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

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Disclosure Post: Promise, LSI, Intel, and Others

Lately, we have been putting a lot of time in to building up our lab infrastructure as part of our research and development for new business.

Because the R&D requires a heavy investment by us we reach out to the various manufacturers whose products we deal with to see if we can land any demo product to help defray some of those costs.

Those that have stepped up over the last couple of years include the following:

• Promise Technologies
• Loaned us a VTrak E610sD RAID Subsystem for our initial testing with the Intel Modular Server.
• We purchased that VTrak via the Promise Partner program.
• Extensive communications with key folks in the VTrak program.
• LSI
• Provided us with a pair of LSI SAS6160 Switches for our initial tests.
• We did not get too far with them due to business being quite brisk.
• Supplied a discount via Canadian distribution (Synnex Canada) for the purchase of a pair of our own LSI SAS6160 Switches.
• The pair we purchased about two months ago are now being tested.
• Provided us with a set of four 2M SFF8088/SFF8088 SAS Cables
• Extensive communications with key folks in the storage program.
• Intel
• Intel Modular Server demo product.
• Original sent 3 years ago to begin our pilot build of a Hyper-V Cluster.
• Demo IMS sent again last year to test with LSI SAS Switches and our own IMS.
• Intel supplied demo product.
• Intel Server System SR1695GPRX2AC
• Intel Xeon Processor X3470
• Above received in FY2010-11.
• Pair of Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650 CPUs
• Just received today June 15th.
• Extensive communications with key folks in the Intel Modular Server team.
• Great support via our IPD contacts.

Microsoft has provided us with great support and great product team access over the years. Being a Microsoft MVP has really helped open the doors to key folks and their knowledge.

Though the advent of some absolutely awesome blogs on the products we are focused on has reduced the need to ask a lot of those N00b type questions. :)

Microsoft provides awesome resources within its Partner Program including the Partner Learning Center and now the Microsoft Virtual Academy.

The MVA is an awesome resource for getting a lot of the N00b type questions answered with a lot of hands-on and visual walk-through processes. It is also an excellent resource for answering more advanced questions.

There are certainly other little SWAG and SPIFF bits that we have received over the years. The list above covers some of the major items that have come across our threshold.

Thanks to Promise, LSI, and Intel for the great support and direction.

Thanks to Microsoft for the great resources provided to us both within the MVP realm as well as via the Partner Program and so many other avenues.

A special mention and thanks to Eric Ligman as he has been absolutely amazing when it comes to Microsoft Licensing questions.

The best is yet to come!

Thanks to all y’all for your support and for reading!

Have a wonderful weekend … especially you Dads out there!

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

LSI SAS6160 Switch Compatibility List

We are in the process of setting up a number of Intel Server System SR1695GPRX2AC units along with our soon to be two Intel Server System R2208GZ4GC units to one Promise VTrak E610sD RAID subsystem.

Out of the box we are dealing with 3Gbit/Second SAS connections with the VTrak so we are not able to use the more advanced features the SAS Switch offers.

The LSI SAS6160 Switch compatibility list can be found here:

• LSI SAS6160 Switch Hardware Compatibility List (PDF)
• If the link is broken then the LSI SAS6160 product page is here.

Specifically we are looking for a replacement for the Promise VTrak that will give us access to SAS 6Gbit/Second and the advanced features offered by the SAS Switch.

Now, note that the Promise VTrak E610sD requires firmware 3.36.00. Our current unit is at 3.34.00. So, we are on our way to updating the firmware in the Promise before we can draw any conclusions as far as setting things up.

As far as a replacement for the Promise the first in the above list is actually a NetApp appliance. We will be looking into their products. We have already been in conversations with IBM over their DS3524 dual controller SAS unit so we shall see where that goes.

For now, we are on the road to bringing a very flexible, high performance, and highly redundant hardware solution online to deliver Hyper-V Failover Clusters as well as a Private Cloud solution.

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

LSI SAS6160 Switch First Look

We are looking to scale out our two node Hyper-V failover cluster configuration beyond the two redundant SAS connections per controller on the Promise VTrak E610sD RAID Subsystem.

So, we brought in a couple LSI 6Gbit/Second SAS switches.

• LSI SAS6160 Switch Product Page

We see the possibility of going beyond the maximum six nodes in the Intel Modular Server using Intel R1208GZ Server Systems (previous blog post) with dual Intel RS25GB008 SAS Host Bus Adapters.

It will be interesting to see when we connect all four external SAS connectors on the two RS25GB008 HBAs for a total of four quad port SAS connections running at 6Gbit/Second at each port what kind of throughput, bandwidth, and IOPs we will see.

We have the switch out of the box, plugged in, and powered up. We changed a Windows 7 VM’s IP address to 192.168.1.101 so that we would be able to connect to the switch at its default static IP of 192.168.1.100.

Note that Java is required to connect to the management console.

The default username and password:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin
• Default IP: 192.168.1.100

Once logged in we are greeted with the SAS Domain Manager GUI:

From there we went into the Operations tab so we could configure networking for management:

Now, the next step in the process is to get the firmware updated if need be.

Out of the box this particular switch has 200.10 which has the publishing date of August 1, 2011.

• LSI SAS6160 Switch Support and Download Page
• LSI SAS6160 Switch User Guide PDF
• LSI KB 16556: Firmware for SAS Switch must be upgraded one version at a time!

So, in this case it looks as though we need to run through the upgrade process as indicated in the above KB article twice to get to the most recent version. The KB is very specific about the process too!

Note that the dates must be goofy on the downloads because the April 11th download is Phase 12 with a later version number than the firmware the switch came with.

Once we have run through the firmware updates we will be plugging in the four Intel Server System SR1695GPRX2AC servers with dual 3Gbit/Second SAS connections each into the two switches we have for a fully redundant configuration.

We will start with one Promise VTrak E610sD RAID Subsystem for destination storage. We will add a second E610sD once we have worked our way through the first few rounds of configuration and testing.

More to come . . .

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

LSI Corp to purchase 3Ware/AMCC Storage Adapter Business

In an interesting twist of events:

• AMCC – Applied Micro Circuits Corporation Announces Sale of Its 3ware Storage Adapter Solutions Business.
• LSI – LSI To Purchase AMCC 3ware RAID Adapter Business.

Intel, Dell, and other manufacturers use LSI boards as the foundation for their RAID controller offerings.

How this purchase pans out for the RAID controller market has yet to be determined. We do hope that the 3ware products live on since they are as good as the Intel/LSI products we deal with and competition is a healthy thing for manufacturers and for our clients and us.

For us, Intel/LSI are the RAID controllers of choice. We have had great success with Intel’s cards over the years. So, we will continue to stick with them.

The only other RAID controller we would look at for specialized applications would be by Adaptec. Though that need has been virtually nonexistent for a few years now.

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

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer