose FTP Server for the

repository, select your updates, and then begin the update.

Configuring the server software

Prerequisites

To set up Microsoft Private Cloud, an Active Directory Domain Controller server must be active on the

network. In addition, DHCP and DNS must be available. These features may already be part of the

enterprise datacenter, and their setup is beyond the scope of this guide. Information on using the built-

in Windows Server 2012 R2 features like ADDC, DNS, and DHCP is available at

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.

Hostname and IP addressing example

IP addresses are provided by a DHCP server. Hostnames are registered to an available DNS server.

Static IP addresses may be used instead of DHCP, or in conjunction with DHCP. Windows Failover

Clustering supports either DHCP or static IPs. However, a DHCP server can provide an address for the

cluster without input from the user. It is recommended to use a static IP reservation for the compute

and SOFS nodes within the DHCP server.

Sample hostname and IP addressing Table 3.

Hostname Role IP Address

FILESERV01 Node 1 in SOFS cluster Static

FILESERV02 Node 2 in SOFS cluster Static

HYPERV01 Node 1 in Hyper-V cluster Static



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/


Storage spaces configuration

The two Dell PowerEdge R730 SOFS nodes need two 10GbE SFP+ NICs and three Dell 12Gbps SAS HBAs

each. Windows Server 2012 R2 contains drivers for the SAS HBA out of the box.

Once the HBAs are installed in each of the SOFS nodes, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard

Edition needs be installed on each Dell PowerEdge R730. To configure BIOS and RAID settings, see

Appendix C. To install Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, see Appendix D.

After Windows is installed on both Dell PowerEdge R730 SOFS nodes, name each node using a unique

host name. In this reference architecture, we use FILESERV01 and FILESERV02. To name a machine

running Windows Server 2012 R2, navigate to Local Server in the Server Manager. Select the current

computer name. A System Properties dialog should appear. Click Change, and enter a new computer

name. Click OK and restart the computer when prompted.

Next, join the two SOFS nodes to the domain. Credentials for this domain can be set using the Active

Directory Domain Controller server. Configuring those settings are beyond the scope of this paper. To

join a domain, the same dialog can be used as before. Click the radio button for Domain after clicking

Change on the dialog shown above.

NIC teaming, or LBFO (Load Balancing/Failover) is normally used for two purposes: bandwidth

aggregation and failover capability. Extensive use of Microsoft guides for NIC teaming were used to

create this guide. The User Guide for NIC Teaming (LBFO) produced by Microsoft is available at

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40319. This aforementioned guide breaks down

the different settings used for NIC teaming, and provided recommended settings for sharing to Hyper-V

hosts and allowing the capability for virtual machine traffic.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40319


To set up NIC teaming, use the guide in Appendix H.

To create a continuously available file share, Windows Server 2012 R2 must have the proper roles and

features installed. Both the Failover Clustering Feature and File Server Roles must be installed on each

node. We provide instructions for installing the Failover Clustering feature in Appendix F.

To install the File Server Role, perform the following steps:

1. Launch the Add Roles and Features Wizard. This can be done from the dashboard in Windows Server

2012 R2 Server Manager. At the first screen, click Next.


2. Select Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.

3. Select File Server, which appears after expanding both File and Storage Services and File and iSCSI

Services.


4. Click Next for the Features selection, and on the next dialog, click Install. The File Server Role

should take a few moments to install.

The Microsoft MPIO feature must be installed to enable load balancing and path failover, as well as

ensure the disks are recognized by Windows Server 2012 R2 properly.

To enable Microsoft Multipath I/O add the Windows Server 2012 R2 feature as shown below.

1. Use the Add Windows Roles and Feature dialog to select Multipath I/O.

2. Install the feature.


3. Launch the MPIO control panel, navigate to the Discover Multi-Paths tab, and ensure that Add

support for SAS device is selected.

4. A reboot may be necessary. Ensure MPIO is working by running the cluster validation report tool

again.

The disks in the Dell Storage MD1400 enclosure must be brought online and initialized. You can do this

through the Disk Management utility in Windows Server 2012 R2, or you can use PowerShell to

automate the process. With a large number of disks, this can speed the process considerably. The

PowerShell guide and commands below perform the process necessary for new disks. This guide

assumes new disks that have never been formatted.

Get-PhysicalDisk

This displays a list of all the physical disks connected to the system. Both system disks and the disks in

the storage enclosures will be displayed. Verify that all attached disks to be used appear in this list.

To view only the disks that are new and unformatted, use the command:

Get-Disk | Where PartitionStyle -eq 'raw'

This should display a list of all disks that are unformatted and unpartitioned.

To online all the new disks, use the command:

Get-Disk | Where PartitionStyle -eq 'raw' | Set-Disk -IsOffline $false

To initialize the disks, use the command:

Get-Disk | Where PartitionStyle -eq 'raw' | Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle

GPT

The new disks should now be ready for clustering, and later, the creation of storage spaces.


To create the Scale-Out File Server cluster, refer to Appendix G. The Failover Cluster Manager allows

for verification and creation of a cluster using a simple wizard-based setup. Eligible machines can be

verified and clustered in only a few moments. During verification, ensure all disk checks complete

without any errors or warnings.

Create a storage pool in Failover Cluster Manager

1. Launch FCM when logged into a domain account with the correct permissions. Launch the New

Storage Pool utility.


2. On the first screen, click Next to proceed.

3. Give the storage pool a useful name and description.


4. Select all the disks in the Dell Storage MD1400 storage enclosures, and add them to the storage

pool.

5. Ensure all settings and selections are correct.


6. Click Create to form the storage pool. Ensure the checkbox Create a virtual disk is NOT

checked.

7. The storage pool should now show as a clustered storage pool in Failover Cluster Manager.


8. Run the following commands to create storage tiers in the newly created pool

New-StorageTier –FriendlyName *SSD* -MediaType SSD –

StoragePoolFriendlyName <Storage Pool Name>

New-StorageTier –FriendlyName *HDD* -MediaType HDD –

StoragePoolFriendlyName <Storage Pool Name>

Once the storage pool is created, virtual disks can be created using the available storage in the storage

pool. Windows Server 2012 R2 can create virtual disks using an available GUI, or through the use of

Windows PowerShell.

To create a virtual disk that associates different copies of data on different storage enclosures requires

a specific Windows PowerShell command. This protects the data in the case of the failure of an entire

storage enclosure. Launch an elevated Windows PowerShell console from either FILESERV01 or

FILESERV02.

Run the commands below. These variables will help shorten the next command to reduce typing.

