2-Node Stretched Hyper-V Cluster on Windows Server … PAPER 3 StarWind Virtual SAN® 2-Node...

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StarWind Virtual SAN®

2-Node Stretched Hyper-V Cluster

on Windows Server 2016 APRIL 2018

TECHNICAL PAPER

TECHNICAL PAPER 2


2-Node Stretched Hyper-V Cluster on Windows Server 2016

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TECHNICAL PAPER 3



Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 4

Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................................... 5

StarWind Failover Strategies .......................................................................................................... 6

Heartbeat Failover Strategy ............................................................................................................... 6

Node Majority Failover Strategy ........................................................................................................ 7

Preconfiguring the Servers ............................................................................................................. 8

Enabling Multipath Support ........................................................................................................... 8

Downloading, Installing, and Registering the Software ......................................................... 10

Configuring Shared Storage ......................................................................................................... 17

Heartbeat Failover Strategy ......................................................................................................... 26

Node Majority Failover Strategy .................................................................................................. 32

Adding Witness Node .................................................................................................................... 36

Discovering Target Portals ........................................................................................................... 42

Connecting Targets ........................................................................................................................ 46

Configuring Multipath .................................................................................................................... 51

Connecting Disks to Servers ........................................................................................................ 55

Adding Storage to the Cluster ..................................................................................................... 64

Post-Configuration Tasks .............................................................................................................. 68

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 69

Contacts ............................................................................................................................................ 70

TECHNICAL PAPER 4



Introduction

Building stretched cluster enables to achieve higher applications and services availability run in it.

Such setup also promotes uptime and allows implementing better disaster recovery strategies.

This provides the detailed instructions on how to set up a 2-node Hyper-V stretched cluster on

Windows Server 2016 with StarWind Virtual SAN as a storage provider.

StarWind Virtual SAN® is a native Windows hypervisor-centric hardware-agnostic VM storage

solution. By mirroring the existing servers’ storage and RAM between the participating cluster

nodes, it allows creating a fault-tolerant high-performing storage purpose-built for intensive

virtualization workloads. All I/O is processed by local RAM, SSD cache, and disks. Thus, it never

gets bottlenecked by the storage fabric. The mirrored storage is utilized by all cluster nodes and

is treated by all hypervisors and clustered applications just as one big local storage. Running

locally on the hypervisor, StarWind Virtual SAN delivers higher performance compared to any

dedicated SAN solution. Also, the solution delivers High Availability thanks to providing multipath

access to all storage nodes.

A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by pressing the

Help button in the StarWind Management Console.

For any technical inquiries, please, visit our online community, Frequently Asked Questions page,

or use the support form to contact our technical support department.

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Prerequisites

The diagram below illustrates the connection scheme of the StarWind stretched cluster

configuration described in this guide.

Make sure that the prerequisites for deploying StarWind stretched Hyper-V cluster are met:

• Design L2/L3 multisite network according to the appropriate StarWind failover strategy.

• Each iSCSI and Synchronization network channel throughput should be at least 1Gbps.

The 10Gbps or higher link bandwidth is highly recommended.

• Up to 25ms Round-trip time (RTT) network latency between locations.

• Deployed on-premises Active Directory structure and DNS.

• Windows Server 2016 installed on the server that is going to be clustered.

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StarWind Failover Strategies

Before discussing StarWind failover strategies, it should be noted that the failover strategy can

be chosen only during the device creation. It cannot be changed afterward. StarWind Virtual SAN

provides two options: Heartbeat failover strategy and Node Majority failover strategy.

Heartbeat Failover Strategy

Heartbeat is a technology that allows avoiding the so-called “split-brain” scenario when the HA

cluster nodes are unable to synchronize but continue to accept write commands from the

initiators independently. It can occur when all synchronization and heartbeat channels

disconnect simultaneously, and the other partner nodes do not respond to the node’s requests.

As a result, StarWind service assumes the partner nodes to be offline and continues operations

in a single-node mode using data written to it.

If at least one heartbeat link is online, StarWind services can communicate each other via this

link. The device with the lowest priority will be marked as not synchronized one and gets

subsequently blocked for the further read and write operations until the synchronization

channel resumption. Then, the partner device on the synchronized node flushes data from the

cache to the disk to preserve data integrity in case the node goes down unexpectedly. It is

recommended to assign more independent heartbeat channels during replica creation to

improve system stability and avoid the “split-brain” issue. With heartbeat failover strategy, the

storage cluster will continue working with only one StarWind node available.

Heartbeat Failover Strategy Network Design

• Management / Heartbeat – 100Mbps network or higher.

• iSCSI / Heartbeat – 1Gbps network or higher. The 10Gbps or higher bandwidth link is

highly recommended.

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• Synchronization – 1Gbps network or higher. The 10Gbps or higher bandwidth link is

highly recommended.

Node Majority Failover Strategy

This strategy ensures synchronization connection without any additional heartbeat links. The

failure-handling process occurs when the node has detected the absence of connection with the

partner. The main requirement for keeping the node operational is an active connection with

more than a half of the HA device’s nodes. Calculation of the available partners is based on their

"votes". In case of a two-node HA storage, all nodes will be disconnected if there is a problem

with the node itself, or with communication within the cluster. Therefore, the Node Majority

failover strategy does not work in case of only two synchronous nodes. To resolve this issue, it is

necessary to add the third entity. It can be a Witness node which participates the nodes count

for the majority, but neither contains data on it nor is involved in processing clients’ requests.

With Node Majority failover strategy, failure of only one node can be tolerated. If two nodes fail,

the third one will also become unavailable to clients’ requests. The Witness node should be

additionally configured for an HA device that uses Node Majority failover strategy if it is

replicated between 2 nodes. In case an HA device is replicated between 3 nodes, no Witness

node is required.

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Node Majority Failover Strategy Network Design

• Management / Heartbeat /Synchronization – 1Gbps network or higher. The 10Gbps

or higher bandwidth link is highly recommended.

Preconfiguring the Servers

1. Make sure that a domain controller is present, and servers are added to the domain.

2. Install Failover Clustering and Multipath I/O features, as well as the Hyper-V role on

both servers. This can be done through Server Manager (Add Roles and Features

menu item).

3. Configure network interfaces on each node to make sure that Management/Live

Migration and StarWind Synchronization interfaces are in different subnets and

connected according to the network diagram above. In this document, 10.212.0.x subnet

is used for Management/Live Migration while 10.212.1.x subnet is used for the

Synchronization traffic.

4. In order to allow iSCSI Initiators discover all StarWind Virtual SAN interfaces, the

StarWind configuration file (StarWind.cfg) should be changed after stopping the StarWind

service on the node where it will be edited. Locate the StarWind Virtual SAN configuration

file (the default path is “C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWind.cfg”) and

open it with WordPad as Administrator. Find the <iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces value=”0”/>

string and change the value from 0 to 1 (should look as follows:

<iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces value=”1”/>). Save the changes and exit WordPad. Once

StarWind.cfg is changed and saved, the StarWind service can be restarted.

NOTE: Additional network connections may be necessary, depending on the cluster setup and

applications requirements. For any technical help with configuring the additional networks,

please, do not hesitate to contact StarWind Support Department via online community forum, or

via the support form (depends on the support plan).

Enabling Multipath Support

5. Open the MPIO Properties manager: Start -> Windows Administrative Tools ->

MPIO. Alternatively, run the following PowerShell command:

mpiocpl

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6. In the Discover Multi-Paths tab, tick the Add support for iSCSI devices checkbox and

click on Add.

7. When prompted to restart the server, click Yes to proceed.

NOTE: Repeat the procedure on the other server.

