Why not use Windows Admin Center ?

In the old days all File servers where on one place, and if you want to replicate data you needed a extra tool to do this. Now days its already build in into Windows server. Storage replica can be used in several ways, replicate data from one Cluster to another or to Azure. but in this case I do a server to server replication as not everyone has a cluster.

For moving data to the Cloud there are currently several other applications like Azure file sync or Azure Migrate https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/migrate-overview Blog about Azure File Sync https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/step-by-step-azure-file-sync-on-premises-file-servers-to-azure-files-storage-sync-service-afs-cloud-msignite/

Storage Replica is Windows Server technology that enables replication of volumes between servers or clusters for disaster recovery. It also enables you to create stretch failover clusters that span two sites, with all nodes staying in sync.

Storage Replica supports synchronous and asynchronous replication:

• Synchronous replication mirrors data within a low-latency network site with crash-consistent volumes to ensure zero data loss at the file-system level during a failure.
• Asynchronous replication mirrors data across sites beyond metropolitan ranges over network links with higher latencies, but without a guarantee that both sites have identical copies of the data at the time of a failure.

Storage Replica allows more efficient use of multiple datacenters. By stretching clusters or replicating clusters, workloads can be run in multiple datacenters for quicker data access by local proximity users and applications, as well as better load distribution and use of compute resources. If a disaster takes one datacenter offline, you can move its typical workloads to the other site temporarily.

Storage Replica may allow you to decommission existing file replication systems such as DFS Replication that were pressed into duty as low-end disaster recovery solutions. While DFS Replication works well over extremely low bandwidth networks, its latency is very high – often measured in hours or days. This is caused by its requirement for files to close and its artificial throttles meant to prevent network congestion. With those design characteristics, the newest and hottest files in a DFS Replication replica are the least likely to replicate. Storage Replica operates below the file level and has none of these restrictions.

Storage Replica also supports asynchronous replication for longer ranges and higher latency networks. Because it is not checkpoint-based, and instead continuously replicates, the delta of changes will tend to be far lower than snapshot-based products. Furthermore, Storage Replica operates at the partition layer and therefore replicates all VSS snapshots created by Windows Server or backup software; this allows use of application-consistent data snapshots for point in time recovery, especially unstructured user data replicated asynchronously.

The Setup I used two servers both domain joined, And there are different ways to configure the Storage Replica, the easy way and the 10 second way.

First we are installing the Storage replica feature and the File server Role.  The Storage replica feature needs a reboot.

Or use Powershell

install-WindowsFeature "Storage-Replica" –IncludeAllSubFeature

If you don’t know the module name you can find it easily

A reboot is needed.

Doing this server by server is not handy, So placing this together saves us some time.

$Servers = “Building-5”,”Building-9”

$Servers | ForEach { Install-WindowsFeature -ComputerName $_ -Name Storage-Replica,FS-FileServer -IncludeManagementTools -restart }

The –restart does an automatic restart if this is needed.

Storage Replica prerequisites

• Active Directory Domain Services forest.
• Storage Spaces with SAS JBODs, Storage Spaces Direct, fibre channel SAN, shared VHDX, iSCSI Target, or local SAS/SCSI/SATA storage. SSD or faster recommended for replication log drives. Microsoft recommends that the log storage be faster than the data storage. Log volumes must never be used for other workloads.
• At least one Ethernet/TCP connection on each server for synchronous replication, but preferably RDMA.
• At least 2GB of RAM and two cores per server. (with less memory the replication won’t start)
• A network between servers with enough bandwidth to contain your IO write workload and an average of 5ms round trip latency or lower, for synchronous replication. Asynchronous replication does not have a latency recommendation.

As there is no Gui on the replica part we need to configure this by PowerShell or with the new Windows Admin Center

• Download and install Windows Admin Center.

Both our servers had Two extra disks. One log and Data Disk.

