#Azure Storage Spaces direct #S2D Standard Storage vs Premium Storage

I see this often in the Forums Should I use Standard Storage or should I use Premium storage. Well it Depends Premium cost more that Standard but even that depends in the basic. Can a $ 4000 Azure Storage space configuration out perform a $ 1700 Premium configuration. this blog post is not on how to configure Storage spaces but more an overview on concepts, did I pick the right machine or did I build the right configuration well it all depends.

I love the HPC vm sizes https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-hpc but also expensive.

So in these setups I did create a storage space direct configuration all almost basic. but Key is here pick the Right VM for the job.

Standard 6 node cluster 4 core 8GB memory total disks 96 Type S30 (1TB) RAW disk space 96TB and 32TB for the vDisk

Premium 3 node Cluster 2 core 16GB memory Total disks 9 Type P30 (1TB) RAW disk space 9TB and 3TB for the vDisk

Standard A8 (RDMA) 5 node cluster 8 core 56GB memory total disks 80 Type p20 (500GB) RAW disk space 40TB

So basically comparing both configs makes no sense Couse both configs are different. bigger machines vs little VM

and a lot less storage.

Standard Storage storage vs Premium

The performance of standard disks varies with the VM size to which the disk is attached, not to the size of the disk.

So the nodes have 16 disk each 16 * 500 IOPS and with a max bandwidth of 480 Mbps. that could be a issue as would I use the full GB network than I need atleast 125 MB/s

In the Premium it is all great building the same config as in the standard the cost would be $3300 vs $12000. If you have a solution and you need the specifications then this is the way to go.

Can I out perform the configuration with standard disks ? In an old blog post I did the performance test on a 5 node A8 machine and 16 premium storage P20- 500GB 40TB RAW and got a network throughput of 4.2Gbps

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/using-windows-storage-spaces-direct-with-hyper-converged-in-microsoft-azure-with-windows-server-2016/

Measurements are different on different machines and basically there is no one size fits all it all depends on the workload or config or needs.

using the script from (by Mikael Nystrom, Microsoft MVP) on the basic disk not very impressive list high latency but that’s the Standard storage.

The premium Storage is way faster and constant. So when using Azure and you need an amount of load or VM’s there is so much choice if you pick a different machine the results can be better. when hitting the IOPS ceiling of the VM. Prepare some calculations when building your new solution. Test some configurations first before you go in production.

Azure is changing everyday today this may be the best solution but outdated tomorrow.

Below are some useful links on the Machine type and storage type.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/acu

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/standard-storage

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-memory#ds-series

Thanks for reading my blog. Did you check my other blog post 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/

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Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cluster With NIC Teaming #WS2012 #vswitch

In my previous post “ https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/team-in-windows-2012-dos-and-donts/ “ I showed how to create a Windows server 2012 nic team. But what can you do with it ?

suppose you have multiple servers running windows server 2012 and they all have 4 10gb Nic’s this is a nice playground.

In my demo I have only 2 1gb nic’s but the samples are the same for any server.

Sample copy with nic teaming

What do we need to setup a Windows server 2012 with a hyper-v cluster ( I used the GUI version ) datacenter edition.

We can do the installation with a GUI or by PowerShell. I do a Mix GUI/posh

first we need to have the hyper-v and the Failover cluster feature installed

If you don’t know how to start

go to PowerShell ISE if you want.

or just the plain PowerShell

get-windowsfeature

This will show you a list of all the components you can install or have been installed

I do not know the name of the feature so I looked it up.

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Failover-Clustering

Install-WindowsFeature –Name Hyper-V -IncludeManagementTools –Restart

I have already done this so no reboot is needed.

Well the TEAM you could do this by GUI or with Posh

One fine tip If you use PowerShell keep your nic names simple no “ local area connection “ 1,2,3,4 etc. in the GUI you can click but is PowerShell you have to type and I know we are lazy.

Create the Team in PowerShell

New-NetLbfoTeam Team1 NIC1SW1,NIC2SW2 -TeamingMode SwitchIndependent -LoadBalancingAlgorithm HyperVPort -a

the –a is Accept else you get a yes or no .

Now that the team is there We can create a virtual switch that can hold our network adapters

New-VMSwitch “VirtualSwitch” -MinimumBandwidthMode Weight -NetAdapterName “Team01” -AllowManagementOS 0

-AllowManagementOS 0 means no lan connection

Edit 18-12-2013 So If you do want a network connection use 1

Now We create a virtual nic that connect us to the LAN or management

Add-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “LAN” -SwitchName “VirtualSwitch”

As You can see the Vnic is added to the adapter list

As we compare both adapters you can see that the Team holds only the Virtual switch protocol and the LAN hold an IP Winking smile

But what about QoS yes you will see a lot of different points on the web and all different yes you can set this.

Here is a nice link Microsoft also published some best practices for QoS.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj735303.aspx

Keep in mind that the Weight off all your nic’s should be 100

Don’t do DCB and Minimum Bandwidth rules on the same NICs, You can set this on every VM if you like or on the adapter. But ask your self do you need this ?

Live migration network needs the most power.

This is how you set this : these are just samples test before you set this is IMHO

Set-VMSwitch “VirtualSwitch -DefaultFlowMinimumBandwidthWeight 50

Set-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “LiveMigration” -MinimumBandwidthWeight 20

Set-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “CSV” -MinimumBandwidthWeight 50

Set-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “Management” -MinimumBandwidthWeight 30

I do not set this It is up to you

To create more Adapters it goes like this :

Add-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “Management” -SwitchName “VirtualSwitch”

Add-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “LiveMigration” -SwitchName “VirtualSwitch”

Add-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name “CSV” -SwitchName “VirtualSwitch”

And if you want to use a VLAN on these adapter yes you can :

Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -ManagementOS -VMNetworkAdapterName “Management” -Access -VlanId 111

Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -ManagementOS -VMNetworkAdapterName “LiveMigration” -Access -VlanId 15

Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -ManagementOS -VMNetworkAdapterName “CSV” -Access -VlanId 11

The default value for the -ManagementOS is True. This means that these three interfaces now show up in you

GUI with the names vEthernet (Management), vEthernet (Live Migration) and vEthernet (Cluster).

To separate the traffic between the interfaces we assign each vNIC its own VLAN.

Now that we have set and created the Vswitch and the Vnic’s we can get some info about this config

Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS -Name * | ft Name, VMName, MinimumBandwidthWeight, BandwidthPercentage, IsManagementOS

Get-Help Set-VMNetworkAdapter -Full

Get-Help Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -Full

Get-Help New-VMSwitch -Full

Get-Help Set-VMSwitch –Full

these command should give you a lot of info about these commands

or update-help get all the latest versions.

Get-NetAdapterVmq

Get-NetLbfoTeam

Get-VMSwitch |fl *

Now you will get a full list of all the settings

Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS

Get-VMNetworkAdapterVlan

Set the IP adress

get-NetIPAddress

Yes but how to set this easy but there are multiple ways. and by gui if you like.

New-NetIPAddress -PrefixLength 8 -InterfaceIndex 68 -IPAddress 12.12.12.12

With the above settings you can list all the adapters and find the InterfaceIndex to set the IP adress

Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS |where name -eq “csv” |fl *

Or just list one adapter

New-NetIPAddress -PrefixLength 8 -InterfaceIndex 68 -IPAddress 12.12.12.12 can set the IP but also this

New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias “vEthernet (nlb01)” -IPAddress 1.1.1.100 -PrefixLength “24” -DefaultGateway 1.1.1.254

So there are multiple ways to set the IP based on InterfaceAlias or InterfaceIndex

And DNS settings : Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias “vEthernet (nlb01)” -ServerAddresses 8.8.8.8, 4.4.4.4

and if you don’t want a gateway

New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias “iSCSI01” -IPAddress 192.168.100.11 -PrefixLength “24”

Cluster Creation Using all the Virtual nics

Now that all the network adapters are in place and all the nics have an IP address nicely named we can create our cluster I will do this quickly I created so many post on how to create a windows server 2012 cluster.

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/how-to-create-a-new-windows-server-2012-failover-cluster-setup/

Open the FCM I do the Validation a few warnings and yes I know.

Verifying that a node does not have multiple adapters connected to the same subnet.

Adapters vEthernet (LAN) and vEthernet (Management) on node I5NODE02.mvp.local have IP addresses on the same subnet.

Adapters vEthernet (ISCSI02) and vEthernet (ISCSI01) on node I5NODE02.mvp.local have IP addresses on the same subnet.

Adapters vEthernet (NLB02) and vEthernet (NLB01) on node I5NODE02.mvp.local have IP addresses on the same subnet.

I ignore the Warnings for now.

Now that my cluster is ready and I see all the NICs but they are named cluster network 1 to 5 yes you can rename this. And I advice this to do just to find the Nic easily don’t mesh up the wrong network.

just go to the properties of the nic and rename it

One thing left configure your live migration settings.

If you look at the VM network adapter here you can set the Bandwidth.

Greetings.

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com

@clustermvp

How to: Change the Network Binding order for SQL 2012 Windows Server 8 Failover Cluster (Setup)

During the SQL 2012 Setup there is a warning that my binding order is not correct. It looks ok but it is not. there are a couple of KB items on technet. this is on Windows 8 server

Why this is appearing did I make a mistake ? lets see mm my lan nic is on top. this looks ok so why this error. lets look at the SQL log

Ok here it is the SQL setup log file is it wrong ? local area connection* 11 is on top ? what is this ? lets lookit up .

NetworkBindingFacet: Looking up network binding order.

(05) 2012-03-18 14:03:04 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: ‘Local Area Connection* 11’ Device: ‘\Device\{2E9E3899-BB35-4E91-98D4-BF56F4ADE4F6}’ Domain: ” Adapter Id: ‘{2E9E3899-BB35-4E91-98D4-BF56F4ADE4F6}’

(05) 2012-03-18 14:03:04 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: ‘LAN’ Device: ‘\Device\{734667C2-FCC9-4874-B3E0-EDC3BA72F6AB}’ Domain: ‘mvp.local’ Adapter Id: ‘{734667C2-FCC9-4874-B3E0-EDC3BA72F6AB}’

(05) 2012-03-18 14:03:04 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: ‘ISCSI’ Device: ‘\Device\{1F016AE2-DD00-4B0F-B80B-57173AF2F36E}’ Domain: ” Adapter Id: ‘{1F016AE2-DD00-4B0F-B80B-57173AF2F36E}’

(05) 2012-03-18 14:03:04 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: ‘Cluster’ Device: ‘\Device\{BA1F99C0-0D58-44AA-85E0-ADFB1EF2C422}’ Domain: ” Adapter Id: ‘{BA1F99C0-0D58-44AA-85E0-ADFB1EF2C422}’

I know what it is it is the hidden cluster adapter which needed to be moved in the binding order, and that had to be done in the registry.

I opened up regedit and drilled down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Linkage and opened up the Bind value:

\Device\{2E9E3899-BB35-4E91-98D4-BF56F4ADE4F6}

\Device\{734667C2-FCC9-4874-B3E0-EDC3BA72F6AB}

Flip the registry keys and you are ready to go.

This is hard to find eh yes but you can use powershell

wmic nicconfig get Description,SettingID

More info about this is on MSDN

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189910(v=sql.110).aspx

changing-the-network-binding-order-in-windows-server-2008

and it you want to change this by powershell the get-itemproperty is the way.

Get-ItemProperty Registry::HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage\bind\*

After the NIC binding order change the SQL setup marked all as passed.

Samples :

Get-Item -Path Registry::HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Linkage\bind\* | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Property

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "IPenabled = $true" | select Description, IPAddress, index, SettingID

gwmi Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | where-object {$_.IPEnabled -eq "True"} | ft Description, SettingID -auto

Clustering on Windows 8 the first steps

Now that windows 8 is available to the public, I can show you how to build a cluster in windows 8 not that this is shocking different than in windows 2008R2. but here are the few steps. There is so much new stuff that it is a long blog with a lot of screen dumps for those who just want to see and not want to install a cluster.

First we need two servers I will build a two node cluster.

This is basically the first logon page. I already added the machine to the domain and give the network a name and installed the failover Role.

some screen shots

As in windows 2008R2 install the Role Failover Clustering and start to install the cluster.But where to start it looks so different. all the stuff is in the control panel.

The Server manager and the control panel are important , go to programs for the installed programs and not for roles or features. as you can see Winking smile

Now that we found the roles follow the wizard. For installing the roles right click on the server and choose add role the wizard popsup and check the role and or feature it is fast and easy.

the role is set and after a reboot ( I checked .NET 3.5 and other options ) that needed a reboot I’m ready for my cluster.

Do the check vallidation if the Cluster nodes are useable for clustering

The Report shows that the storage is not Ok . This is right I need to assign the storage to the cluster.

The next step is create the cluster. I created the Cluster and give a cluster Name and IP number

Now that the cluster is ready for usage. We see that it is slightly different than in windows 2008R2 . The options in the roles are changed, menus are different.

Lets see step by step what is changed. the screens tells you the change.

All the services that can be clustered out off the box just follow the wizard . and get a different view of the Items. It depends on what you want to see.

As you can see the right click on the servers and other items gives you a nice view what you can do. very nice thing is that now you can drain the roles and not only pause the node.

Nice is not the show events just right click and you are there.

Create an empty role just right click and you are there.

Assign disk and change the Cluster Quorum / witness disk

an overview of my windows 8 server running on hyper-v. I like the icons on the desktop Winking smile

the new server manager is way different and at first I thought WTF but after a few clicks I like it YES it need some adjustments but the start is OK nice over view of the things you want to change the first time. events ,performance yes this is cool nice views. really cool to much to put in one blog post. for now my denali cluster is ready and DC’s. all servers are test servers. probably the next version can’t be upgraded and all the work is gone so a lot of powershell exports for the next release.

NICE.

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production network card is not the first bound network card

Often when you do a validation health check the first nic is not the first nic and you did check it in the network options. There is a way to change this or to checkit.

You can change it in the advanced settings with the up down arrow.

Do this with WMI

Open a admin Command prompt in the search/run type CMD and instead of hitting the Enter key, use Ctrl+Shift + Enter this opens the Admin CMD.

Now Run :

wmic nicconfig get description, SettingID > C:\nicguidconfig.txt

Lookup the nicguidconfig.txt

It looks like this :

Description                                  SettingID
WAN Miniport (SSTP)                          {E28D896F-9EA8-433A-9C10-66C97C19A921}
WAN Miniport (IKEv2)                         {DEA99649-B5BF-4318-B16E-A36317939C93}
WAN Miniport (L2TP)                          {483C9FF8-503D-414B-B402-E4C1F1F568CB}
WAN Miniport (PPTP)                          {C0DE3E38-8BA7-479F-8B75-833F294C5AA8}
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)                         {DB2B4279-B5CF-4626-9DBA-32D0ECE44C87}
WAN Miniport (IPv6)                          {F3229805-869E-479E-BA76-DD643F1D1B80}
WAN Miniport (Network Monitor)               {72DD97A9-E544-4915-88D8-44E829C34F68}
Intel(R) 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection {39F6A82E-D18C-4642-A721-61BB49CC894B}
WAN Miniport (IP)                            {7C5653F0-144A-4534-9E34-28AC99CBA85E}
Broadcom 802.11 Multiband-netwerkadapter     {C4A5D563-B776-40BB-BA44-FF01E000D37B}
RAS Async Adapter                            {E2F8A220-AF88-446C-9A55-453E58DD3A33}
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter                     {D70E80B8-8684-4391-AAE8-F7104BBD5749}
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter                     {5EAB7E38-392E-42DD-AF36-3540D3265724}
Bluetooth-apparaat (Personal Area Network)   {EBFF2180-B91D-409C-B983-3DD788A7F3BC}
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter                     {A0E7C614-5C66-4A1F-8C5E-E41F81C0A5C2}
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter                       {4749EF9C-66DA-499B-BA8D-43AA8D76422A}