A Storage Spaces and Hyper-V Cluster Lab Guide

Here is a good start for a lab environment:

• David Ziembicki: Cloud Computing | Virtualization | Microsoft Blog: Hyper-V and Scale-Out File Cluster Home Lab Design

A set of DAS JBOD units can used with two small nodes and 2 SAS based HBAs per node to stand up a Storage Spaces cluster using the Server 2012 R2 bits. A couple of MicroServer Gen8 boxes would round out the Hyper-V side of it.

On this blog there are a lot of configurations discussed that utilize intelligent direct attached storage.

• Basic setup
  • Intel Server System SR1695GPRX2AC pair with Promise VTrak E610sD or E310sD
  • This category search on the blog has a number of really good posts including configuration examples based on the SR1695GPRX2AC (blog category link)
    • This server unit has been our go-to for base configurations as it is an excellent and flexible platform
• Advanced setup
  • Intel Server System R2208GZ4GC pair with the Promise VTrak E610sD or E310sD
• All-Out Setup
  • All of the above plus LSI SAS 6160 Switch pair and Intel Modular Server with 3 nodes.

In the above setups the key is the intelligent storage providing mitigation services to the SAS HBAs and OS access to the central storage.

With the 2012 R2 bits we are going to put together a redundant JBOD setup for a Storage Spaces cluster. This is the next direction we are delving into as we can put together a small SS cluster for a very reasonable cost.

Today, we are working on the following (similar to David Ziembicki’s setup) setup for clustered Storage Spaces:

• Basic
  • Intel Server System R1208JP4OC with pair of SAS HBAs (RS25GB008) (2 nodes)
    • 32GB of ECC per node to start
  • Intel Storage System JBOD2224S2D2 JBOD2224S2DP Intel JBOD units (2 units)
    • JBOD is dual expander and dual port backplane
    • Seagate Savvio SAS drives are dual port
  • 1m SAS Cables (4)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 beta – Storage Spaces Cluster Setup
  • Intel Server System R2208GZ4GC pair for Hyper-V nodes (we have had these in our lab for a year or so now).
    • 64GB to 128GB of ECC
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 beta or RTM – Hyper-V Nodes
• Advanced
  • Add a pair of 8-Port or 12-Port NETGEAR 10Gbit Ethernet switches
    • Ports on each NIC would be split between switches for redundancy
  • Add a pair of Dual-Port 10Gbit PCIe and/or I/O Module NICs to each node
    • 10Gbit Ethernet would SMBv3 Storage Spaces located VHDX
    • 10Gbit Ethernet would be for Live Migration Network
  • LSI SAS Switches (we have a pair of these in our lab setting)
  • Additional Intel JBOD units to test switches and scaling storage out

Using David Ziembicki’s setup though one would be able to start at the base level and put together a similar configuration on a budget.

An HP MicroServer Gen8 would make an excellent platform for testing as they are relatively inexpensive and have pretty close to the full Intel virtualization Acceleration feature set.

Note that the Sans Digital MS28X listed in his blog post splits drives 0-3 and 4-7 between the two available external SAS connections. That means that there is no ability to use this storage unit without an LSI SAS 6160 Switch pair (Sans Digital MS28X Quick Installation Guide PDF)!

However, the Sans Digital MS8X6 unit does support redundancy and therefore they could be used to test Storage Spaces clustering configurations (Sans Digital MS8X6 Quick Installation Guide PDF).

Of course, for the added functionality there will be an extra cost involved, however one could drop the LSI SAS Switch for a set of these units for about the cost of the original MS28X plus SAS Switch!

• Storage Spaces Cluster
  • Storage Spaces Node
    • Intel Xeon E3-1230
    • Intel Server Board S1200BTLSH
    • 16GB ECC
    • Intel Integrated RAID RMS2AF040
    • 120GB Intel 320 Series SSD (or small 10K SAS) RAID 1 pair for host OS
    • Quad-Port Intel Gigabit Server NIC PCIe
    • Intel certified chassis (whether Intel or other)
  • Storage
    • Sans Digital MS8X6
      • 300GB 15K 3.5" SAS drives can be found for a good deal today
  • Hyper-V Node
    • Intel Xeon E3-1230
    • Intel Server Board S1200BTLSH
    • 32GB ECC
    • Intel Integrated RAID RMS2AF040
    • 120GB Intel 320 Series SSD (or small 10K SAS) RAID 1 pair for host OS
    • Quad-Port Intel Gigabit Server NIC PCIe
    • Intel certified chassis (whether Intel or other)
  • OPTIONS
    • Add Intel RMM4 for full KVM over IP
    • Add Dual-Port 10Gbit Intel Ethernet for SMBv3 and Live Migration Networks
    • Add Intel Storage Systems JBOD2224S2DP at a later date for full SAS Dual Port Redundancy

There are so many different ways to go about this.

The main thing is to start small and work one’s way up to a full scale server grade lab as the jobs come in! That’s how we built our own lab systems up and how we built up the knowledgebase and experience!

EDIT: Oops, Star Wars on the mind. Intel Storage Systems part number should be JBOD2224S2DP (I had JBOD2224S2D2 above!). :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Some Early Morning, Well Okay it's Early Here, Secure Browsing Related Reading

After posting about the Flash Cache clearing that we usually do via the online control panel we thought it would be a good idea to post some reading on safe browsing habits in general.

Security MVP Harry Waldron obliged a request for pointers with the following blog posts:

• Best Practices - Internet Safety for 2008 - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)
• This is an excellent list of ways to protect ourselves both while browsing but also at our PC/Laptop level.
• This one is well worth the read.
• FBI Warning - Safety tips to avoid Scams and Internet Fraud - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)
• Another excellent list of tips on protecting one's self from being scammed.
• Twitter - Best practices for using it safely - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)
• The key elements for Twitter safety.
• Facebook - Best Practices in double locking account privacy - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)
• Securing a Facebook profile.
• Security Protection – Harry Waldron (CS) – Blog Search Results for "Practices"
• Lots of good posts to delve into.

The following are pointers for Microsoft properties:

• Microsoft – Best Practices for Enterprise Security - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)
• A check list for security audit
• Microsoft Security - Best Practices Home Page - Security Protection - Harry Waldron (CS)

The following article has some excellent tips on social networking:

• Zeltser Blog: 11 Security Tips for Online Social Networking
• This is an _excellent_ resource and reference for us and for our clients.

Have a great long weekend for those of us celebrating Canada Day Weekend and have a great Independence Day celebration/break next week to our US readers!

Thanks for reading. :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Adobe Flash Player Cache Management

It’s always been a bit strange that we need to go to a third party site in order to manage content on a local computer.

• Adobe Flash Player Help: Website Storage Settings panel

Using that control panel we are able to see just what kind of things have been happening, at least to some degree, via the Adobe Flash plugin.

Besides that, there is Start –> Internet Options and DELETE to remove history.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen: Just Released: Hyper-V Cluster Configuration Considerations

This chapter, just released to the SMBKitchen Project’s knowledgebase, is jam packed with pearls that were the result of _months_ of trial and error plus sifting through all of the very incomplete and lacking vendor documentation.

Covered are all of the key elements required for setting up a Hyper-V Cluster on the Intel Modular Server with or without Direct Attached Storage via two SAS Controllers.

Also covered are the key elements required for setting up a cluster on a two or more node setup that utilize SAS based DAS intelligent storage. This configuration is the one we have been running with and is now our main focus as the Intel Modular Server has been retired.

This document covers a lot of different areas including node configuration, storage, networking, and more.

Cluster for highly available virtual machines, and now that we have the 2012 R2 bits, for Storage Spaces are an important part of our SMB business strategy going forward into the On-Premises and Hybrid future.

• SMBKitchen Project

Coming soon for the SMBKitchen project will be a series of How-To videos on everything from teaming in Windows Server 2012 via PowerShell to configuring RemoteFX. There are plans to do cluster How-To videos as well.

Tie that into the author’s chats we have once a month that give subscribers front-line access to the authors and I am sure that we are providing great value for the subscription dollars! :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen: Author's Chat in 10 Minutes!

Hello SMBKitchen subscribers!

We have an author's chat in 10 minutes.

Let's discuss my new Hyper-V Hardware Configuration Guide and my upcoming Hyper-V Cluster Considerations document (in final review – pending Amy's vacation return!).

This particular monthly chat is available to subscribers only. :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Channelpro SMB Magazine Cover and Article

Now, just who is that on the cover of Channelpro SMB Magazine eh? :D

Thanks to Stephanie Cragg Corporate for an awesome photo shoot and the fantastic pictures.

• Channelpro SMB Magazine June 2013

My article can be found on pages 30/31 in the online magazine and gives a good run-down of the history of our company, where I’ve been in our industry, and the principles involved in building our company.

Mainly, I believe the best part of our SMB focused IT is the amazing people we have the privilege to work with.

And going forward, I believe that will not change. Through all of the changes that are happening today in our industry the key in SMB will _always_ be the people that provide awesome solutions for their clients and most especially their _clients_ that recognize the value they receive in their IT.

Thanks for reading! :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Looking Cloudy: Can't get in to any Microsoft property :(

My Microsoft ID is set to expire the password every 72 days.

Okay, so the warning came through that the password has expired. But, no matter what I try I can't seem to get anywhere to change it:

Something went wrong and we can't sign you in right now.

Please try again later.

Fortunately the data I'm after is located locally in my SkyDrive folder. But, changes made on other systems also connected to that folder will not happen until something gets straightened out and I am allowed to change the password!

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen: My Hyper-V Configuration Guide Is Released!

I'm very excited to announce that my Hyper-V Configuration Guide has been released to the SMBKitchen Project's knowledgebase!

I walk through a number of critical areas in this guide relative to deploying a properly sized Hyper-V virtualization solution.

• Questions to ask the client
  • Verticals they serve, software products used, data volume and growth
• Various solution grades
  • Entry, mainstream/mid-level, and high performance configurations
• Needs analysis
  • Find the top five key pain points for the prospect/client
• Hardware
  • Bottlenecks in the system and how to address them
  • CPU and Memory

Client types

• 10 seat accounting firm
• 35 seat architectural/engineering firm
• 55 seat manufacturing client

Each client type gets a number of options made available. Each option is explained with highlights of what they provide value for the client/prospect.
I believe this chapter in the SMBKitchen solution kit will be well worth your time.
And, when it comes time for the next Author's Chat subscribers will have the chance to discuss and ask questions about the many points in this article!
Soon to come: Hyper- V Cluster Configuration Considerations

This document is composed of the pearls born of many a month of painstaking sifting through vendor's documentation tied into much trial and error. :)
Our blog article on How to Subscribe to the SMBKitchen.
Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/
Windows Live Writer

Looking Cloudy: PRISM Reading

As things move along PRISM is making great waves throughout our industry.

Susan Bradley linked through to another awesome article on PRISM penned by Erica Absetz (eabsetz).

• DATALOSSdb (open security foundation): Looking Through the Cloudy PRISM

Erica does an excellent job of summarizing some critical aspects of PRISM with some valuable questions about how the program actually works.

Her article also contains a number of links to further articles discussing the PRISM program.

From her article:

Both Facebook and Google denied any previous knowledge of the PRISM surveillance program after concerns they may have been part of the program. Many other technology companies thought be be part of PRISM issued similar statements saying that they did not allow the government “direct access” to their systems. However, the NY Times reports that Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Paltalk all negotiated with the government and were required to share information due to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Guardian also states that Microsoft has been a part of this information sharing program since the beginning in December of 2007 and was joined by Yahoo in 2008, Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009, YouTube in 2010, Skype and AOL in 2011, and Apple in 2012. At this point, it is a game of "who do you trust?" The government who finds such data incredibly valuable, or the corporations that sometimes rely on such data for their business model (e.g. Facebook). [emphasis ours]

Indeed, who can we trust?

As far as we are concerned the two words “Internet” and “Privacy” do not belong anywhere near each other.

Our Rule of Thumb: Want something to be private? Never publish it a public network like the Internet or cell network in any way shape or form. No e-mail, no picture texting, no SkyDrive, and so on. None. Nadda. Zippo. Zilch.

We here have been of the opinion that there is no sacred data sanctuary anywhere on the Internet.

Remember this?

• WIRED 2006-05-22: Whistle-Blower’s Evidence, Uncut
• Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications company, which alleges that AT&T cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.

So, while PRISM is bringing to light the fact that government agencies are spying on the general population today, we seem to have very limited memories since the timelines on the above article go back to 2004!

Like any news, it is up to us to keep that squeaky wheel consistently squeaky to the _general population_ or like any other news item, and perhaps hoped for by the corporations and powers-that-be, PRISM and its implications will slowly wink out of our mind’s eye until the next “big story” breaks.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Monday Morning Monitor Cloth Reading: PRISM and it’s Cloud Implications

Yeah, the coffee may end up out there and not because we have a great moment to laugh about.

Most of us have seen bits and pieces of the news about the United States Government’s program called PRISM.

• Bing News Search: PRISM

This article on Computer World is an excellent read on PRISM and the big Cloud vendor’s statements that they were oblivious.

• COMPUTERWORD: Why PRISM kills the cloud (link courtesy of Jeff Middleton)

Jonny Evans is bang on with his assessment on the big Cloud vendor’s denials place them in a very awkward position. Perhaps a better response would have been to wait things out a bit and then come clean with customers about government’s access to customer data.

We’ve all known about the possibility of governments accessing data with Cloud vendors being able to remain silent with their customers about that access.

The news about PRISM puts this reality in our faces and gives everyone a moment to have Cause for Pause.

For flat file data storage this situation presents an excellent opportunity for vendors of flat file encryption services that work on that data before it gets pushed up to the Cloud.

However, for things like hosted e-mail where raw content is sitting on the Cloud Vendor’s systems we know of no way to protect that data at all short of keeping in on-premises.

EDIT 2013-06-10: My fellow SMBKitchen author Susan Bradley has called me on my exclusion of the possibility of encrypted data hosted in Cloud based Exchange servers.

I do apologise for missing the fact that there _are_ vendors out there that can do just that.

CipherCloud is one such vendor that Susan mentioned.

So, off to their site we go and start a chat session to find out how much this service would cost us:

Holy Sugar Smacks!

Okay, so there are vendors out there that do this but at this time they are not very SMB friendly. :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Windows Server 2012 to RST RAID 0 Error: Windows can’t be installed on drive 0 partition 1 - and Others

We had the following errors when trying to install Windows Server 2012 onto a desktop setup:

Windows Setup

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk’s controller is enabled in the computer’s BIOS menu.

And then, after fiddling about with DiskPart we managed:

Windows Setup

We couldn’t install Windows in the location you chose. Please check your media drive. Here’s more info about what happened; 0x80300001.

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk’s controller is enabled in the computer’s BIOS menu.

The PC setup

• Intel DX79SR with Core i7 and 64GB RAM
• Intel RST RAID enabled and 6x 160GB Intel SSDs in RAID 0
• Primary SATA set to RAID
• Secondary SATA DISABLED in BIOS
• Boot order set correctly

Now, it is important to note that these SSDs have been in and out of various systems.

So, a last ditch effort:

1. Log into the RAID BIOS
2. Reset the disks to NON-RAID
3. Boot to WinPE
4. SHFT+F10
5. DiskPart
6. Select each SSD and CLEAN
7. Reboot
8. Log into RAID BIOS
9. Set up RAID 0
10. Boot to Windows Server 2012 Setup

We created our 120GB partition and did not see a single message.

So, rule of thumb: Clean each disk while in JBOD/Standalone mode with DiskPart before configuring the disks in a new host-based RAID setup (chipset RAID).

A hardware RAID setup would initialize the disks (use the deep/long initialization to run a full set of zeros across all platters/SSDs if problems happen) so we would not normally see this problem.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

DNS on the Client: An Apology and a Learning Lesson

Well, as mentioned on the final line in our previous post here:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Repeat After Me: DHCP and DNS Belong on a DC

“It is our job as IT “Professionals” to know the “WHY” things work so that we can set things up properly.”

And, thanks to my fellow MVP Dave Shackleford taking the time to make things a bit clearer in the comments of the blog post, I now have a clearer picture of DNS on the client side.

My mistake was pulling the server round-robin structures into client.

In the case of the client, it will _always_ poll the primary DNS (DNS0 on the NIC/DHCP) server for its resolution needs. If for any reason something happens to the primary to cause it to not answer the client will move to the secondary DNS (DNS1 on the NIC/DHCP) and poll that server for about an hour.

So, my apologies for the misleading information. Lesson learned.

And, as Dave points out, and is our experience, if something causes a break between the primary DNS server and the client moves to the router or an Internet based DNS server that client will not move back in-house for a period of time.

What this means is that we still stand by our original premise on how the on-premises network should be configured to only poll DNS servers internally.

In a pinch the edge device can be set to deliver DHCP and DNS to clients if the only DC/DNS server goes down or a secondary DC can have the DHCP Role enabled but not online for backup purposes.

Thanks again for reading! :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer