Wednesday, 15 September 2010

TechDays 2010 – LFE240 – Clustering with Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Presentation

I will be doing a Local Flavours track presentation on Tuesday October 5th at the Edmonton TechDays 2010 event!

My presentation is at 1540Hrs to 1645Hrs (3:40PM to 4:45PM).

An invitation code can be found in the above calendar link for an event fee reduction to $349.00 too.

Some of the topics to be discussed will be:

  • Intel Modular Server
    • Compute module, storage, and network configuration
  • Cluster Integration
    • How to create if new or existing domain.
  • Cluster Configuration
    • Hyper-V OS
    • Networking structures
  • Cluster Storage
    • Cluster Shared Storage
    • Promise VTrak integration
  • Cluster Maintenance
    • Live Migration
    • Troubleshooting

There are all of five or six slides for this presentation with most content being demonstrations based on a live cluster setup.

This will be a highly technical dive into Hyper-V clustering on the Intel Modular Server with a little business perspective tossed into the mix.

I will make sure to address some of the key technical points to successfully standing up a Hyper-V Cluster as there are a quite a few of them.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Create An iTunes Account Without A Credit Card

When it comes to starting up iTunes and wanting to go and purchase a song or other item new users need to create an iTunes account.

However, when we go through and do that we get to this point in the account set up process:

image

There is no room in the above screen to _not_ save a credit card and move on!

When setting up a new account we do not want to store a credit card number in iTunes anywhere!

So, how do we go about getting a new iTunes account without being asked for a credit card?

The answer is to run through the process of obtaining a Free App and use the account creation process that way.

When we get to the above page we see the following:

image

Note the None radio button that shows up.

Once we have finished setting up the account we can then go back in and register an iTunes gift card which is what we suggested that our client do for their iTunes account.

We also suggested that they keep a regular eye on their account just in case.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Promise VTrak E-Class – Storage Configuration

Much like the built-in SAN on the Intel Modular Server the Promise VTrak E310sD and E610sD Dual Controller RAID Systems are quite flexible when it comes to configuring storage.

If no storage configuration has happened on the VTrak yet, the WebPAM PROe console will land on the storage configuration wizard once we log on.

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Since we need a few different disk configurations to be made available to our cluster based VMs, we will use the Advanced Configuration option.

Promise VTrak Storage Configuration

Our first step is to create a Disk Array (IMS equivalent is a Storage Group):

image

We can add as many or as few disks to the Disk Array as we need.

image

Now, once we have set our Disk Array configuration by choosing the required drives we need to configure the Logical Drives that will reside on the Disk Array.

The Promise process differs from the IMS storage configuration in that on the IMS we would be running each step as its own process. On the Promise VTrak we create the entire storage structure for a group of drives in one process.

image

  • Alias: DA01LD01
    • Disk Array 1 Logical Disk 1
  • Capacity: 275.31
    • .31 represents Disk Array (Storage Group) 3 Logical Disk 1

Once we click the Update button beneath the Logical Drive Creation section we will see:

image

Take note of the Maximum size noted to the right of the Capacity field when creating the logical drives.

Once we have finished creating the required logical drives we see:

image

When we click Next we are given a summary of the logical drives to be created. Click Submit on the summary page and eventually we will have our newly created logical drives.

image

In our case we had two 300GB 15K.7 SAS drives in the VTrak to start with. We received six more drives and installed them today.

image

So, after deleting the existing array and logical drive that was created on the original two disks any new disk arrays and/or logical disks that incorporate existing disks may require synchronization:

image

Managing SAN and DAS Storage

When it comes to managing storage from within the node’s Disk Management that .31 or .xx number really helps to figure out which disk belongs to which VM.

This is important because we need to stage storage based on I/O requirements where higher I/O storage will reside on Storage Groups/Disk Arrays with more spindles.

  • IMS Storage
    • Storage Group 1 (2-4 spindles/SSDs) (XX.0x)
      • Hyper-V OS
      • Quorum disk if required
      • Hyper-V Configuration and memory files
    • Storage Group 2 (generally 4 spindles) (XX.1x)
      • VM data storage partitions
    • Storage Group 3 (6-8 spindles) (XX.2x)
      • VM OS partitions
      • SQL database partitions
  • Promise VTrak
    • Disk Array 1 (XX.3x)
      • File shares for large file stores
    • Disk Array 2 (XX.4x)
      • Archival folder shares
      • Low I/O Desktop OS VMs

Since the dual quad port SAS connections represent an I/O limitation due to the pipe size we are careful to place lower I/O requirement storage on the VTrak.

Once we have our storage configured on the VTrak the next step is to get that storage available to the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster nodes on the Intel Modular Server.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Intel PROSet Adapter Teaming In Server Core and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

It turns out that creating an Intel adapter team in Server Core, or in this case Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is actually quite simple.

Reading through the above page plus the PROSetCL.txt file made things seem a bit intimidating.

In reality, the process is actually quite simple. The PROSetCL.exe command is found in: C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX\CL.

Here is the process assuming that we are in the above directory:

  1. PROSetCL Adapter_Enumerate
    • The NIC’s index number is at the front of each NIC listed.
    • image
  2. IPConfig /all
    • NIC MAC addresses are needed to map which NICs we need to team.
    • On the Intel Modular Server, the NIC’s MAC addresses will be close together for the on board NIC and again close together for the Mezzanine based NICs.
  3. PROSetCL Team_Create 4,2 TEAM1 VMLB
    • Where the numbers “4” and “2” are the index number for each NIC we want in the team.
    • We team one on board NIC and one mezzanine based NIC to allow for switch redundancy.
    • The management and heartbeat team will be ALB configured.
    • The team that we will bind the Hyper-V vSwitch to will be configured for Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VMLB).

Once we ran the above commands we saw:

image

Note the adapter team shown as TEAM1 will be our management and heartbeat NIC.

Further reading:

UPDATE 2010-09-20: A post on configuring the needed VLANs:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Office 2010 And SharePoint – Add Server Button To Quick Access

When working with Microsoft Office documents located on a local or remote SharePoint library we are discovering that we need to know the Check In/Out status of the document either being opened or worked on.

To do that click on the arrow that points down just to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar (Customize Quick Access Toolbar).

image

The command we are after is not to be found in any of the button groups after clicking More Commands…

Change the Choose commands from: list to All Commands.

image

Click on the first item in the commands list and hit the “S” key on the keyboard to drop down to the commands that start with that letter.

After finding Server click the Add button to get the command into the Quick Access Toolbar.

image

Once the Server command is on the Quick Access Toolbar we will have easy access to the needed SharePoint related information.

image

The problem that we were running into had to do with a document being saved and closed but for some reason not being checked back in. If the document is checked out, and someone attempts to open that document and edit it, even the same user editing it from another location, the user will run into Read Only and “Notify when available” messages.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Monday, 13 September 2010

Even Node Hyper-V Cluster Initial Storage Configuration

We are just about to stand up a newly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster on our Intel Modular Server.

One of the things that we are starting to do in our storage configurations for cluster deployment is to set up at least two Intel 160GB X25-M Solid-State Drives for the Hyper-V OS. These two drives will also host the Node and Disk Majority Quorum disk if needed as well as the Hyper-V VM memory and configuration files disk (designated CSV later in our set up procedures).

Microsoft Quorum Recommendation

image

Since we are initially setting up a 2 node Hyper-V cluster, the Create Cluster Wizard in Failover Cluster Manager will need to have a small partition to use as a disk witness.

image

Microsoft suggests a minimum size of 512MB for the disk, so we double that figure and create a 1GB virtual disk for the task leaving room to grow to four or six nodes later on in the life of the cluster.