• You must create two volumes on each enclosure: one for data and one for logs.
• Log and data disks must be initialized as GPT, not MBR.
• The two data volumes must be of identical size.
• The two log volumes should be of identical size.
• All replicated data disks must have the same sector sizes.
• All log disks must have the same sector sizes.
• The log volumes should use flash-based storage, such as SSD. Microsoft recommends that the log storage be faster than the data storage. Log volumes must never be used for other workloads.
• The data disks can use HDD, SSD, or a tiered combination and can use either mirrored or parity spaces or RAID 1 or 10, or RAID 5 or RAID 50.
• The log volume must be at least 9GB by default and may be larger or smaller based on log requirements.
• The File Server role is only necessary for Test-SRTopology to operate, as it opens the necessary firewall ports for testing.

As you can see there are some needs for the Replication As I show you below with the performance test why you need this.

First we are configuring the Disks on both servers. with some PowerShell commands but this can also be done with Disk manager.

Get-Disk | Where FriendlyName -eq ‘Msft Virtual Disk’

Get-Disk | Where FriendlyName -eq ‘Msft Virtual Disk’|Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle GPT –PassThru

1..2 | % { Get-Disk $_ }| Where FriendlyName -eq ‘Msft Virtual Disk’|New-Partition -AssignDriveLetter -UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume -FileSystem ReFS -NewFileSystemLabel "SR01-disk" -Confirm:$false

I formatted the disk with ReFS and not with NTFS.

Now that the disks are in place we can start but before we start building the replica I want to make sure the connection and the network is fast and the server can deliver the performance we need.

Therefor I download a test tool Diskspd. https://aka.ms/diskspd

Important is that the network speed between the server is good as this is the life line for the storage replica. We can test the replication before the build things for real.

With this test tool we bring up a small load to test the server.

Using the Diskspd with the line below.

Diskspd.exe -c1g -d600 -W5 -C5 -b8k -t2 -o2 -r -w5 –i100 –j2 E:\test

Storage replica has a great test tool report. So with this we configure the test. Using Powershell

MD c:\temp 

Test-SRTopology -SourceComputerName "Building-5" -SourceVolumeName "e:" -SourceLogVolumeName "f:" -DestinationComputerName "Building-9" -DestinationVolumeName "e:" -DestinationLogVolumeName "f:" -DurationInMinutes 30 -ResultPath c:\Temp

#set output file
$outputfile="$Env:TEMP"

Test-SRTopology -SourceComputerName "Building-5" -SourceVolumeName "e:" -SourceLogVolumeName "f:" -DestinationComputerName "Building-9" -DestinationVolumeName "e:" -DestinationLogVolumeName "f:" -IntervalInSeconds 5 -DurationInMinutes 30 -ResultPath $outputfile

#open output file
If (Test-Path $outputFile) { Invoke-Item $outputFile\TestSrTopologyReport.html } Else { Write-Host "FAILED: Output file not found: $url" -fore red }
Write-Host "Done" -ForegroundColor Cyan

while running the Test-SRTopology  with the -DurationInMinutes 30  option we also run Diskspd.

Diskspd.exe -c1g -d600 -W5 -C5 -b8k -t2 -o2 -r -w5 –i100 –j2 E:\test

It is a 1 Gb file placed on our E drive that is our Data disk for replication.

As you can see I have just one network adapter and no RDMA and in this config I hit the limit of the CPU and the network card max 4.4 Gbps not bad for a test config. (if you use a better machine in Azure Pick a Azure H-series those have RDMA

One CPU with 99% usage.

When the test is done the is a log file created  in    -ResultPath c:\Temp
Open the log file and detailed information is there about the test. this is why I choose 30 min duration.

Nice graph about the Data throughput, in this case not bad.

the Latency is always a issue this could change you from sync to async or more network adapters or better disks.  But for now it is good.

Log Volume Free Disk Space Test: The log volume F: in Building-5 has enough free space to hold the recommended log volume size of 8GB

Log Volume Free Disk Space Test: The log volume F: in Building-9 has enough free space to hold the recommended log volume size of 8GB

Storage replica has not that much PowerShell commands

#list all the commands
get-command *sr*

Setting up the actual replica is done with a long PowerShell command

The default log size is 8GB. Depending on the results of the Test-SRTopology cmdlet, you may decide to use -LogSizeInBytes with a higher or lower value.

New-SRPartnership -SourceComputerName "Building-5" –SourceRGName rg01 -SourceVolumeName "e:" -SourceLogVolumeName "f:" -DestinationComputerName "Building-9" –DestinationRGName rg02 -DestinationVolumeName "e:" -DestinationLogVolumeName "f:"

The default log size is 8GB. Depending on the results of the Test-SRTopology cmdlet, you may decide to use -LogSizeInBytes with a higher or lower value.

New-SRPartnership -SourceComputerName "Building-5" –SourceRGName rg01 -SourceVolumeName "e:" -SourceLogVolumeName "f:" -DestinationComputerName "Building-9" –DestinationRGName rg02 -DestinationVolumeName "e:" -DestinationLogVolumeName "f:" -LogSizeInBytes 1gb

here you can see the disk setup between both servers, the active side you can access the data disk, on the passive side the disk is not accessible.

Don’t place files on the Log disk.

To get replication source and destination state, use Get-SRGroup and Get-SRPartnership

Get-SRGroup

Get-SRGroup |fl *

Get-SRPartnership

(Get-SRGroup).replicas

This is just after the creation so no data yet for the last time in sync.

New-SRPartnership -SourceComputerName "Building-5" –SourceRGName rg01 -SourceVolumeName "e:" -SourceLogVolumeName "f:" -DestinationComputerName "Building-9" –DestinationRGName rg02 -DestinationVolumeName "e:" -DestinationLogVolumeName "f:"

For troubleshooting there are some events that you can check, go to the event viewer and check for the Storage replica events.

Or check the events with PowerShell

Get-WinEvent -ProviderName Microsoft-Windows-StorageReplica -max 20

On the destination server, we can do the same or look for the events in the eventlog.

Get-WinEvent -ProviderName Microsoft-Windows-StorageReplica | Where-Object {$_.ID -eq "1215"} | fl

(Get-SRGroup).Replicas | Select-Object numofbytesremaining

There are also a lot of performance counters that can be viewed with PowerShell

Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Total Bytes Received"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Total Bytes Sent"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Avg. Network Send Latency"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Replication State"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Last Recovery Elapsed Time"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Partition I/O Statistics(*)\Number of times flush paused"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Flushed Recovery Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Recovery Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Flushed Replication Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Replication Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Messages Received"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Messages Sent"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Partition I/O Statistics(*)\Avg. App Write Latency"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Partition I/O Statistics(*)\Avg. App Read Latency"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Target RPO"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Current RPO"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Avg. Log Queue Length"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Current Log Queue Length"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Total Bytes Received"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Total Bytes Sent"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Avg. Network Send Latency"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Replication State"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Avg. Message Round Trip Latency"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Last Recovery Elapsed Time"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Flushed Recovery Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Recovery Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Flushed Replication Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Replication Transactions"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Max Log Sequence Number"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Messages Received"
Get-Counter -Counter "\Storage Replica Statistics(*)\Number of Messages Sent"

these counters look like this

To remove the Replication we run the following command :

Get-SRPartnership Get-SRPartnership | Remove-SRPartnership Get-SRGroup | Remove-SRGroup

Or change the direction of the replication just run the PowerShell command

#move the replication direction from one site, use the

Set-SRPartnership -NewSourceComputerName "Building-9" -SourceRGName rg02 -DestinationComputerName "Building-5" -DestinationRGName rg01

But all this PowerShell my fear you on using this. Good news than when using Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser-based app for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, and Windows 10 PCs. It comes at no additional cost beyond Windows and is ready to use in production.

Get it here

When opening the Source Storage Replica server you will see a quick over view of you configuration

Easy switch replication direction.

Notifications on the preformed actions

With an overview of the current configuration.

But the best part of Windows Admin Center is creating a new Replica. I removed the old replica and create a new one with the WAC.

Fill in the source and destination and your done.

With the Admin center you got a GUI wrapper for creating the Storage replica, No PowerShell needed

There are more options in Windows Admin Center that could be useful to you just try it.

 

And if you want to use file replication to Azure take a look at the Azure File Sync https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-introduction

Step by Step Azure File Sync – on-premises file servers to #Azure Files Storage Sync Service

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/step-by-step-azure-file-sync-on-premises-file-servers-to-azure-files-storage-sync-service-afs-cloud-msignite/

 

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If you want to upgrade your domain controller and make this ready for server 2019. In this case I have only one Domain controller running server 2016.

When you do a Upgrade of your current Domain Controller you may get this message during the Setup of Windows server 2019

Go to the Source files of Windows server 2019 and look for ADPrep

In the command line  adprep.exe /forestprep /forest <domainname>

If you press any other key than the C it will quit the upgrade.

Press C

 

You can see a upgrade from schema 87 to 88

next step is a domain prep

ADPrep /domainprep /domain <domainname>

 

No reboot is needed, go back to the Setup press refresh and the setup will continue.

Depending on the Computer Speed you will see this

If the installation fails keep an eye on the error code. In this case I had a simulation of this and I skipped some updates.

Checked the code and see the solution.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10587/windows-10-get-help-with-upgrade-installation-errors

An error that begins with 0xC1900101 is usually a driver error. If you see any of these error codes, try the following steps first to fix the problem. If these steps don’t work, see Resolve Windows 10 upgrade errors for more detailed technical info.

• 0xC1900101 – 0x20004
• 0xC1900101 – 0x2000c
• 0xC1900101 – 0x20017
• 0xC1900101 – 0x30018
• 0xC1900101 – 0x3000D
• 0xC1900101 – 0x4000D
• 0xC1900101 – 0x40017

1. Make sure that your device has enough space. Your device requires at least 16 GB of free space to upgrade a 32-bit OS, or 20 GB for a 64-bit OS. For more info, see Free up drive space in Windows 10.
2. Run Windows Update a few times. Download and install any available updates in Windows Update, including software updates, hardware updates, and some third-party drivers. Use the troubleshooter for Windows 10 to fix Windows Update errors.
3. Check third-party drivers and download any updates. You can find third-party drivers and installation instructions for any hardware you’ve added to your device on the manufacturer’s website.
4. Unplug extra hardware. Remove all external storage devices and drives, docks, and other hardware you might have plugged into your device that isn’t needed for basic functionality.
5. Check Device Manager for errors. Select the Start  button, then in the search box on the taskbar, type device manager. Choose Device Manager from the results. In the window that pops up, look for any device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it (you may have to select each category to switch to the list of devices). Press and hold (or right-click) the device name and select either Update Driver Software or Uninstall to correct the errors.
6. Remove third-party security software. Make sure you know how to reinstall your programs and that any necessary product keys are on hand. Windows Defender will help protect your device in the meantime.
7. Repair hard-drive errors. Select the Start  button, then in the search box on the taskbar, type command prompt. Choose Command Prompt from the list of results. In the window that pops up, type chkdsk/f C: and press the Enter key. Repairs automatically start on your hard drive, and you’ll be asked to restart your device.

 

I did do Option 2 and see the updates and installed it and retried the upgrade again and it worked without any issue.

After the update I did a restart for finishing the updates and another restart to make sure everything was fine then I restarted the upgrade successfully,

 

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Ignite is almost there. The benefit of being an MVP is that whole week We already had pre-ignite sessions and warmed up for Ignite. these are exiting times a lot of new content will be there and when Microsoft is showing the products we can blog about this with out breaking our NDA.

Already some teasers Windows Admin Center would be named a lot. As this is the webbased tool to manage your servers. In Azure or on prem.

Storage is also a big Thing. and migration to Azure and or from of moving your old servers to Azure. this is also a big topic.

As moving to the cloud is nice and easy ( well not always) the client is there also Intune – Autopilot – Rdmi – The modern workplace

As last year Microsoft announced the new RDmi and at Inspire there where also some sessions about RDmi .

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/part2-ultimate-step-to-remote-desktop-services-html5-quickstart-deployment-rds-vdi-rdp-rdmi/

Above are some examples of the HTML5 Client that you already can use in the current RDS environment.

There will be a lot off content passing this week. Thanks for reading my blog and following me on twitter.

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Windows Admin Center Azure Connection

Windows Admin Center is a new, locally-deployed, browser-based management tool set that lets you manage your Windows Servers with no Azure or cloud dependency. Windows Admin Center gives you full control over all aspects of your server infrastructure and is particularly useful for managing servers on private networks that are not connected to the Internet.

With every new version there are new plugins or options in Windows Admin Center so you server management is getting easier and quicker. In this blog I will show you how to build a point to site VPN from a windows server 2019 with Windows Admin Center. You will need the Insiders preview For this. 

The Azure Network Adapter extension in Windows Admin Center "automates the configuration for the Azure Virtual Network gateway as well as the on-premises VPN client," Microsoft’s announcement explained.

 

The setup of point-to-site VPN connections is enabled by using an Azure Network Adapter network extension in Windows Admin Center. In the Server manager under network there is the option to add the Azure VPN

Do the Azure Network adapter (ANA) + and If you are not registered to Azure already in the Windows Admin Center then you need to do this first.

Do the Register Windows Admin Center to azure.

Do Register, Remember you need to enable Popups I your browser is you are not allowing this.

Copy the Code and use this in the next login windows.

Paste the Code into the screen and you are sign in into Azure.

The next steps are importand as most of us don read the text and just press next. ‘-)

We select a tenant what to use in the Azure portal. You can find the right ID in you Azure Active directory

By doing Properties you will see the Tenand ID

Do register.

As Most do next and complaining it doesn’t work see the text :

Require permissions then click Grand permissions on YES. So go to the Azure portal

You’ll need to visit the Azure portal to grant permissions to the application:

Go to the Azure AD app registration

Select ‘Settings’ > ‘Required permissions’, then click ‘Grant Permissions’ > ‘Yes’

If you for get this step the popup will fail and you can’t add the network.

Now we can really begin with the Azure VPN connection. #ANA

Fill in the details your subscription and location with the network.

 

If you don’t have a Azure network you need to create one first in the Azure portal, as a Point to site connection is connection to you azure network.

After a few moments you can see in the Azure Portal that the Gateway is created.

Note: The creation could take much longer (~25 minutes) if the Azure Virtual Network gateway needs to be created. In this case it is I did not have a gateway.

Once your Point-to-site VPN is “Connected” your server now has a connection to the Azure Virtual Network.  The server will be able to communicate to any Azure resources in the Virtual Network.

In the Windows Admin Center you get a nice detailed overview of the connection. Once your Point-to-site VPN is “Connected” your server now has a connection to the Azure Virtual Network.  The server will be able to communicate to any Azure resources in the Virtual Network.

On the Client you see also the extra networks. I created Two extra Point to Site connections. to two different subscriptions.  just to see if this was working.

To test if the connection was working I connect to a Azure VM by the internal IP.

The internal network IP of the Azure VM.

As you can see the Created certificates to Azure are on the Windows server 2019.

See how easy this is!

---

Ready to give it a shot!?  Try out Azure Network Adapter in the Windows Admin Center Version 1809!
Note: Windows Admin Center Version 1809 will be released in September.

---

Previously creating hybrid cloud connectivity required expertise in networking, certificate management, and even infrastructure setup and maintenance.  Now with the Azure Network Adapter in Windows Admin Center (version 1809), hybrid connectivity can be configured with the click of a button!  The Azure Network Adapter automates the configuration of the Azure Virtual Network gateway and VPN client installation for you!

 

 

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Windows Server 2019 USB file Witness

This blog post is the first of a series on Windows Server 2019. #MSIgnite is coming and there will be a lot of new features coming. So in preparation I’ll show you what is changed and how to build things in Windows Server 2019. In this there is a upgrade and some new functions to the Cluster.

1. Hybrid: Windows Server 2019 and Windows Admin Center will make it easier for our customers to connect existing on-premises environments to Azure. With Windows Admin Center it also easier for customers on Windows Server 2019 to use Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and more services will be added over time.
2. Security: Security continues to be a top priority for our customers and we are committed to helping our customers elevate their security posture. Windows Server 2016 started on this journey and Windows Server 2019 builds on that strong foundation, along with some shared security features with Windows 10, such as Defender ATP for server and Defender Exploit Guard.
3. Application Platform: Containers are becoming popular as developers and operations teams realize the benefits of running in this new model. In addition to the work we did in Windows Server 2016, we have been busy with the Semi-Annual Channel releases and all that work culminates in Windows Server 2019. Examples of these include Linux containers on Windows, the work on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and the smaller container images.
4. Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI): If you are thinking about evolving your physical or host server infrastructure, you should consider HCI. This new deployment model allows you to consolidate compute, storage, and networking into the same nodes allowing you to reduce the infrastructure cost while still getting better performance, scalability, and reliability.

 

Installing the Windows Server 2019 is not different than 2016. There is an extra disk space warning menu.

As an upgrade I want to keep my files.

If you need to free up more disk space then there is a little warning. It may happen that the screen needs to refresh before you see the confirm option.

The upgrade is starting depending on the server speed it will take some time. 

After the upgrade is done and the first logon the Server manager is starting and there is a popup of would you like to install Windows Admin Center.

 

Now that the upgrade is done we can take a look at the Cluster Changes. First if we check the Cluster Functional Level with PowerShell.

Get-Cluster | Select ClusterFunctionalLevel

This is now Version 10

• Windows Server 2012 R2 functional level value of 8
• Windows Server 2016 functional level value of 9
• Windows Server 2019 functional level value of 10

 

The other big change is the placement of your witness files. this can now be on a USB device.

One of the quorum models for Failover Clustering is the ability to use a file share as a witness resource.  As a recap, the File Share Witness is designated a vote in the Cluster when needed and can act as a tie breaker in case there is ever a split between nodes (mainly seen in multi-site scenarios). See also my other blog posts https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/category/clustering/ 

This means NO kerberos, NO domain controller, NO certificates, and NO Cluster Name Object needed, and NO account needed on the nodes.

Simply plug your USB drive into the port in the router and get into your router’s interface.  In there, you can set up your share name, username, and password for access.  Use the PowerShell command above pointing it to the router and share, and you are good to go.  To answer your next question, this works with SMB 2.0 and above.  SMB 3.0 is not required for the witness type.

Setting up the share on my network device

Next is setting the Witness, this can only be done with PowerShell.

Set-ClusterQuorum -FileShareWitness \\SERVER\SHARE -Credential $(Get-Credential)

A credential popup, and type your account and password.

After this check your cluster and you can see the Witness is set.

 

Other Cluster Changes are there but not direct visible in the Gui PowerShell is needed/

When comparing the Storage space section there are some other options and more. Not all options are new some have a different value.

 

Windows Server 2019                                                                                                          Windows Server 2016

One of these changes is S2DBusTypes in Windows Server 2016 it has a value of 0 but it could be changed if you had different storage. (not supported)

I created a blog post about this to add USB storage to build a SOFS with clustered storage spaces. So enabling the options I start Building My Scaleout File Server with My USB thumbdrive Storage.

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/building-usb-sofs-with-storage-spaces-direct-s2d-ws2016/

With a little help of this STORAGE_BUS_TYPE enumeration on MSDN we could do Fun things with some old disks.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff800833(v=vs.85).aspx

 

In server 2019 it has a value of 396288 which is the the number of the supported disk types for Storage spaces direct.

S2DBusTypes                           : 396288

Changing these values is not best practice and could brake your cluster. Or bring unstable situations. 

 

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In the Azure portal every day there are some changes some are big others are minor.

In this blog I show you the change in the VM creation.

When Creating a NEW VM you can see the change now there are several tabs and the best part is you can jump forward with out filling in all the fields.

Creating the NSG port rules.  Select which virtual machine network ports are accessible from the public internet. You can specify more limited or granular network access on the Networking tab.

Creating the NSG directly

The Identity Settings with the Auto-Shutdown and even select the backup

I think this layout is much better and gives you a better overview on the VM creation with all the options.  Hope this will be there for the Containers also

 

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The new new tool Windows Admin Center is THE tool to use when managing your Environment you can install this on almost any server (no Domain Controller) but even this device needs a reboot from time to time. Therefor we make the Windows Admin Center High available. When installing this on a cluster the Tools gets better uptime. And is there when you need it. The resources that are used is minimal.

Windows Admin Center is a new, locally-deployed, browser-based management tool set that lets you manage your Windows Servers with no Azure or cloud dependency. Windows Admin Center gives you full control over all aspects of your server infrastructure and is particularly useful for managing servers on private networks that are not connected to the Internet.

Windows Admin Center is the modern evolution of "in-box" management tools, like Server Manager and MMC. It complements System Center – it’s not a replacement.

First we take our cluster, in this case my test cluster witch runs all kinds of load.

Get the latest Windows Admin center build. http://aka.ms/WACDownload

save this on the Cluster node, and remember you can’t run Windows Admin Center with IE – Internet Explorer!

When checking this I saw the Cluster team create already a Powershell Script to make the WAC HA. so there goes my blog.

Well You can run the PowerShell Scripts. But that’s no Fun.  but I understand if you are busy and or you don’t want to know what is behind the script.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/deploy/high-availability

In this case I do it all manual, well not all there are some good parts in the Script

First we need a Certificate, I use a self signed and yes this needs to be changed every 90 days

Fill in the Variables 

$clientAccessPoint="mvpwac03"
$tmpPassword = "Temppassword"
$certPath = "c:\temp\sme3.pfx"
#####
Write-Output "Creating self signed certificate"
    $domain= (Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem).Domain
    $dnsName = $clientAccessPoint+"."+$domain
    $cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -DnsName $dnsName -CertStoreLocation "cert:\LocalMachine\My" -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddMonths(3)
    $certPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $tmpPassword -Force -AsPlainText
    $cert | Export-PfxCertificate -FilePath $certPath -Password $certPassword | Out-Null 

 

Import the Certificate

$cert.Import($certPath, $certPassword,’DefaultKeySet’)

Save the Thumbprint for later

$cert.Thumbprint

Now We are installing the Windows Admin Center , I use a preview but get the latest version here http://aka.ms/WACDownload

Don’t forget the trusted site checkbox.

Here is the Thumbprint that is used in the Certificate , Next is installing the Windows Admin Center.

Now that Windows Admin Center is installed We are almost ready.

The next steps are stopping the services and set this to manual as the Failover Cluster Manager controls the run status

Set-Service ServerManagementGateway -startuptype "manual"
Stop-Service ServerManagementGateway

Now that this is ready we need to think about the file location as this is currently on the C drive.

And we don’t want to have two or more configurations. there for we place this on the CSV volume.

Copy all the file into the CSV volume folder

When this is done we are adjusting the Services.

 

$staticAddress="10.255.255.222"
$portNumber="443"
$smePath="C:\ClusterStorage\vdisk20\ux"
$certThumbprint="1D243A17BBD62271DA0DF8EE4FF0FD65C5AE5A37"
$clientAccessPoint="mvpwac03"
$registryPath = "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\ServerManagementGateway\Ha"

    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name IsHaEnabled -Value "true" -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name StoragePath -Value $smePath -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name Thumbprint -Value $certThumbprint -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name Port -Value $portNumber -PropertyType DWord -Force | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name ClientAccessPoint -Value $clientAccessPoint -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
    $staticAddressValue = $staticAddress -join ‘,’
    New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name StaticAddress -Value $staticAddress -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
   
    New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\ServerManagementGateway -Name InstallDir -Value $smePath -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ServerManagementGateway -Name ImagePath -Value $smePath\sme.exe -PropertyType String -Force | Out-Null

   
    #grant permissions to Network Service for the UX folder
    $Acl = Get-Acl $UxFolder
    $sID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier("S-1-5-20")
    $Ar = New-Object  system.security.accesscontrol.filesystemaccessrule($sID,"FullControl","ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit","None", "Allow")
    $Acl.SetAccessRule($Ar)
    Set-Acl $UxFolder $Acl

 

After running this the path changed to the CSV location and the HA values are there

 

The Windows Admin Center HA values are there.

The last step on this cluster node is creating the cluster resource.

$staticAddress="10.255.255.222"
$clientAccessPoint="mvpwac03"
$registryPath2 = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManagementGateway\Ha"
   
Add-ClusterGenericServiceRole -ServiceName ServerManagementGateway -Name $clientAccessPoint -CheckpointKey $registryPath2 -StaticAddress $staticAddress

Remember the HA cluster resource does not need the  HKLM:\ as in the other variables.

Now we have installed the Windows Admin Center in the Cluster.  For all the other nodes in the cluster we need to do almost the same.

Or we could export the Register keys and add them in the nodes as we already placed the files on the CSV and created a cluster resource.

All the other nodes don’t have a Windows Admin Center services. Using the register keys is working but you will need a reboot.  As we create first a fake services and then place the regkeys no reboot is needed. Or just import the register keys and do a reboot of the node.

New-Service -Name ServerManagementGateway -DisplayName "Windows Admin Center" -BinaryPathName "C:\ClusterStorage\vdisk20\ux"

First regkey <>

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManagementGateway]
"Version"="1.1.24609.0"
"InstallDir"="C:\\ClusterStorage\\vdisk20\\ux"
"SmePort"="443"
"UseHttps"="1"
"DevMode"=""
"DataEncryptionCertificateThumbprint"="83D5FBC5AD758C2B23BADBD83117AC5EAA0E8F2B"
"RedirectPort80"="1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManagementGateway\Ha]
"IsHaEnabled"="true"
"StoragePath"="C:\\ClusterStorage\\vdisk20\\ux"
"Thumbprint"="1D243A17BBD62271DA0DF8EE4FF0FD65C5AE5A37"
"Port"=dword:000001bb
"ClientAccessPoint"="mvpwac03"
"StaticAddress"="10.255.255.222"

 

Second Regkey <>

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ServerManagementGateway]
"Type"=dword:00000010
"Start"=dword:00000003
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="C:\\ClusterStorage\\vdisk20\\ux\\sme.exe"
"DisplayName"="Windows Admin Center"
"ObjectName"="NT Authority\\NetworkService"
"Description"="Windows Admin Center"
"FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,d0,07,00,00,00,00,00,00,d0,07,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"Environment"=hex(7):43,00,4f,00,4d,00,50,00,55,00,54,00,45,00,52,00,4e,00,41,\
  00,4d,00,45,00,3d,00,4d,00,56,00,50,00,57,00,41,00,43,00,30,00,33,00,00,00,\
  5f,00,43,00,4c,00,55,00,53,00,54,00,45,00,52,00,5f,00,4e,00,45,00,54,00,57,\
  00,4f,00,52,00,4b,00,5f,00,46,00,51,00,44,00,4e,00,5f,00,3d,00,4d,00,56,00,\
  50,00,57,00,41,00,43,00,30,00,33,00,2e,00,6d,00,76,00,70,00,2e,00,6c,00,6f,\
  00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,5f,00,43,00,4c,00,55,00,53,00,54,00,45,00,52,00,\
  5f,00,4e,00,45,00,54,00,57,00,4f,00,52,00,4b,00,5f,00,48,00,4f,00,53,00,54,\
  00,4e,00,41,00,4d,00,45,00,5f,00,3d,00,4d,00,56,00,50,00,57,00,41,00,43,00,\
  30,00,33,00,00,00,5f,00,43,00,4c,00,55,00,53,00,54,00,45,00,52,00,5f,00,4e,\
  00,45,00,54,00,57,00,4f,00,52,00,4b,00,5f,00,4e,00,41,00,4d,00,45,00,5f,00,\
  3d,00,4d,00,56,00,50,00,57,00,41,00,43,00,30,00,33,00,00,00,00,00

With this in place all nodes can run Windows admin center in HA mode, but it will not run on IE. and this is the only default browser on the server. To test if it is working you will need Edge or Chrome.

As you can see it is not that simple to make things high available. Using the Powershell scripts provided by microsoft But if using these script you need to rename the MSI file if you are using the insiderspreview or any other build that is not named as ServerManagementGateway.msi

WindowsAdminCenterPreview1808.msi rename to ServerManagementGateway.msi 

You can deploy Windows Admin Center in a failover cluster to provide high availability for your Windows Admin Center gateway service. The solution provided is an active-passive solution, where only one instance of Windows Admin Center is active. If one of the nodes in the cluster fails, Windows Admin Center gracefully fails over to another node, letting you continue managing the servers in your environment seamlessly.

High-availability deployment scripts from Windows Admin Center HA Setup Scripts zip file. Download the .zip file containing these scripts to your local machine and then copy the scripts as needed.

 

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