$SSD = Get-StorageTier -FriendlyName *SSD*

$HDD = Get-StorageTier -FriendlyName *HDD*

Then, to create the virtual disk, use the command:

Get-StoragePool <Storage Pool Name> | New-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName <Virtual

Disk Name> -ResiliencySettingName Mirror –AutoNumberOfColumns -

AutoWriteCacheSize -StorageTiers $SSD,$HDD –StorageTierSizes <Tier Size in

GB>GB,<Tier Size in GB>GB -IsEnclosureAware $true

This creates a Storage Spaces virtual disk that has two-way mirroring, storage tiers, a default write-

back cache of 1GB; that automatically selects the number of columns (the number of disks each stripe

of data is written to); and spreads the data across multiple storage enclosures in the case of the loss of

an entire enclosure.

For more information on creating virtual disks using PowerShell, see technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/hh848643.aspx.

To create a volume on the virtual disk that is formatted and available for data storage, follow the steps

below.




1. Navigate to File and Storage Services in Windows Server Manager.

2. Click Next to continue.


3. Ensure the cluster account is selected, and the correct disk is selected.

4. Because the virtual disk has storage tiering enabled, the volume must take up the entire disk.


5. Select the drive letter and other options. The drive letter is unimportant; when this volume is

added as Cluster Shared Volume, the drive letter will no longer be used.

6. Format the volume as NTFS and give the volume a useful name.


7. Review the options and when the configuration is verified, click Create.

8. Once the volume is created, open the Failover Cluster Manager and right-click the virtual disk

with the newly formatted volume. Click Add to Cluster Shared Volumes.

BitLocker drive encryption increases security in the case of a physical, local attack. Because the data

on the drives is encrypted, even physical access to the storage will not allow an attacker to gather


valuable data. To enable Microsoft BitLocker drive encryption on a Cluster Shared Volume, perform the

following steps:

1. Open an administrator PowerShell console on either of the SOFS nodes.

2. Find the name of the Cluster Shared Volume by using the command

Get-ClusterSharedVolume

This should produce a list of all CSVs. Find the disk you wish to encrypt using BitLocker.

3. Next, place the drive into maintenance mode by using the command

Get-ClusterSharedVolume “<Name of Disk>” | Suspend-ClusterResource

This should produce a confirmation dialog, as this will render all resources that depend on this

disk unusable for the amount of time the disk is in maintenance mode.

4. Encrypt the drive by first creating a password, then enabling BitLocker.

$pw = ConvertTo-SecureString “<Password>” –AsPlainText -Force

Enable-BitLocker <CSV file path> -PasswordProtector $pw

5. Wait for the drive to encrypt.

6. To enable proper failover and sharing of the CSV, BitLocker must be configured to use the

domain for authentication.

$cluster = Get-Cluster

Add-BitLockerKeyProtector <CSV file path> -ADAccountOrGroupProtector –

ADAccountOrGroup $cluster

7. Turn off maintenance mode.

Get-ClusterSharedVolume “<Name of Disk>” | Resume-ClusterResource

To create the Scale-out File Server, the File server clustered role must be added in Failover Cluster

Manager. To do this from Failover Cluster Manager, perform the following steps.


1. After selecting the correct failover cluster previously created in previous steps, click Configure

Role.

2. On the first page of the High Availability Wizard, click Next.


3. Select File Server as shown below, and click Next.

4. Select Scale-Out File Server for application data as the file server type and click Next.


5. Give the Scale-out-file-server a useful name. In this reference, we use SOFS.

6. Verify settings on the confirmation page, and click Finish to after the file server finishes

creating.

To create file shares for Quorum witnesses, VHDs, SQL databases, and other storage needs, the File

Server clustered role can have file shares added to the clustered role.


1. To create a new SMB3 share in Failover Cluster Manager, select the previously added clustered

role SOFS, and click Add File Share.

2. Select SMB Share – Applications.


3. Select the CSV created previously.

4. Give the share a useful name.


5. Keep the default options on the share settings page.

6. Set permissions for the file share – this can be changed later. Because the Hyper-V hosts

haven’t been added to the domain yet, leave this at default settings.


7. Confirm all settings, and create the highly available file share.

To give a cluster a quorum witness disk or file share,

1. Right-click the failover cluster in Failover Cluster Manager and select ‘More Actions > Configure

Cluster Quorum Settings’


2. Select ‘Next’ on the first screen.

3. Select the radio button ‘Select the quorum witness’


4. Select the correct option – for the Hyper-V cluster, a file share witness may be necessary.

Cluster disk witnesses are preferred.

5. Select the correct disk or file share to be used.


6. Verify all settings, and select ‘Next’.

7. The cluster now has a quorum witness disk/file share.

For more information on Quorum in Failover Clusters, see technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/cc731739.aspx.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731739.aspx



Creating the Hyper-V cluster

Three Dell PowerEdge R630 servers are used in a Hyper-V cluster to run components of Microsoft

System Center 2012 R2 and other utilities to create a Microsoft Private Cloud solution. These three Dell

PowerEdge R630 servers should have two 10GbE SFP+ NICs. A minimum of two drives in each server is

recommended for RAID 1.

All clustered Hyper-V hosts must run Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter installed to local

storage. Instructions for entering the Dell PERC H730P RAID controller are available in the Hardware

Setup section, and instructions for installing Windows Server 2012 R2 are available in Appendix C and

Appendix D.

Similar to the previously created SOFS cluster, the two 10GbE SFP+ NICs will need to be teamed using

the same method. Make sure to name the team a meaningful phrase, and name the team identically on

each server. Instructions for NIC Teaming are available in Appendix H.

Create unique hostnames for the three Hyper-V hosts. Instructions for changing the hostname are

available in the previous section. In this guide, we will refer to the three hosts as HYPERV01,

HYPERV02, and HYPERV03. Reboot the servers as necessary.

Join the three Hyper-V hosts to the domain. Credentials can be customized in the Active Directory

Domain Controller, but configuration of the domain controller out of the scope of this guide. Reboot

the servers as necessary.

To install the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2012 R2, perform the following steps:

1. Launch the Roles and Features Wizard. This can be done from the Start Menu or the Local

Server Manager.


2. At the first screen, click Next.

3. Select Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.


4. Ensure the role is being installed on the local server, and click Next.

5. Select Hyper-V. A dialog box should appear.

6. Leave the default option checked, and click Add Features. Click Next to move to the Add

features screen.


7. Click Next on the screen to select features to install.

8. Click Install on the confirmation dialog. The Hyper-V role should install. Restart the computer

as necessary.

9. Perform these steps to install Hyper-V on every physical host to be clustered.

Next, all of the hosts in the Hyper-V cluster must be clustered. Instructions for installing the Failover Cluster Feature on each node are available in Appendix F. Instructions for creating a cluster using Failover Cluster Manager are available in in Appendix G.