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Downloading, Installing, and Registering the Software

8. Download the StarWind setup executable file from the official StarWind website:

https://www.starwind.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san

NOTE: The setup file is the same for x86 and x64 systems, as well as for all Virtual SAN

deployment scenarios.

9. Launch the downloaded setup file on the server to install StarWind Virtual SAN or one of

its components. The Setup wizard will appear. Read and accept the License Agreement.

Click Next to continue.

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10. Carefully read the information about the new features and improvements. Red text

indicates warnings for users that are updating the existing software installations. Click

Next to continue.

11. Select Browse to modify the installation path if necessary. Click Next to continue.

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12. Select the following components for the minimum setup:

• StarWind Virtual SAN Service. StarWind service is the “core” of the software. It allows

creating iSCSI targets as well as share virtual and physical devices. The service can be

managed from StarWind Management Console on any Windows computer or VSA that is

on the same network. Alternatively, the service can be managed from StarWind Web

Console deployed separately.

• StarWind Management Console. Management Console is the Graphic User Interface

(GUI) part of the software that controls and monitors all storage-related operations (e.g.,

allows users to create targets and devices on StarWind Virtual SAN servers connected to

the network).


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13. Specify Start Menu Folder. Click Next to continue.

14. Enable the checkbox if a desktop icon needs to be created. Click Next to continue.

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15. When the license key prompt appears, choose the appropriate option:

• Request time-limited fully functional evaluation key

• Request FREE version key.

• Thank you, I do have a key already.


16. Click on Browse to locate the license file. Press Next to continue.

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17. Review the licensing information. Click Next to continue.

18. Verify the installation settings. Click Back to make any changes. Press Install to proceed

with the installation.

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19. Enable the appropriate checkbox to launch StarWind Management Console right after

the setup wizard is closed. Click Finish to close the wizard.

20. Repeat the installation steps on the partner node.

NOTE: To manage StarWind Virtual SAN installed on a Windows Server Core edition without

GUI, StarWind Management Console should be installed on a different computer running a GUI-

enabled Windows edition.

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Configuring Shared Storage

21. Double-click the StarWind tray icon to launch StarWind Management Console.

NOTE: StarWind Management Console cannot be installed on an operating system without

GUI. It can be installed on any GUI-enabled Windows edition including Windows desktop

versions.

If the StarWind VSAN service and StarWind Management Console are installed on the same

server, Management Console will automatically add the local StarWind VSAN instance to the

console tree after the first launch. Then, StarWind Management Console automatically

connects to it using the default credentials. To add remote StarWind VSAN servers to the

console, use the Add Server button on the control panel.

22. The StarWind Management Console will ask to specify the default storage pool on the

server it connects to for the first time. Configure the default storage pool to use one of

the volumes that have been prepared previously. All devices created through the Add

Device wizard will be stored on it. In case an alternative storage path is required for

StarWind virtual disks, use the Add Device (advanced) menu item.

Press the Yes button to configure the storage pool. If the storage pool destination needs

to be changed, press Choose path… and point the browser to the necessary disk.

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NOTE: Any of the arrays which will be used by StarWind Virtual SAN to store virtual

disk images should meet the following requirements:

• Initialized as GPT.

• Have a single NTFS-formatted partition.

• Have a drive letter assigned.

The steps below cover the procedure of an HA device creation for the Witness drive. Other

devices should be created in the same way.

23. Right-click on the Servers field and click on the Add Server button. Add a new StarWind

Server which will be used as the second StarWind VSAN node.

24. Select the StarWind server where the device needs to be created and press the Add

Device (advanced) button on the toolbar.

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25. Add Device Wizard will appear. Select Hard Disk Device and click Next.

26. Select Virtual Disk and click Next.

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27. Specify the virtual disk location, name, and size. Click Next.

28. Specify the virtual disk options and click Next.

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29. Define the caching policy and specify the cache size (in GB). Click Next to continue.

NOTE: The basic recommendation is to assign 1 GB of L1 cache in Write-Back or Write-

Through mode per 1 TB of storage capacity. Yet, the cache size should correspond with

the storage working set of the servers.

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30. Define Flash Cache Parameters and size if necessary. Choose SSD location in the

wizard. Press Next.

NOTE: The recommended size of the L2 cache is 10% of the initial StarWind device

capacity.

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31. Specify the target parameters. Enable the Target Name checkbox to customize the

target name. Otherwise, the name will be generated automatically based on the target

alias. Click Next.

32. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target. Then, click Close.

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33. Right-click on the newly created device and select Replication Manager. The

Replication Manager window will appear. Press the Add Replica button.

34. Select Synchronous two-way replication. Click Next to proceed.

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35. Specify the partner server IP address. The default StarWind management port is 3261. If a

different port has been configured, type it in the Port Number field. Click Next to

continue.

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Heartbeat Failover Strategy

36. Check Heartbeat failover strategy according to the network design. Click Next to

continue.

NOTE: For setting the Node Majority failover strategy, jump to the step #44.

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37. Choose Create new Partner Device. Click Next.

38. Specify the partner device location if necessary and/or modify the target name of the

device. Click Next.

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39. Select the synchronization and heartbeat networks for the HA device by clicking Change

Network Settings.

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40. Specify the interfaces for synchronization and heartbeat. Press OK. Then, click Next.

NOTE: It is recommended to configure the Heartbeat and iSCSI channels on the same interfaces

to avoid the split-brain issue. If the Synchronization and Heartbeat interfaces are located on the

same network adapter, it is recommended to assign one more Heartbeat interface to a separate

adapter.

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41. Select Synchronize from existing Device for the partner device initialization mode.

Click Next.

42. Press the Create Replica button. Then, click Close.

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43. The added device will appear in StarWind Management Console.

Repeat the HA device creation steps for any virtual disks that will be further used as a Cluster

Shared Volumes.

Once all devices are created, Management Console should look similar to the screenshot below.

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Node Majority Failover Strategy

44. Check Node Majority Failover Strategy according to the network design. Click Next to

continue.

45. Choose Create new Partner Device. Click Next.

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46. Specify the partner device location if necessary and/or modify the target name of the

device. Click Next.

47. Select the synchronization and heartbeat networks for the HA device by clicking Change

Network Settings.

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48. Specify the interfaces for synchronization and heartbeat. Press OK. Then, click Next.

49. Select Synchronize from existing Device for the partner device initialization mode.

Click Next.

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50. Press the Create Replica button. Then click Close.

51. The added device will appear in StarWind Management Console.

Repeat HA device creation steps for any virtual disks that will be further used as a Cluster Shared

Volumes.

Once all devices are created, Management Console should look similar to the screenshot below.

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Adding Witness Node

This section covers on adding a Witness node, the node participating nodes count for the

majority, but neither containing data nor involved in clients requests processing.

Witness node should be configured in a separate location. There are two options to do so: it can

either be a virtual machine run in the cloud or a host at another site. Witness node should have

StarWind Virtual SAN service installed on it.

52. Open the StarWind Management Console, right-click on the Servers field and press

the Add Server button. Add a new StarWind Server which will be used as the Witness

node and click OK.

53. Right-click on the HA device with the configured Node Majority failover policy and select

Replication Manager. The Replication Manager window will appear. Press the Add

Replica button.

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54. Select Witness Node and click Next

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55. Specify the Witness node name or its IP address.

56. Specify the Witness device location and its target name if necessary. Click Next.

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57. For the HA device, select the synchronization channel with the Witness node by clicking

on the Change network settings button.

58. Specify the interface for synchronization, confirm, and click Next.

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59. Click Create Replica, then close the Wizard by pressing the Close button.

60. Repeat the steps above to create other virtual disks.

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61. Once all devices are created, StarWind Management Console should look as follows:

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Discovering Target Portals

This part describes how to discover Target Portals on each StarWind node.

62. Launch Microsoft iSCSI Initiator: Start -> Windows Administrative Tools -> iSCSI

Initiator. Alternatively, launch it typing the command below in the command line

interface:

iscsicpl

63. Navigate to the Discovery tab.

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64. Click on the Discover Portal button. The Discover Target Portal dialog appears. Type

127.0.0.1.

65. Click on the Advanced button. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator as a Local adapter and

select Initiator IP (leave default for 127.0.0.1). Confirm the actions to complete the

Target Portal discovery.

66. Click the Discover Portal… button again.

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67. In Discover Target Portal dialog, type in the iSCSI interface IP address of the partner

node that will be used to connect the StarWind provisioned targets. Click Advanced.

68. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator as the Local adapter, select the Initiator IP in the

same subnet as the IP address of the partner server from the previous step. Confirm the

actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.

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69. Now all target portals are added to the first node.

70. Go through Target Portals Discovery steps on the partner node.

71. The resulting Discovery tab on the partner node will look similar to the one shown

above.

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Connecting Targets

72. Click on the Targets tab. The previously created targets are listed in the Discovered

Targets section.

NOTE: If the created targets are not listed, check the firewall settings of the StarWind

Server as well as the list of networks served by the StarWind Server (go to StarWind

Management Console -> Configuration -> Network). Alternatively, check the Access

Rights tab on the corresponding StarWind VSAN server in StarWind Management

Console for any restrictions implemented.

73. Select the Witness target from the local server and click on Connect.

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74. Enable checkboxes as in the image below. Click Advanced.

75. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown menu. In Target

portal IP, select 127.0.0.1. Confirm the actions.

NOTE: It is recommended to connect the Witness device only by loopback (127.0.0.1)

address. Do not connect the target to the Witness device from the partner StarWind

node.

76. Select the CSV1 target discovered from the local server and click Connect.

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78. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown menu. In Target

portal IP, select 127.0.0.1. Confirm the actions.

79. Select the partner target from the other StarWind node and click Connect.

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81. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown menu. In the Initiator

IP field, select the IP address for the iSCSI channel. In the Target portal IP, select the

corresponding portal IP from the same subnet. Confirm the actions.

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82. Repeat the steps above for all remaining HA device targets. The result should look like in

the screenshot below.

83. Repeat the steps described in this part on the other StarWind node, specifying

corresponding local and data channel IP addresses. The result should look like in the

screenshot below.

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Configuring Multipath

NOTE: It is recommended to configure the different MPIO policies depending on iSCSI channel

throughput. For 1 Gbps iSCSI channel throughput, it is recommended to set Failover Only or

Least Queue Depth MPIO load balancing policy. For 10 Gbps iSCSI channel throughput, it is

recommended to set Round Robin or Least Queue Depth MPIO load balancing policy.

84. Configure the MPIO policy for each target except Witness with the load balance policy of

choice. Select the target located on the local server and click Devices.

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85. In the Devices dialog, click MPIO.

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86. Select the appropriate load balancing policy.

87. For the Witness target, set the load balance policy to Failover Only.

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88. Repeat the steps above for configuring the MPIO policy for each remaining device on the

current node and on the partner node.

NOTE: In case the Failover Only MPIO policy is used, be sure to check that the local path

(127.0.0.1) is set to Active, while the partner connection is set to Standby.

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Connecting Disks to Servers

89. Open the Disk Management snap-in. The StarWind disks will appear as unallocated and

will be offline.

90. Bring the disks online by right-clicking on them and selecting the Online menu option.

91. Select a disk other than Witness (check the disk size to be sure) and right-click on it to

initialize.

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92. By default, the system will offer to initialize all non-initialized disks. Use the Select Disks

area to choose the disks. Select GPT (GUID Partition Style) for the partition style to be

applied to the disks. Press OK to confirm.

93. Right-click on the selected disk and choose New Simple Volume.

94. In New Simple Volume Wizard, indicate the volume size. Click on the Next button.

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95. Assign a drive letter to the disk. Click Next.

96. Select NTFS in the File System dropdown menu. Keep the Allocation unit size as

Default. Set the Volume Label of choice. Click Next.

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97. Press Finish to complete the operation.

98. Complete the steps above for the Witness disk. Do not assign any drive letter or drive

path for it.

99. On the partner node, open the Disk Management snap-in. All StarWind disks will

appear offline. If the status is different from the one shown in the screenshot below, click

Refresh under Action in the top menu to update the information about the disks.

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100. Bring all StarWind disks online as described above.

Creating a Cluster

NOTE: To avoid issues during the cluster validation configuration, it is recommended to install

the latest Microsoft updates on each node.

101. Open Server Manager. Select the Failover Cluster Manager item from the Tools

menu.

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102. Click the Create Cluster link in the Actions section of the Failover Cluster Manager.

103. Specify the servers to be added to the cluster. Click Next to continue.

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104. Validate the configuration by passing the cluster validation tests: select Yes… and click

Next to continue.

105. Specify the cluster name.

NOTE: If the cluster servers get IP addresses over DHCP, the cluster also gets its IP

address over DHCP, though this scenario is not recommended. If the IP addresses are set

statically, setting the cluster IP address manually is required. Click Next to continue.

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106. Make sure that all settings are correct. Click Previous to make any changes. Click Next to

proceed.

NOTE: If the Add all eligible storage to the cluster checkbox is enabled, the wizard

will add all disks to the cluster automatically. The smallest device will be assigned as the

cluster witness disk. It is recommended to uncheck this checkbox before clicking Next

and assign the cluster witness disk later manually.

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107. Upon the cluster creation completion, the system displays a report with the detailed

information that can be view by clicking on the View Report button. Alternatively, click

Finish to close the wizard.

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Adding Storage to the Cluster

Follow the steps below to add the Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) that are necessary for working

with Hyper-V virtual machines.

108. In the Failover Cluster Manager, navigate to Cluster -> Storage -> Disks. Click Add

Disk in the Actions panel, choose StarWind disks from the list and confirm the selection.

109. To configure the cluster witness disk, right-click on Cluster and proceed to More

Actions -> Configure Cluster Quorum Settings.

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110. Follow the wizard and use the Select the quorum witness option. Click Next.

111. Select Configure a disk witness. Click Next.

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112. Select the Witness disk to be assigned as the cluster witness disk. Click Next and press

Finish to complete the operation.

113. In Failover Cluster Manager, select a disk. Right-click on it and select Add to Cluster

Shared Volumes.

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114. If changing the name of the cluster shared volume is required, right-click on the disk and

select Properties. Type the new name for the disk and click Apply followed by OK.

115. Perform the steps above for any other disk in Failover Cluster Manager. The resulting list

of disks will look similar to the screenshot below.

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Post-Configuration Tasks

116. Once the disks are added to the cluster shared volumes and the network preferences are

set, highly available virtual machines can be created on the cluster shared volumes. Select

Roles and in the Action tab, click Virtual Machines -> New Virtual Machine.

Complete the wizard.

NOTE: to avoid unnecessary CSV overhead, configure each CSV to be owned by the

different cluster node. This node should also be the preferred owner of the VMs running

on that CSV.

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Conclusion

Building a stretched failover cluster increases the availability of services or applications running

in it and excludes the downtime during maintenance. The process of setting up the cluster with

StarWind Virtual SAN is similar to configuring any traditional HyperConverged scenario. This

document also discusses failover strategies used by StarWind Virtual SAN to deliver the highest

possible uptime and data security.

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2-Node Stretched Hyper-V Cluster on Windows Server … PAPER 3 StarWind Virtual SAN® 2-Node...

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