IMS First Storage Group

When we create our first Storage Group on the IMS and go on to create virtual disks, we will create and assign the virtual disks to be used by the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS only. If we have created any other virtual disks in the IMS storage groups they will not be assigned to any servers at this time.

image

The above screenshot shows three virtual disks assigned to the three compute modules installed in our IMS however we are standing up the cluster with only 2 nodes to begin with.

Now, once we have the base Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS installed, configured, updated, and the networking structures in place we will go ahead and assign the HV_Quorum virtual disk to the 2 nodes.

Assigning the virtual disk can be done while the compute modules are online but a reboot may be required before the virtual disks get picked up by Hyper-V Disk Management.

image

For all disk related activities such as bringing new storage online for use in a cluster we always use Node 1’s Disk Management to initialize and format the new partition.

Once the partition is formatted we set it to Offline in Disk Management. We then ignore the Initialize Disk warning for the other node’s Disk Management. The only step we need to accomplish after refreshing the Disk Management view on the other nodes is to set the disk to Offline.

We can then work with that storage in Failover Cluster Management.

Further Reading:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Saturday, 11 September 2010

Intel PROSet v15 Now Supports Teaming In Server Core

NIC teaming is a valuable feature for creating redundant NIC connections to critical resources.

When it comes to configuring a Hyper-V cluster utilizing individual nodes with connection to a SAN or SANs having no single point of failure is critical.

Server Core

With the advent of v15 of Intel’s PROSet we can now create the needed NIC teams to allow for redundancy for the various Hyper-V host network connections.

Intel Modular Server

When it comes to the Intel Modular Server network configuration for a Hyper-V cluster we will need to make a few structural changes to our initial NIC set up as we did not have teaming available to us then.

This is a screenshot of the IMS rear from Modular Server Control:

image

For each node configured in the cluster we will need to team a pair of NICs with each NIC in the pair connected to a separate switch module.

  1. Hyper-V Node
    1. Team 1
      1. NIC 0 (SWM 1)
      2. NIC 0 (SWM 2)
    2. Team 2
      1. NIC 1 (SWM 1)
      2. NIC 1 (SWM 2)

Once we had our two teams set up we would configure things using the Intel PROSet utility as follows:

  1. Team 1
    1. Management IP – Default VLAN
    2. Heartbeat IP – Create and set VLAN 99
  2. Team 2
    1. Bind Hyper-V vSwitch with no host access.

Finally, once we had all of our configuration steps above completed, we would set the correct NIC binding order:

Once we have run through the configuration steps a few times, if necessary we will post a how-to step-by-step here.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday, 10 September 2010

A Six Hour Product Demonstration That Rocked!

We received a referral from one of our long standing client accounting firms to look into assessing the current network setup of one of their clients.

The principle problem at our prospective new client was the online provided comprehensive accounting suite that is filled with pain points that have not been ironed out since the online solution was deployed at their site over a year ago.

A year is a long time to live with a lot of pain and not getting to where one wants to be with any type of solution.

After a few consulting sessions with the business owner we offered the recommendation to look into the SAP Business One product. It is a solid product foundation on which to build out their entire accounting, inventory, point of sale, and eventually e-commerce business structures.

With their approval we approached SAP to find a partner that was familiar with our prospective client’s unique industry.

We were put in touch with Stephane of Forgestik.

Well, this morning Stephane and Yves of Forgestik put on an amazing demonstration of the SAP Business One product that they had customized for today’s presentation.

Stephane and Yves kept the six or seven folks in the meeting completely engaged throughout the six hours we were together in the boardroom.

Prior to today, we took the time to make sure that we understood how our prospect’s business needed to operate. That was done by having a series of interviews with the business owner as well as a few key people in the organization.

Once we had a good understanding of what was needed, Stephane went ahead with his team and built the demo that was done today.

If the deal goes ahead, we at MPECS Inc. will be providing the IT Solution that will run underneath the SAP Business One solution.

Finding and forming partnerships with those that can facilitate a solution that does not sit in our own speciality zone is a very important part of doing business.