To make the creation of virtual machines easier, set the default location for VHDs to be the file share. This can be done in Hyper-V Settings for each host.

To enable Hyper-V Manager’s ability to manage more than one physical host, see technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc995228.aspx for information on constrained delegation, which must be done in the Active Directory Domain Controller.



Microsoft System Center – Creating the management VMs

System Center 2012 R2 is the backbone of the Microsoft Private Cloud solution, with modules that

provide different elements of cloud capability from infrastructure and virtual machine control and

management, to automation and application provisioning as well as orchestration. Each component of

System Center 2012 R2 is installed on a different virtual machine on the Hyper-V cluster. Six System

Center applications run in this configuration. We present the VM configurations in Table 4.

All System Center 2012 R2 components use the latest updates; as of March 2015, the latest update

rollup was UR5, or Update Rollup 5. Update rollups for the various components of System Center 2012

R2 contain security fixes, feature enhancements and bug fixes. Microsoft strongly recommends

installing the most recent update rollups for all components of System Center.

In this configuration, both the System Center management virtual machines and all tenant virtual

machines share the same Hyper-V hosts. However, production best practice is to place management

and tenant virtual machines on a separate Hyper-V compute cluster. This is easily achieved using

System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

VM configurations Table 4.

Hyper-V Name & Hostname

Application vCPU Minimum Memory (GB)

Disk Size (GB)

SQL01, SQL02, SQL03

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Guest Cluster 8 16 60

VMM01 & VMM02 Virtual Machine Manager Guest Cluster

8 16 60

OM01,OM02,OM03 Operations Manager Management servers and Reporting Server

8 16 60

SM01,SM02, SM03 Service Manager, Service Manager Data Warehouse, Service Manager Reporting Server

4 16 60

ORC01,ORC02 Orchestrator, Orchestrator Runbook Server

4 8 60

AC01 App Controller 4 8 60

AZURE01 Microsoft Azure Pack 2 8 60

The components of Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 depend heavily on a highly available SQL

database. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 provides the best compatibility with all System Center

components. A SQL server compatibility list for System Center is available at

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn281933.aspx. In this guide, a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1

Enterprise installation is used as the SQL database for all components.

Some components of System Center 2012 R2 must be guest-clustered. In guest clusters, a cluster of

multiple virtual machines and their cluster-aware applications run on the already clustered Hyper-V

hosts. For an in depth explanation and walkthrough of the benefits of guest clustering, see

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn440540.aspx. Both Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 and Virtual

Machine Manager benefit greatly from guest clustering.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn281933.aspx



Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 will be installed as a three-node guest cluster for maximum availability.

Virtual Machine Manager will be installed as a two-node guest cluster. All applications running on the

Hyper-V cluster should be spread evenly amongst the three nodes in the Hyper-V cluster. In this

reference architecture, the virtual machines are spread among the three nodes as shown in Table 5.

VM Distribution Table 5.

Node in Hyper-V Cluster Virtual Machine/Application

HYPERV01 SQL01, VMM01, OM01, AZURE01, ORC01

HYPERV02 SQL02, VMM02, SM01, SM02, OM02

HYPERV03 SQL03, AC01, ORC02, OM03, SM03

To create a virtual machine in Hyper-V, the New Virtual Machine Wizard can be used. For a detailed

breakdown on how to use this utility, see technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846766#BKMK_Step2.

The virtual machines should be provisioned, named and given the memory, vCPUs, and hard drive space

as shown in the table above. This guide makes use of Hyper-V Generation 2 virtual machines.

1. Create all the virtual machines on the correct nodes and settings from the above tables by

using Hyper-V Virtual Machine Wizard. A PowerShell script can speed this process if necessary.

a. Install Windows Sever 2012 R2 on each VM. Sysprep, an included utility with Windows

Server 2012 R2, can be used to save on deployment time. Sysprep can create Windows

images to be used for deployment. For information on the Sysprep utility, see

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721940.

b. Install all available Windows Updates and hotfixes. Information on using Windows

Update can be found by launching the Windows Update utility in Windows Server 2012

R2.

2. Install the Failover Clustering Feature on SQL01, SQL02, SQL03, VMM01 and VMM02. A guide for

installing the Failover Cluster feature is available in Appendix F.

3. Name each VM appropriately. This can be done through Server Manager and the System

Properties dialog. Then, join each VM to the domain using a domain administrator account.

4. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 must be installed first, as the remaining components of System

Center 2012 R2 depend on a database to function. To install SQL Server:

a. Create a guest cluster – include SQL01, SQL02, and SQL03. A guide for creating a

cluster in Failover Cluster Manager is in Appendix G.

b. Install any prerequisites for SQL Server 2012 SP1 on each of the VMs. A guide for SQL

Server 2012 requirements is available at technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/ms143506(v=sql.110).aspx. Not included in this list is the Windows

component Netfx3. Without Netfx3, SQL Server will fail to install. To install Netfx3:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846766#BKMK_Step2

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721940

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(v=sql.110).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(v=sql.110).aspx


i. Mount/insert a valid copy of the Windows Server 2012 R2 install disk to the

virtual machine.

ii. Launch a Windows command prompt. Type the command

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:netfx3 /all

/source:d:\sources\sxs

The installation drive letter should be changed to the correct letter for each

system or virtual machine.

c. Install SQL Server 2012 SP1 using the below guide. For more information on SQL Server

2012 SP1 installation, see msdn.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/cc281837(v=sql.110).aspx.

i. Insert/mount the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 installation media to the

appropriate virtual machine using Hyper-V.

ii. Launch setup.exe located on the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 media.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc281837(v=sql.110).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc281837(v=sql.110).aspx


iii. Click Installation on the left pane of the SQL Server Installation Center.

iv. On SQL01, select New SQL Server failover cluster installation. On SQL02 and

SQL03, select Add node to a SQL Server failover cluster. This guide will focus

on adding a node to an existing SQL Server installation.


v. Wait for the Setup Support Rules to complete a system check.

vi. Enter the product key or click evaluation version.


vii. Accept the license terms, and choose whether to send usage data.

viii. Choose whether to install updates.


ix. Wait for setup files to install.

x. After the setup files install, another support rules check will run. Correct any

errors.

xi. Ensure the SQL node is being added to the correct SQL cluster.


xii. Select the proper network.

xiii. Enter the correct accounts in the domain for the SQL services to run under.

Microsoft recommends a separate user account for each service.


xiv. Choose error-reporting options.

xv. Wait for the add node rule check to complete.

xvi. Click Install on the last screen and wait for completion. Complete these steps

to add a SQL node on SQL02 and SQL03.


5. Next, you will install the Virtual Machine Manager.

a. Create another guest cluster – include VMM01 and VMM02. The guide for creating a

cluster in Failover Cluster Manager is in Appendix G.

b. Install the prerequisites for Virtual Machine Manager. A breakdown of system

requirements and prerequisites is available at

technet.microsoft.com/library/dn771747.aspx.

i. Two components from the Windows ADK are necessary for the installation of

Virtual Machine Manager. Both the Deployment Tools and Windows Pre-

installation Environment must be installed. In the below guide for Windows

ADK, the package has been previously downloaded for an offline installation

according to technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn621908.aspx.

ii. Launch the ADK installer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn771747.aspx



iii. Select the default installation directory or change it.

iv. Choose either option for the CEIP.


v. Accept the License Agreement.

vi. Select the both Deployment Tools and the Windows Preinstallation Environment

(Windows PE).


vii. Wait for the install to finish.

viii. Close the installer.

c. Install Virtual Machine Manager.

i. Launch the installer.


ii. Select VMM management server.

iii. Enter all correct registration information.


iv. At the next screen, accept the license agreement.

v. Select either option for the Customer Experience Improvement Program.


vi. Select either option for Microsoft Update.

vii. Select the installation directory. The default directory is correct.


viii. Enter the database information. Enter the SQL cluster name for server name,

the correct SQL credentials (if using Windows authentication, do not check the

box). Select New database.

ix. Create a VMMUser domain account in the Active Directory server. Ensure the

VMMUser account has local administrator rights on both VMM01 and VMM01, and

sysadmin rights on the SQL cluster.

Create a container for distributed key management in the AD DC Server.

Instructions are available at technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/gg697604.aspx.




x. See technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739265(v=ws.10).aspx to ensure

the user is a local administrator.

xi. The default settings for port configuration are correct, proceed to the next

screen.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739265(v=ws.10).aspx


xii. Wait for installation to complete. Once complete, install Virtual Machine

Manager on VMM02. A notification that this installation will be added to a

highly available installation Virtual Machine Manager should appear.

6. Install Operations Manager.

a. On the virtual machine OM01, mount the correct installation media for System Center

Operations Manager 2012 R2.

b. Create the following domain users:

i. OMUser

ii. OMDAUser

iii. OMDRUser

iv. OMDWUser

c. Create a new group – OMAdmins and include all the previously created users, as well as

all domain administrators.

d. On the Virtual Machine OM01, install the following roles and features:

i. Roles

1. Web Server (IIS)

2. Application Server

ii. Features

1. .NET Framework 3.5

2. .NET Framework 4.5

a. HTTP Activation

b. Windows Process activation Service

e. Launch the System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2 installer from the previously

mounted media.


f. Click Install.


g. Depending on the installation, different components of Operations Manager can be

installed on separate virtual machines.

h. Leave the default installation directory, or change if needed.


i. Wait for the prerequisites check to finish. Correct any issues, if necessary.

j. Select Create the first.., and give the Management group name a useful phrase.


k. Accept the license terms.

l. Enter the SQL database information. After providing the SQL database, the rest of the

information should automatically populate.


m. Select Mixed Authentication.

n. Enter in the correct credentials created in previous steps as shown below.


o. Choose options for error reporting and the customer experience improvement program.

p. Verify all settings, and click Install if all settings are appropriate.


q. Monitoring and alerts are important management tools to IT administrators for

diagnosing and resolving issues quickly. System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2

allows IT to configure how performance metrics are gathered, access real time

hardware monitoring, and specify when alerts should be generated. The Dell

Integration Suite for System Center 2012 R2 enhances System Center Operations

Manager 2012 R2 through added monitoring capabilities for Dell hardware, ported from

the Dell OpenManage Administrator software. More information on use of the Dell

Integration Suite for System Center can be found at

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/solutions/dcsm-microsoft-system-center

Each implementation of a private cloud is unique in nature, and the tuning and

configuration of alerts will largely vary depending on the requirements of your

configuration. However, it is recommended to tune your alerts related to the following

statistics on virtual machines deployed in the private cloud solution:

Disk utilization

CPU utilization

Heartbeat (ICMP ping, SNMP, and so on)

Network utilization

Once you have begun monitoring, observe the alerts generated by these and tune

allowable thresholds to prevent excessive alerts and notifications. Beyond these simple

statistics, users can monitor applications using applicable Management Packs for

Operations Manager.

Below is a simple walkthrough of tuning an alert. For more information, see

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh230704.aspx.

i. Launch the Operations Manager Console or Operations Manager Web Console.

Navigate to the Authoring tab on the left-hand menu.


https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh230704.aspx


ii. In the Authoring workspace, select either Rules or Monitors. Both rules and

monitors can generate alerts, but monitors are self-healing.

iii. Select a rule or monitor to edit. Right-clicking or using the right-hand menu on

the rule or monitor brings up a contextual menu. By selecting enable/disable,

or creating an override, the user can easily tune alerts and other configurations

monitors and rules can generate. The procedure is similar for rules.


r. The installation of Operations Manager is complete.

7. Install System Center Service Manager 2012 R2. Service Manager is installed on two parts – on

two separate virtual machines. Use virtual machines SM01 and SM02.

a. Mount the correct installation media using Hyper-V on both SM01 and SM02.

b. Create the following domain users:

i. SMUser

ii. SMWorkflowUser

iii. SMReportingUser

iv. SMAnalysisUser

v. SMPortalUser

c. Create the following domain user groups, including all the previously created users as

well as all domain administrators.

i. SMAdmins

ii. SMDWAdmins

d. Install the following prerequisites on both SM01 and SM02:

i. .NET Framework 3.5

ii. SQL Server Analysis Management Objects – Available for download at

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065

e. Start the installer for System Center Service Manager 2012 R2 on the virtual machine

SM01, and click Service Manager Management server.



f. Enter all registration information, and click Next.

g. Leave the installation directory at its default, or change if needed.


h. Wait for the prerequisites check to complete, and correct any issues if necessary.

i. Enter the correct database information. Once the database server has been entered,

all the remaining fields should auto-populate.


j. Provide the SMAdmins domain group for the management group administrators, and use

a useful phrase for the management group name.

k. For the Service Manager Services page, select domain account, and enter the

credentials for the previously created SMUser. Test the credentials.


l. On the Service Manager Workflow account page, enter the previously created

SMWorkflowUser domain account and test the credentials.

m. Choose an option for the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement program, and

select next.


n. Verify all settings and configuration is correct and select Install.

o. After the Service Manager Management server completes installation, start the installer

on the virtual machine SM02, and select Service Manger data warehouse management

server.


p. Enter all applicable registration information.

q. Leave the default installation directory, or change if needed.


r. Wait for the prerequisite check to complete, and correct any issues if necessary.

s. Enter in the SQL database information. The fields should auto-complete if the SQL

server information is correct.


t. Provide a useful Management group name, and enter the previously created domain

group SMDWAdmins for the Management group administrators.

u. Enter the information for the reporting server. If the information is correct, the data

fields should autocomplete, and a notification that the URL is valid will appear.


v. Enter the domain account SMUser for the Service Manager services, and test the

credentials.

w. Enter the previously created SMReportingUser domain account.


x. Enter the SQL server information that has Analysis Services installed. If correct, the

fields should auto-complete.

y. Verify all settings and configuration is correct, and select Install.


z. Installation of Service Manager Management server and Service Manager Data

warehouse server is complete.

8. Install System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2. This will be installed on the virtual machine

ORC01.

a. Mount the installation media to the virtual machine using Hyper-V Manager.

b. Create the domain account ORUser.

c. Install the following prerequisites:


ii. Report Viewer 2012 Redistributable. This available at www.microsoft.com/en-

us/download/details.aspx?id=35747

d. Start the setup for Orchestrator.




e. Enter all applicable registration information.

f. Accept the license terms.


g. Ensure all checkboxes are selected to install all components of Orchestrator.

h. Wait for the prerequisites check to complete. If any issues arise, fix as necessary. The

Installer will automatically install the needed Windows Server roles like IIS and .NET

features.


i. Wait for all prerequisites to finish installing. Enter the previously created ORUser

domain account, and test the credentials.

j. Enter the SQL database information. Use Windows authentication. Test the database

connection.


k. Choose to create a new database, and leave the default name for the database.

l. Leave all default options on the next page, and select next.


m. Leave the default port settings intact, and click next.

n. The default installation directory is acceptable, change if the needed.


o. Verify all settings and configuration, and click install.

Orchestrator is now installed.

9. Install Microsoft System Center App Controller 2012 R2. This will be installed on the virtual

machine AC01.

a. Mount the correct installation media for App Controller using Hyper-V Manager.

b. Mount the installation media for Virtual Machine Manager using Hyper-V Manager.

c. Create the domain user ACUser.

d. Install the following prerequisites:

i. Virtual Machine Manager Console (from the Virtual Machine Manager

installation media)


e. Start the installer from the App Controller media.

f. Accept the license agreement.


g. Let the installer install any prerequisites by selecting Install.

h. Leave the default installation path unless it needs to be different.


i. Provide the previously created domain account by selecting the Domain account radio

button and entering the correct credentials. Leave the port at its default setting.

j. Select the IP address of the virtual machine AC01, and leave the port at the default

setting. Select the radio button to generate a self-signed certificate.


k. Enter the SQL database information. Once the server name is given, the instance name

should autocomplete. Leave the port field blank.

l. Verify all settings and configuration, and click Install.

m. App Controller 2012 R2 is installed.


10. Azure Pack Installation

a. The Windows Azure Pack is a no cost add-on that integrates with System Center

components and must be installed on a separate VM. The Azure Pack allows for the use

of a web-based portal for users to create and manage virtual machines on the private

cloud solution. For more information on the Windows Azure Pack, see

www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-the cloud/products/windows-azure-pack/. The

Windows Azure Pack will be installed on the virtual machine AZURE01.

b. Download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 4.6. The installer can be downloaded

from https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9737537.

c. Install the following prerequisites.


ii. .NET 4.5 Extended

iii. ASP.NET

iv. Web Server (IIS)

d. Launch the WPI. Select Products, and select Add for the product Windows Azure Pack:

Portal and API Express

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-the%20cloud/products/windows-azure-pack/

https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9737537


e. Accept to install other Azure Pack prerequisites.

f. Choose an option for Microsoft Update.

g. Wait for the Azure Pack to install.


h. Select Continue to perform Azure configuration.

i. Click Finish to close the Azure installer.


j. The Azure Web portal should have auto-launched. Provide the correct SQL database

and credentials. This reference architecture uses Windows Authentication. Provide a

configuration store key. It must contain at least one non-alphanumeric character.

k. Choose an option for the CEIP.


l. Continue and wait for the features to be configured. Select the check when complete.

m. After the configuration is complete, sign out of the virtual machine AZURE01, and sign

back in with the same domain credentials as before. Check if the installation was

successful by navigating to https://azure01:30091. The portal should start with a

guided tour. For more information on the Windows Azure Pack, see

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn296432.aspx

n. To change the method the Azure Pack uses for authentication, see

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn296436.aspx. This guide leads the user

to change both the default Windows Authentication for the admin portal and the

default ASP.NET authentication for the tenant portal to a more robust method using

Active Directory Federation Services.

i. For Active Directory Federation Services and the Azure Pack to function

correctly, PowerShell configuration scripts and cmdlets must be used on both

the machine with the ADFS role installed and the machine that hosts the Azure

Pack. Ensure that access to both machines is available.

ii. The Azure Pack requires the ADFS role to be installed on a server that runs

Windows Server 2012 R2. The Domain Controller must be at a level of Windows

Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows

Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2. If the

certificate is mapped to a user’s account, the Domain Controller must be at a

functional level greater or equal to Windows Server 2008. For more information

on ADFS requirements, see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/ff678034.

5. Install the Dell OpenManage Integration Suite for System Center 2012 R2. The Dell OpenManage

Integration Suite helps to automate many monitoring processes to make administration easier. The

https://azure01:30091/


https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn296436.aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678034.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678034.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396


Dell OM Integration Suite can monitor hardware states and allow for easier deployment of bare-

metal hardware.

a. Download all parts of the integration suite from

www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/solutions/dcsm-microsoft-system-center.

b. Ensure System Center Virtual Machine Manager and System Center Operations Manager

have been connected. The following prerequisite management packs in Operations

Manager must be installed for the connection to Virtual Machine Manager to succeed.

iii. Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003

iv. Windows Server 2008 Operating System (Discovery)

v. Windows Server Operating System Library

vi. Windows Server 2008 Internet Information Services 7

vii. Windows Server Internet Information Services Library

viii. SQL Server Core Library

For more information on connecting VMM and OM, see

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh882396.aspx.

c. The Dell Server PRO Management Pack Version 4.0 for VMM works with System Center

Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager. An installation guide is available at

topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-srvr-pro-mgmt-pck-4.0-for-ms-center-virt-machine-

mangr_Setup%20Guide_en-us.pdf.

i. Import the Management packs into Operations Manager as described in the Dell

installation guide.

ii. Turn monitoring on or off for Dell-specific hardware features using System

Center Operations Manager’s Authoring Console. This is outlined in the above

Dell installation Guide. Here, certain hardware conditions can allow smarter

failover conditions – for instance – if fans fail on one of the Hyper-V hosts,

Virtual Machine Manager can automatically begin to failover virtual machines to

the remaining healthy hosts.

d. The Dell Server Management Pack Suite Version 6.0 for MS SC Operations Manager can

be installed via the installer downloaded previously.



http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-srvr-pro-mgmt-pck-4.0-for-ms-center-virt-machine-mangr_Setup%20Guide_en-us.pdf

http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-srvr-pro-mgmt-pck-4.0-for-ms-center-virt-machine-mangr_Setup%20Guide_en-us.pdf


i. Launch the installer and continue to the next page.

ii. Accept the license agreement.


iii. Provide an installation directory.

iv. Provide domain credentials, if necessary.


v. Select Install

vi. Refresh the Operations Manager Console to ensure the Management packs are

installed.


Private cloud validation

All components of System Center 2012 R2 have been configured and integrated with one another to

provide a versatile, highly automated, and highly available private cloud solution. The Microsoft Azure

Pack provides multiple tenants with portals for configuring resources like SQL servers and virtual

machines. System Center 2012 R2 on Dell rack servers provides users with the Microsoft Private Cloud

for use within their enterprise, or as a solution provider.

All requirements for Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4 have been met by this reference

architecture, including Live Migration capability and failover capability in the case of network,

hardware, or power failures.

However, customer environments are always unique, so we advise thorough testing of your private

cloud infrastructure.

Implementation of the private cloud infrastructure is only the beginning. To maximize the benefit of

your Dell Microsoft private cloud, it is essential that you expand your architecture to include

implementing automation, business workflows, self-service and IT simplification strategies. This will

help you fully utilize your resources, speed your time to deploying application and provide the agility

your business users and customers are expecting in today’s on-demand world.

In addition to helping you plan and deploy your private cloud, your Dell team can help you explore

areas of simplification and automation within your organization if you are not sure where to begin.

Conclusion

Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track v4 requirements ensure a cloud environment where IT admins and

users have access to a standardized, reliable cloud solution using the latest Microsoft offerings.

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 provides IT professionals with tools that simplify administration and

monitoring, and help ensure optimal SLA compliance.Cloud management is critical, and Dell

OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 integrates tightly with MS SCCM,

SCOM, VMM, embeds hardware-monitoring features and performance metrics and allows administrators

to manage Dell servers, storage and networking within System Center so you have a single place to

manage cloud infrastructure & processes. . Built on Dell’s flexible, modular portfolio of servers,

storage, and networking, this solution provides enterprises with a proven platform creating the

foundation for a quickly deployable, broadly scalable, and easy-to-manage private cloud solution.


Appendix A – References

Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track

www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/private-cloud-fast-track.aspx

Fast Track Program Overview White Paper

download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/D/89DAD1CB-140C-4FB9-97DF-

E8295AFFD66E/Microsoft_Private_Cloud_Fast_Track_Reference_Architecture_Program.pdf

Tenant VM Capacity Estimation

Oversubscription of memory is not recommended. Each Dell PowerEdge R630 is configured with 384 GB

of RAM. The System Center 2012 R2 management infrastructure deployment in this reference

architecture uses 15 total virtual machines, consuming approximately 150 GB of total RAM. Assuming

16GB RAM per VM, the host cluster could also support an additional 57 16GB tenant VMs distributed

across the cluster. Assuming 8 GB per VM, the host cluster could support up to 130 VMs. With 4 GB per

VM, this limit further increases to approximately 250 VMs.

Correct CPU subscription rates are crucial to ensuring efficient utilization of host servers to maximize

performance and minimize wasted CPU capacity. For example, in VDI infrastructure, VMs are

subscribed at rates up to 10 vCPUs/logical core2. For this reference architecture, oversubscription rates

of five vCPUs/logical core can help ensure maximal CPU resource utilization while providing good

performance, with ample headroom for peaks in VM usage. Our test configuration provides 72 cores

between three Dell PowerEdge R630 Hyper-V host servers with dual 12-core Intel Xeon processors E5-

2690 v3. Thus, VMs can potentially utilize from 720 to 1,440 vCPUs. At four vCPUs per tenant VM (in

this reference architecture, System Center uses approximately 80 vCPUs), the setup has capacity for

160 to 340 tenant VMs.

Thus, estimations of VM capacity for this hardware configuration indicate supporting up to 57 memory-

intensive tenant VMs, or up to 160 compute-intensive tenant VMs. The number of VMs your production

environment can support might vary depending on your workload requirements.

Dell Support

For more information on how Dell can assist you with your private cloud computing needs, please see

the links below.

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/dell-cloud-computing-build-private-cloud

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/dell-cloud-computing

2 For more information on CPU subscription rates in VDI infrastructure, see the Microsoft publication Windows Server 2012 Capacity Planning for VDI White Paper, available at download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/B/24B5EC7D-1D03-49A2-B792-C7EDF24549EE/Windows_Server_2012_Capacity_Planning_for_VDI_White_Paper.pdf. The white paper studies similar Dell servers and processor counts as used in this reference architecture.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/private-cloud-fast-track.aspx

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/D/89DAD1CB-140C-4FB9-97DF-E8295AFFD66E/Microsoft_Private_Cloud_Fast_Track_Reference_Architecture_Program.pdf

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/D/89DAD1CB-140C-4FB9-97DF-E8295AFFD66E/Microsoft_Private_Cloud_Fast_Track_Reference_Architecture_Program.pdf

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/dell-cloud-computing-build-private-cloud

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/dell-cloud-computing

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/B/24B5EC7D-1D03-49A2-B792-C7EDF24549EE/Windows_Server_2012_Capacity_Planning_for_VDI_White_Paper.pdf

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/B/24B5EC7D-1D03-49A2-B792-C7EDF24549EE/Windows_Server_2012_Capacity_Planning_for_VDI_White_Paper.pdf


Appendix B – Bill of Materials

Bill of materials as configured Table 6.

Description Quantity

Rack configuration

Dell Rack 1

Rack-mounted PDU 2

Dell power cord 3m 20

Dell QSFP+ cable 2

Dell SFP+ cable 14

Dell mini-SAS HD cable 12

Compute configuration

Dell PowerEdge R630 3

Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 CPU 6

16GB Samsung M393A2G40DB0-CPB DDR4 RAM 72

Dell (Seagate ST1200MM0007) 1.2TB 10K SAS HDD 6

PERC H730P RAID Controller 3

Broadcom 57810 10GbE & Broadcom 5720 1GbE NDC

3

Dell Hot-Plug 750W PSU 6

SOFS node configuration

DSMS* R730 2

Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 CPU 4

16GB Samsung M393A2G40DB0-CPB DDR4 RAM 6

Dell (ST300MM0006) 300GB SAS 10K HDD 4

PERC H330 RAID Controller 2

Dell 12Gbps SAS HBA 6

Intel X520 10GbE & I350 1GbE NDC 2

Intel X520 10GbE Dual Port NIC 2

Dell Hot-Plug 750W PSU 4

Network configuration

Dell Networking N4032F 2

Dell 40G QSFP+ Module 2

Storage configuration

DSMS* MD1400 3

Dell (Seagate ST4000NM0023) 4TB SAS 7.2K HDD 27

Dell (Toshiba PX03SNF080) 800GB SAS SSD 9

Software configuration

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 2

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter 3

Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 (UR5) 1

Microsoft Azure Pack (UR5) 1

Dell OpenManage Integration Suite for System Center 2012 R2

1

*Using Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS) specific SKUs


Appendix C – Configuring the Dell PERC

1. To configure the Dell PERC RAID Controller, you can use either the PowerEdge Expandable RAID

Controller BIOS or the Dell System Setup. In this guide, we use the Dell System Setup. At boot,

press F2 to launch into the Dell System Setup.

2. Select Device Settings at the Dell System Setup Main menu.


3. Select the Dell PERC Configuration Utility.

4. Select Configuration Management on the RAID Configuration Utility screen.


5. On the PERC Configuration Management screen, ensure all foreign configurations and other

configurations are cleared from the PERC. Next, click Create Virtual Disk.

6. On the Create Virtual Disk menu, select the RAID level. For this application, a minimum of RAID 1 is

required for redundancy. This applies to both the Hyper-V hosts and the File Server Hosts. Next,

select the option Select Physical Disks, and choose the physical disks that should be in the RAID.

a.


7. Leave all RAID options at their default settings, except to set the Default Initialization to Fast.

8. Once all the disks and options are correctly selected, click Create Virtual Disk to begin the process.

BIOS configuration steps

1. To configure the Dell PowerEdge R630 BIOS, press F2 during boot.


2. After the Dell System Setup menu appears, click System BIOS.

3. Continue by selecting Processor Settings.


4. Under Processor Settings, ensure that Virtualization Technology is enabled.

5. Click Back, then Finish to commit the changes.


Appendix D – Installing Windows Server 2012 R2

1. Insert the installation media into an available USB port, and restart the server.

2. When the option appears, press F11 to enter the Boot Manager.

3. Select BIOS Boot Menu.

4. Select USB Removable Drive, and press Enter.

5. Press any key when prompted to by the Windows Installer.

6. When the installation screen appears, click My language is English (United States).

7. Leave language, time/currency format, and input method as default, and click Next.

8. Click Install now.

9. When the installation prompts you, enter the product key.

10. Select Windows Server 2012 Datacenter (Server with a GUI), and click Next.

11. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.

12. Click Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

13. Select Drive 0 Unallocated Space, and click Next, at which point Windows begins automatically,

and restarts automatically after completing.

14. When the Settings page appears, fill in the Password and Reenter Password fields with the

same password.

15. Log in with the password you set up previously.


Appendix E - Configuring switch stacking on the Dell Networking

N4032F

To connect to the Dell Networking N4032F using the CLI, either a direct connection to the console port

or a SSH/Telnet client can be used if the switch has been set up with an IP address on the OOB

management port. Here, we assume all configuration has been erased from the switch. Instructions on

how to clear all configuration are available in the Dell User’s Configuration Guide for N4000 series

switches available at www.dell.com/support.

First, ensure nothing is connected to the switch. No power, SFP+ cables, or RJ-45 cables should be

connected. To connect to the console port, use a DB-9 to RJ-45 cable to connect to the machine you

would like to manage the switch from. If the management machine lacks a DB-9 serial port, a USB to

DB-9 serial cable can be utilized. The out-of-band management RJ-45 interface is located on the rear

of the switch.

After connecting the console cable to both the management computer and the switch you would like to

be the Master Dell Networking N4032F, use a terminal emulator like Microsoft HyperTerminal, Putty, or

Screen on OSX. Configure the serial port as follows:

Data rate — 9600 baud.

Data format — 8 data bits

Parity — None

Stop bits — 1

Flow control — None

Once the terminal emulator and serial connection have been connected and configured, connect the

Dell Networking N4032F switch to power. Upon powering up, the user should see the boot up sequence,

and either a console> prompt or the Dell Easy Setup Wizard if there is no configuration available. In

this setup, we used the Dell Easy Setup Wizard to configure a user and the OOB management interface.

The Dell Easy Setup Wizard is as follows:

Welcome to Dell Easy Setup Wizard

The setup wizard guides you through the initial switch configuration, and

gets you up and running as quickly as possible. You can skip the setup

wizard, and enter CLI mode to manually configure the switch. You must respond

to the next question to run the setup wizard within 60 seconds, otherwise the

system will continue with normal operation using the default system

configuration. Note: You can exit the setup wizard at any point by entering

[ctrl+z].

Would you like to run the setup wizard (you must answer this question within

60 seconds)? (y/n)

Step 1:

The system is not setup for SNMP management by default. To manage the switch

using SNMP (required for Dell Network Manager) you can



setup the initial SNMP version 2 account now.

return later and setup other SNMP accounts. (For more information on

setting up an SNMP version 1 or 3 account, see the user documentation).

Would you like to setup the SNMP management interface now? (y/n)

Step 2:

Now we need to setup your initial privilege (Level 15) user account. This

account is used to login to the CLI and Web interface. You may setup other

accounts and change privilege levels later. For more information on setting

up user accounts and changing privilege levels, see the user documentation.

To setup a user account:

Please enter the user name. [admin]:

Step 3:

Next, IP addresses are setup on the OOB (Out-Of-Band) Interface and/or the

VLAN1 routing interface. You can use these IP addresses to access the CLI,

Web interface, or SNMP interface of the switch. To access the switch through

any management interface you can

setup the IP address for the management interface.

Setup the default gateway if IP address is manually configured on both

routing and OOB interface.

Would you like to setup the Out-Of-Band interface now? [Y/N]

Step 4:

Would you like to setup the VLAN1 routing interface now? [Y/N]

This is the configuration information that has been collected:

User Account setup = *****

Password = ********

Out-of-band IP address = DHCP

VLAN1 Router Interface IP = ***********

Final Step:

If the information is correct, please enter (y) to save the configuration.

If the information is incorrect, enter (n) to discard the configuration and

restart the wizard: (y/n)

Thank you for using the Dell Easy Setup Wizard. You will now enter CLI mode.


Applying Interface configuration, please wait ...

console>

Upon completion of the Dell Easy Setup Wizard on the #1 Dell Networking N4032F, the firmware version

was checked and upgraded as necessary. The most recent firmware is available at

www.dell.com/support. Installation instructions are downloaded with the firmware revision. The

firmware revision used in this guide is 6.1.2.4, released November 14th, 2014.

If the user chooses to connect the OOB management Ethernet to a management network, the switch

can act as a DHCP client and receive an IP address for use by Telnet, SSH, or the Web-based Dell

OpenManage GUI.

To configure the ports needed for stacking, the CLI commands used are as follows. In this guide, we

used the ports 21, 22, 23, and 24 for stacking on each of the switches. This must be done separately on

both switches before they are ever connected to one another. Any ports can be configured to be

stacking ports.

console>

console>enable

console#

console#configure

console(config)#

console(config)#stack

console(config-stack)#

From here, interfaces can be switched to stack mode by using the command

stack-port <interface type> <interface> stack

For example,

stack-port fortygigabitethernet 1/1/1 stack

After all the ports to be used for stacking are set to stack mode, verification can be achieved by using

the command

show switch stack-ports

This will display a table showing all the ports and their configuration for stacking.

Next, save the running config.

copy running-config startup-config

Perform this procedure for all the switches in the stack (the stack in this guide only uses two N4032F

switches). Once the configuration has been saved on all the switches, remove the power from all the


switches. Next, use the 10GbE SFP+ cables to connect the configured stack ports on both switches to

each other.

Next, power up the switch designated as the Master switch. Wait approximately two minutes for the

switch to boot up, and verify by checking the console connection. Then power up the member(s) in the

stack, waiting 30 seconds between each power up.

Verify the switch stack by logging onto the master switch using the console connection or telnet and

running the below command.

console#show switch

Management Standby Preconfig Plugged-in Switch Code

SW Status Status Model ID Model ID Status Version

--- ---------- --------- ------------- ------------- ------------- -------

1 Mgmt Sw N4032F N4032F OK 6.1.2.4

2 Stack Mbr Oper Stby N4032F N4032F OK 6.1.2.4

console#


Appendix F – Installing the Failover Clustering Feature in MS WS

2012 R2

To create a failover cluster in Windows Server 2012 R2, the clustered machines must be joined to a

domain, and logged into with domain credentials that have the correct permissions. In this appendix,

the machines being clustered have already been joined to the domain, set up with NIC teaming, and

named appropriately.

1. Install the Failover Feature using Server Manager on one of the machines to be clustered. Start the

Add Roles and Features Wizard by selecting Manage or Add roles and features.


2. Select Next on the Before You Begin screen.

3. For the Installation Type, select Role-based or feature-based installation.


4. For the Server Selection, ensure the local server is selected.


5. For Server Roles, do not check any roles and select Next.

6. For Features, check the box for Failover Clustering.


7. When a dialog prompts to add management features, select Add Features.

8. On the following confirmation screen, select Install. A restart may be necessary.

9. Perform this action on every server that will be placed into a failover cluster.


Appendix G - Creating a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2012

R2

Once the Failover Clustering feature is installed on each node in the planned cluster, the cluster can be

created using the Failover Cluster Manager in Windows Server 2012 R2. Since the nodes are added to

the domain, the Failover Cluster Manager can easily find other eligible nodes to add to the cluster. The

GUI method is described below; the same results can be achieved using PowerShell commands. You

will be creating two separate Failover Clusters – one for the three R630 compute servers, and a second

cluster for the two R730 SOFS nodes.

1. First, ensure that the system being used to create the cluster (usually one of the nodes to be in the

cluster, or another machine in the domain) is logged in using the appropriate domain credentials.

Launch the Failover Cluster Manager.


2. Select Create Cluster on the right side Actions menu.

3. Select Next to continue following the wizard.


4. Select Browse… to bring up the Select Computers dialog.

5. Here, enter the names of the nodes to be added to the cluster, and select Check Names, or, select

Advanced and search for the nodes to be added from any computer added to the domain. Select OK

when finished.


6. After the Select Computers dialog closes, the Selected servers field should contain the previously

chosen computers. Select Next to proceed.

7. Give the cluster a unique name to identify and manage the cluster.

8. Ensure that the check box next to Add all eligible storage to the cluster is not checked. Storage

Spaces will be configured after setting up the cluster. Continue by selecting Next.


Appendix H – NIC teaming

NIC teaming, or LBFO (Load Balancing/Failover) is normally used for two purposes: bandwidth

aggregation and failover capability. Extensive use of Microsoft guides for NIC teaming were used to

create this guide. The User Guide for NIC Teaming (LBFO) produced by Microsoft is available at

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40319. This aforementioned guide breaks down

the different settings used for NIC teaming, and provided recommended settings for sharing to Hyper-V

hosts and allowing the capability for virtual machine traffic.

1. To set up NIC teaming, launch Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 R2.

2. Next, select “Local Server” from the left-side menu.



3. Select NIC Teaming Disabled.

4. Select the two NICs to be teamed, right click and select Add to New Team.

5. A NIC Teaming dialog will appear, give the team an appropriate name and expand the Additional

properties drop-down menu.


6. In the Additional properties expanded menu, select the below options: LACP, or Link Aggregation

Control Protocol, and Load balancing mode Dynamic. The Dynamic mode was introduced with

Windows Server 2012 R2, and Microsoft reports better performance than the other, older options in

nearly all scenarios. The Link Aggregation Control Protocol enables dynamic LAG (Link Aggregation

Group) which has better handling of failed links and makes configuration of LAGs easier and less

prone to error, as the group will not form if the LACP configuration fails.


Appendix I – Alternative configurations available using Dell

Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces

The storage configuration used to create the Scale-Out File Server in this solution was a Dell

Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS) 2x3 using two R730 storage nodes and three Dell

Storage MD1400 storage enclosures. As some customers may have varying degrees of requirements

for storage performance and usable capacity, there are a variety of Storage Spaces configurations

that Dell supports. DSMS lets you configure your solutions for levels of performance, capacity, and

availability as needed and Dell provides sizing guidance and a full range of solution support

offerings. The DSMS solutions are available in several options: 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 3x3, and 4x4 using

both R630 or R730 storage nodes and MD1400, MD1420, or MD3060e storage enclosures.

For more information on Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces configurations visit

dell.com/dsmsmanuals or contact your Dell sales representative for more information.

The table below is a reference providing an overview of the Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage

Spaces alternative supported configurations with a list of the usable capacity available with two-

way mirroring.

Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces Configurations Table 7.

Solution name Storage nodes Storage enclosures Usable capacity (two-way mirroring)

DSMS 2x2 R630 with MD3060e 2 x DSMS* R630 2 x DSMS* MD3060e Up to 328TB


DSMS 2x2 R730 with MD1400 2 x DSMS* R730 2 x DSMS* MD1400 Up to 61TB















*Using Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS) specific SKUs

http://www.dell.com/dsmsmanuals

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