Deploy Hyper-V with Azure StorSimple

8000 Series

Version: 1.0

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Contents

Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Deploy the StorSimple device ............................................................................................................................................................ 6

Install and configure the device .................................................................................................................................................... 6

To create an Azure storage account ...................................................................................................................................... 6

To set up the cabling for your StorSimple device .............................................................................................................. 6

To set up your StorSimple device ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Step 6: To create volumes ......................................................................................................................................................... 8

Deploy Hyper-V host ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Set up network interfaces .............................................................................................................................................................. 11

To set up network interfaces ................................................................................................................................................... 11

To turn off cluster communication on the iSCSI network .............................................................................................. 12

Set up MPIO...................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Set up cluster shared volumes .................................................................................................................................................... 12

To mount volumes ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12

To add a disk to a CSV ............................................................................................................................................................. 13

To add a disk to the Available Storage group .................................................................................................................. 13

Set the CSV cache for read-intensive workloads ................................................................................................................... 14

To set the CSV cache ................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Hyper-V storage QoS .................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Key benefits .................................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Create a highly available virtual machine ................................................................................................................................ 15

Options for formatting VHDs ................................................................................................................................................. 15

Options for provisioning VHDs .............................................................................................................................................. 15

Set antivirus software ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Set indexing services for sources and virtual machine libraries ........................................................................................ 17

Deploy System Center Virtual Machine Manager libraries on StorSimple volumes ........................................................ 18

Back up virtual machines.................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Appendix A: References .....................................................................................................................................................................20

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Summary

This document describes how to deploy Hyper-V clustered environments by using Microsoft Azure StorSimple

locally pinned volumes, introduced with StorSimple 8000 Series Update 2.0.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

A Microsoft account

An Azure storage account

StorSimple Manager service activated on your Azure account, and purchased through an

Enterprise Agreement

Access to terminal emulation software, like PuTTY, on a single host that is connected to the

device

Windows Server 2012 R2 with latest updates installed on your Hyper-V hosts

Multipath input/output (MPIO) deployed to your Hyper-V hosts

Deploy the StorSimple device

Install and configure the device

To create an Azure storage account

In the StorSimple environment, your Azure storage account acts as a front-end file server. You’ll find a step-by-

step guide on how to create an Azure storage account, and other Azure documentation, on the Azure website.

To set up the cabling for your StorSimple device

To successfully use StorSimple’s built-in failover capabilities, it’s critical to properly set up the cabling on your

StorSimple device. We’ve included this diagram to help you learn about the ports on a StorSimple device:

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This table lists port details to help you connect your StorSimple device:

LABEL DESCRIPTION

A LAN with Internet access

B Controller 0

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LABEL DESCRIPTION

C PCM 0

D Controller 1

E PCM 1

F EBOD controller 0

G EBOD controller 1

H, I Hyper-V hosts

0-5 Network interfaces

6 Primary enclosure

7 EBOD enclosure

To set up your StorSimple device

First, follow steps 1 through 5 on the Azure website to deploy your on-premises StorSimple device.

Then, continue here with step 6.

Step 6: To create volumes

1. On the Devices page, select your device, and then choose the Volume Containers tab.

2. Select a volume container, and then choose the arrow in the corresponding row to access the volumes

associated with the container.

3. Choose Add.

4. In the Add A Volume wizard, choose Local Volume.

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5. Under Basic Settings, follow these steps:

a. Enter a Name for your volume.

b. Select the Provisioned Capacity for your volume, in GB or TB.

c. In the Usage Type drop-down list box, select the usage type for your volume. Choose Local

Volume type for volumes that will contain virtual machines. For other data stores, like the

virtual machine library and templates location, choose the Tiered Volume type.

d. To go to the Additional Settings page, choose the icon.

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6. Under Additional Settings, add a new access control record (ACR).

a. In the drop-down list, select an ACR. Or, you can add a new ACR. ACRs determine which hosts

can access your volumes by matching the host Internet Small Computer System Interface

(iSCSI) qualified name (IQN) with the IQN in the record.

b. It’s a good idea to check the Enable a default backup for this volume box to set up a

default backup.

c. To create the volume with the settings you’ve selected, choose the button.