By doing so, we augment our ability to provide a real solid IT solution that truly meets our client’s needs.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Intel Modular Server – Adding A Compute Module

We have a 2 node Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 based cluster up and running on our in-house Intel Modular Server.

We have a new Intel Compute Module MFS5520VI that we installed a pair of Intel Xeon Processor X5650 CPUs into along with 24GB of ECC memory (6 x 4GB 1333HMz DDR3).

When the compute module is first plugged in, it will take a few minutes for it to show up in Modular Server Control (MSC):

image

Once the compute module shows up we can click through to the Firmware status page. Once there we will see that the compute module did not turn on automatically:

image

We go ahead and power up the compute module to allow the updates to start.

Back on the firmware status page we will see:

image

Once the BIOS update has completed the compute module will power cycle itself.

We then need to establish a KVM session with the now up to date compute module so that we can get into the BIOS and make the necessary settings changes:

image

The key changes that need to be made have to do with enabling Intel Virtualization acceleration features as well as structuring the boot order between the built-in hard disk and USB flash drives.

We need to verify the boot order because we keep a USB flash drive permanently plugged into each compute module. Each USB flash drive is bootable and contains the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS install files on it.

Now that we have the hardware set up on our new cluster node, we will go ahead and install the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS, install needed drivers, and eventually add the Hyper-V node into our current 2 node cluster.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Promise VTrak E610sD Demo Unit On The Way

We have managed to secure a Promise VTrak E610sD Dual Controller RAID System demo unit for use here in our shop with our in-house Intel Modular Server.

We asked for the demo unit so that we can run through the configuration process on the VTrak, the Intel Modular Server, the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 based nodes, and finally attaching the VTrak based LUNs to VMs running on top of the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster.

We have run into a few documentation shortfalls when it comes to structuring the various connections needed at the hardware and software level between the VTrak, IMS, and Hyper-V at our client’s site.

So, instead of “experimenting” with our client’s production cluster to figure out how everything is supposed to fit together, we will run through all of the needed steps here in the shop.

Thus, if anything breaks we don’t kill a production cluster or cluster based VM. We kill our own setup and thus are able to rebuild and start fresh.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

On Board Software “RAID” No More

We stopped using the on board “RAID” feature of on all of our client servers.

Why?

Because the cost of a high performance 4 port RAID controller like the Intel RAID Controller RS2BL040 is under $450CA.

For $450 we get:

  1. True RAID on Chip driven calculations.
    • No software interpreting the RAID calculations on the CPU.
  2. Drive redundancy.
    • But, on board RAID is just that: RAID right? Well, no. If a drive fails in an on board based “RAID” array 9 times out of 10 the server is locked up.
    • If a drive fails on a true RAID controller based array the RAID controller marks the drive dead, logs the failure, but _keeps moving along_.
  3. Data Protection
    • We have seen more failed OS loads after an on board based “RAID” array member failure by a factor of at least 10 compared to either a member or RAID controller failure in server settings.
  4. Performance
    • On board RAID relies on the software drivers to do all of the calculations. They run on top of the CPU. There is a performance hit for this.
    • Add a battery backup for the RAID on Chip’s memory cache and the array performance steps up accordingly.
    • Array rebuild times to hot spare for the RAID on Chip solution will be superior to on board software “RAID”.
      • A failed drive is when the server is most vulnerable.
  5. Maintenance
    • RAID on Chip solutions offer true hot swap compatibility.
    • Some software “RAID” setups may offer the same. But, test it first.

Given the overall benefits of an add-in RAID solution, in our opinion, no server should go out the door with an on board software “RAID” setup.

It is just not worth the risk.

Adaptec also makes some pretty good RAID on Chip solutions.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Securing Laptops, Desktops, and Workstations

A while back we had a client that experienced a smash and grab via their front door.

Since then they have added some additional security features to their front doors and windows along with the following for their systems:

image

In this particular client’s site we have mostly laptops throughout the organization.

