Hyper-V: Number of NUMA Nodes on a Dual Intel Xeon E5-2630 R2208GZ4GC

Here is a snip of the number of NUMA Nodes in a newly stood up Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard server with a pair of Intel Xeon E5-2630 CPUs in the Intel Server Systems Grizzly Pass 2U setup:

Here is the same setup showing the number of Cores/Threads:

Note that we do not have Hyper-Threading turned off on this particular server.

It's important to note that a VM that is set up with more vCPUs than cores on one CPU may actually perform poorer than the same VM set up with the vCPU setting equal to or one less than the number of cores available on one CPU.

This is what is meant by spanning NUMA nodes.

Suffice it to say we can spend a while discussing the performance impact of too many vCPUs assigned to one VM. Ultimately, one needs to stress test a VM setup using a variety of configurations to find what will be optimal for that particular VM.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. All the best for 2014! :)

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Windows Server 2012 R2: Intel PROSet Install Error: No Intel Adapters Present

This is a bit of a puzzle:

Intel Network Connections Installer Information

Cannot install drivers. No Intel(R) Adapters are present in this computer.

The OS is Windows Server 2012 R2 via the most recent build on Microsoft's Open License management site.

The server is an Intel Server Systems SR1695GPRX2AC 1U server that has a pair of dual-port 82576 series Intel Server Network Adapters plus another single shared port with the installed Intel RMM.

The Windows Server OS is obviously seeing the setup correctly.

So, what do do?

Well, a search via Bing lead us to the following site in the Intel Download Center:

We clicked through to the site and downloaded the version 18.8 PROSet driver for Windows Server 2012.

Now, the servers we are working on are Server Core. So, we have a quick cheat to get that driver onto the local machine:

• Start Notepad [Enter]
• CTRL+O (or File --> Open)
• Change Files of type: to All Files
• 
• Navigate to the driver file
• Right Click and Copy
• Navigate to the destination and Right Click then Paste
• 
• Cancel the Open dialogue box and close NotePad

We then executed the archived file:

We then waited:

Ironically while waiting for the installer to spool up we did a search on the indicated PowerShell module and ended up here:

• Intel Communities: Intel 82574L Broken - Win 2012 R2

That in turn took us to here:

• Intel Support: Network Connectivity: Is my Intel Ethernet Adapter supported in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2*?

Okay, so our setup will not be supported by Intel's driver set so we will stick with the in-box drivers. That is okay as in our testing we've not seen any issues like we did with the in-box driver on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

On the PowerShell note we've done some digging around but have not come up with any clear documentation on Intel's PowerShell commandlets. We have a few queries out so we shall see if anything comes back. :)

Otherwise, once we stand up an Intel Server Systems R2208GZ with Server 2012 R2 we will investigate and post back.

Happy New Year's everyone! :)

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Repeat After Me: SATA Does Not Belong In Servers Part Deux

For the last number of years we have stopped deploying servers with SATA drives installed.

There are so many reasons why we stopped but here are a few comparisons to SCSI/SAS:

• SATA does not have the ability to manage a high I/O workload
• SATA only offers a single inbound and outbound data port while SAS offers dual ports for redundant paths
• SATA does not have the health monitoring capabilities with SMART certainly not cutting it
• SATA does not offer anywhere near the capabilities and command set that SAS does for server related tasks, disk redundancy, disk sharing, and so much more

There is a reason why disk manufacturers have tacked on SAS controllers to SATA platter sets. These so-called NearLine drives offer all of the SAS goodness but with SATA capacities.

Here is the first public, that I know of, presentation from Microsoft on the _why_ SATA does not belong in servers.

• Microsoft KB2801713: Hyper-V storage: Caching layers and implications for consistency

To quote specifically:

1.Use the per I/O control mechanism that is known as Force Unit Access (FUA). This flag specifies that the drive should write the data to stable media storage before signaling (sic) is finished. Applications that have to do this make sure that data is stable on the disk issue FUA to make sure that data is not lost if a power failure occurs.

Server-class disk drives (SCSI and Fibre Channel) generally support the FUA flag. On commodity drives (ATA, SATA, and USB), FUA might not be honored. (emphasis added) This can potentially leave data in an inconsistent state unless the drive's write cache is disabled. Make sure that the disk subsystem handles FUA correctly if you depend on this mechanism

When listening to a discussion on this the above applies even when SATA disks are used in a properly configured RAID setup whether software (host-based) or hardware RAID on Chip.

In addition, if one were to be setting up a Storage Spaces cluster with multiple paths to the JBOD unit then one would be required to set it up with SAS based SSDs for the high performance storage tier. SATA will work in a single server and single enclosure lab like setting but _not_ in production.

We have had other posts on this topic that outline many other reasons for our decision to drop SATA in servers. The SATA category and the SAS category would be one place to start. :)

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

SMB Kitchen Subscribers: Hyper-V Q&A Chat to start in about an hour

Look in your e-mail for the link to the chat session.

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

SMB Kitchen: Hyper-V Q&A Chat this Tuesday December 17th at 1800 EDT and 1600MDT

SMB Kitchen subscribers please join me on Tuesday to have a chat about all things Hyper-V.

Hyper-V Deployment and Clustering

It's time to ask Phil Elder, Hyper-V Deployment and Clustering expert, anything you ever wanted to know on the topic. He's been deploying this stuff since Longhorn (which for those not in the know was the code name for Server 2008) which is when Hyper-V really came into its own. He's shed a lot of blood, sweat, tears and lab hours to get these deployments down to a science. So if you want to ask an expert about your configuration, upcoming project, performance issues, BIOS settings, hardware selection, Phil is your man.

Need pointers in your deployment? Then this is the chat session you want to attend.

This would be a good time to jump in and get some guidance on the how/what/when/where and why Hyper-V.

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Microsoft Downloads: TechNet Libraries PDF Downloads Search List

This link opens the Microsoft Downloads site:

• TechNet Library - Search Results - Microsoft Download Center

Note the third one listed in the search results (sorted by newest publish date) is the _entire_ Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 RTM TechNet Library Documentation! It weighs in at a paltry 110MB in PDF form too.

An example of how great it is to have one searchable document is in the search results _within_ the document for the search term "RDMA".

Try searching for Windows Server and RDMA and come up with a Microsoft product focused set of search results on any search engine.

Philip Elder
Microsoft MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business