Your new volume is now ready to use.

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Deploy Hyper-V host

You can configure and deploy a simple two-node failover cluster and a clustered Hyper-V virtual machine. For

complete, detailed steps and prerequisites to deploy Hyper-V clusters, see Deploy a Hyper-V cluster.

Set up network interfaces

To set up network interfaces

1. Be sure that your network interface cards (NICs) have the latest firmware. This helps resolve known

hardware issues.

2. Be sure that the host has the latest NIC drivers. This helps resolve known issues and might help increase

performance.

3. Your NICs should not use Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA). APIPA can’t be routed, and it’s not

registered in the DNS.

4. Turn on Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) on VMQ-capable physical network adapters.

We recommend that you have five networks, configured for clustering like this:

Name Host

management

Virtual

machine

network

access

Cluster shared

volumes/Heartbeat

Live

Migration

iSCSI

Teaming Enabled Enabled Optional Enabled Disabled

MPIO

handles

redundancy

Number of

interfaces per

traffic profile

2 2 1 or 2 2 2

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To turn off cluster communication on the iSCSI network

In Failover Cluster Manager, under Networks, make sure that the iSCSI network properties are set to Do

not allow cluster network communication on this network. This setting prevents internal cluster

communications and CSV traffic from flowing over the same network.

We strongly encourage redundant network paths (multiple switches), especially for your Live Migration and

iSCSI network. Redundant network paths help improve resiliency and Quality of Service (QoS).

Set up MPIO

A crucial part of setting up your storage is how you choose to use MPIO. Learn how to use best practices when

you configure MPIO for your StorSimple device.

Set up cluster shared volumes

To mount volumes

1. On your host computer, start Microsoft iSCSI Initiator.

2. Enter one of the interface IP addresses as the target portal or discovery IP address, and then connect to

the device. When the device is connected, the volumes are available to your Windows system. Learn

more about using Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the “Connecting to an iSCSI target device” section in Install

and configure Microsoft iSCSI Initiator.

3. Use any of the following options to start the Disk Management snap-in.

In the Run box, type Diskmgmt.msc.

In Server Manager, expand the Storage node, and then choose Disk Management.

In Administrative Tools, expand the Computer Management node, and then choose Disk

Management.

4. Take the volumes online.

a. In Disk Management, right-click any volume that is set to Offline.

b. Choose Reactivate Disk. The disk should be set to Online after you’ve reactivated the disk.

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5. Initialize the volume(s).

a. Right-click the discovered volumes.

b. On the menu, choose Initialize Disk.

c. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the disks that you want to initialize, and then choose OK.

6. Format simple volumes.

a. Right-click a volume that you want to format.

b. On the menu, choose New Simple Volume.

c. In the New Simple Volume wizard, format the volume.

1) Specify the volume size.

2) Enter a drive letter.

3) Select the NTFS file system.

4) Specify a 64-KB allocation unit size.

5) Do a quick format.

To add a disk to a CSV

To add a disk to a CSV, first you must add a disk to the Available Storage group of the cluster (if it hasn’t

already been added). Then, you add the disk to a CSV on the cluster. You can use Failover Cluster Manager or

the Failover Clusters Windows PowerShell cmdlets to do this.

To add a disk to the Available Storage group

1. In Failover Cluster Manager, in the list of clusters, expand the name of the cluster, and then

expand Storage.

2. Right-click Disks, and then choose Add Disk. A list shows the disks that you can add to use in a failover

cluster.

3. Select the disks you want to add, and then choose OK.

The disks are now assigned to the Available Storage group.

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Set the CSV cache for read-intensive workloads

The CSV cache allocates system memory (in RAM) as a write-through cache for caching at the block level of

read-only unbuffered input/output (I/O) operations. (The cache manager doesn’t cache unbuffered I/O

operations.) This helps improve performance for applications like Hyper-V, which conducts unbuffered I/O

operations when it accesses a virtual hard drive (VHD). The CSV cache might boost the performance of read

requests without caching write requests. It’s also useful to turn on the CSV cache for Scale-Out File Server

scenarios.

To set the CSV cache

1. Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator.

2. To set a 512-MB cache on each node, enter this command:

(Get-Cluster).BlockCacheSize = 512

You can set the optimal cache size for your environment, Hyper-V design, and amount of memory on your

servers.

Hyper-V storage QoS

It’s a good idea to turn on storage QoS for Hyper-V so that each virtual machine handles its workload

requirements. QoS helps you make sure that no single virtual machine storms the storage with I/Os or affects

another virtual machine’s workload performance.

Key benefits

With storage QoS, you can specify a value for maximum I/O operations per second (IOPS) for your VHD. An

administrator can throttle storage I/O to stop a tenant from consuming excessive storage resources that might

affect another tenant.

An administrator also can set a minimum IOPS value. The administrator is notified when the IOPS for a specified

VHD is below a threshold that the VHD needs for optimal performance.

The virtual machine metrics infrastructure also is updated with storage-related parameters so that the

administrator can monitor performance and chargeback-related parameters.

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Maximum and minimum values are specified in terms of normalized IOPS where every 8 K of data is counted as

an I/O.

For notification features and QoS configuration, learn more about storage QoS for Hyper-V.

Create a highly available virtual machine

To set up a highly available virtual machine, see step 7 in Deploy a Hyper-V cluster.

Options for formatting VHDs

You can create Hyper-V virtual machine disks by using two different formats: VHD and VHDX. You can use both

formats with StorSimple volumes, but we recommend that you use VHDX format when the operating system

version is Windows 8 or later versions. VHDX has a much larger storage capacity than the older VHD format. It

also helps protect against data corruption during power failures, and it optimizes the structural alignments of

Dynamic and differencing disks to prevent performance degradation on new, large-sector physical disks.

Options for provisioning VHDs

You can set up Hyper-V VHD disks as Fixed or Dynamic. You can use both types with StorSimple volumes, but

we recommend and support the disk type that’s recommended from the VM workload side.

If you use Dynamic disks, plan to set monitoring thresholds on the volume CSV level for space overrun. It’s a

good idea to train administrators on what to do for a space overrun.

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Set antivirus software

If antivirus software is installed and running on a Hyper-V host, you need to set several exclusions and options

for the optimal operation of Hyper-V and running virtual machines. These settings help you avoid issues like

those that are described in the Knowledge Base article Recommended antivirus exclusions for Hyper-V hosts.

Note:

If you’re using antivirus software on the System Center Virtual Machine Manager server, you must turn off

scanning on StorSimple tiered volumes. Antivirus scanning might affect the auto tiering functionality with Azure

cloud services.

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Set indexing services for sources and virtual

machine libraries

Because you’ll use tiered volumes for sources and virtual machine libraries, you must disable indexing services

for these volumes. When indexing services are turned off, they won’t affect the auto tiering functionality with

Azure cloud services.

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Deploy System Center Virtual Machine Manager

libraries on StorSimple volumes

You can deploy System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) library shares on StorSimple tiered volumes so

that you can use their deduplication and compression capabilities. It’s important to carefully plan for VMM

libraries tiered volumes capacity to keep the frequently used templates and sources locally accessible. If you

need higher performance for local VMM library files, you can use locally pinned volumes, but then you won’t be

able to use deduplication and compression.

For detailed information about how to deploy System Center VMM 2012 R2, learn about deploying System

Center Virtual Machine Manager.

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Back up virtual machines

Because StorSimple Snapshot Manager is not virtual machines aware and will be a challenge to maintain

application consistency within virtual machines. We recommend a third-party backup solution that you can

integrate with Hyper-V.

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Appendix A: References

Microsoft Azure StorSimple 8000 Series deployment best practices

NIC teaming overview