So, we ordered enough cables for all of their systems along with the needed anchor points for those cables.

We used the supplied glue along with the pair of screws to mount the anchor in a relatively concealed way on the user’s desk. Once done, the desk itself would need to pull apart before the anchor came loose.

Each lock has a factory combination set to it. So, we made sure to create a new combination set for each user and document that combination in our client audit notes.

Users were then trained on how to properly lock and unlock their laptops.

We use the Ultra series of cable locks because the thicker cable requires a larger snip and a good amount of strength to cut.

While these efforts are not foolproof, they are definitely going to slow the folks that break in down. That is the whole idea.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution

We just finished installing a Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse combination kit.

Out of the box, the software that comes with the kit is out of date.

Once the SetPoint drivers have been installed we get a prompt to update the Bluetooth radio:

image

Current firmware version: 1.0.89

New firmware version: 1.1.92

We have had a few of these updates hiccup where the update seemingly goes on without stopping. We then have to force close the update process. When that happens, most of the time we can pull the radio and let it sit for a minute then reattempt the update.

image

In this case though we did not have an issue and are currently typing up this post on the MX 5500 keyboard which has an okay action and key click.

The MX Revolution is, in our opinion, probably one of the best mice that we have ever used. Both the MX and VX series mice are used extensively by us at MPECS.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday, 3 September 2010

SBS 2008 Entry Level Server Configuration

Here is a sample Intel based server that we would configure for a small SMB with 5-10 seats.

One can find a similar setup in a Tier 1 machine, though the cost may be a bit higher.

Essentially, today’s entry level server systems that have been configured _properly_ to run Small Business Server 2008 should run about $3,000.00 (in Canadian Dollars).

Now, take that $3K and divide that over the life expectancy of the server:

  • $3K/3 = $1,000.00/Year

Okay, now, let’s say we are dealing with a client that has 5 seats.

  • $1K/5 = $200/Year/User

Now, the next step is to break that figure down a little more to provide some context to the business owner:

  • $200/1800Hrs = $0.11/Hr per user
    • The 1800Hrs per year is calculated roughly on 50 weeks worked with some days off for statutory holidays.

Part of the discussion is to also ask our contact for a general gross annual income for the company. We take that number and break it down just as we do the costs. We generally end up with an employee’s value being anywhere from $65/Hour all the way up to $125/Hour.

Knowing these details helps to explain the value proposition of our IT solution.

During our conversations we spend a fair amount of time learning what our clients or prospective clients value in their IT solutions. That can be anything from user’s productivity to having a disaster recovery plan and the appropriate backup structures in place.

When we know what our contact values the most in their IT solution, we can place a dollar figure on it and start talking to them about the return on their investment (ROI) versus their total cost of ownership (TCO) without using all of those fancy acronyms or Geek Speak.

Explained this way, the total solution cost starts to take on a _very_ different perspective.

Have a great Labour Day Weekend everyone and thanks for reading! :)

UPDATE: Added a sample configuration sheet to our Intel Server Configuration downloads page.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday, 2 September 2010

Discovering That Niche – Extreme Overclocking

While we have dabbled in overclocking to gain extra performance out of our Intel CPUs over the years, we never went hardcore into the process as the time/benefit ratio just did not fit our needs.

However, as with anything else, demonstrate a knack for something, make sure folks know about it, and it will get noticed.

We received an Intel Partner Program newsletter this afternoon that had a really neat bit on overclocking in it.

image

We have seen some of the overclocking results of “duck-san” before.

Some of his overclocking exploits can be found here:

That second link has some amazing overclocking results and visuals of the rigs that are used to get there.

So, what is so neat is to see that the efforts that Duck-san has put into overclocking processors has lead to him being featured at various technology events including the upcoming PAX West 2010 in Seattle Washington.

Duck-san is a very good example of how one’s hard work can pay off in possibly very unexpected ways.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer