|
|
By Keith Mayer |
Article Rating: |
|
March 14, 2013 02:00 PM EDT |
Reads: |
10,946 |
Windows Server 2012 and our completely free Hyper-V Server 2012 certainly have some really cost-effective new storage options, with Storage Spaces and Hyper-V over SMB 3.0. However, many IT Pros have already invested in iSCSI shared storage and, as a result, many Hyper-V deployments also need to be able to leverage these existing storage investments.
iSCSI? No problem! Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 include native support for a software iSCSI initiator as well as MPIO ( Multipath IO ) for resiliency and load balancing of storage IO over multiple network paths.
In this article, we’ll walk through the process of connecting Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 to common iSCSI storage arrays. Because most of my IT Pro friends are running Hyper-V either on Windows Server 2012 Server Core or Hyper-V Server 2012, both options without a local console GUI, I’ll be providing my examples below in PowerShell.
NOTE: In this article, I make the assumption that your iSCSI storage array is already configured and that your Hyper-V host is already physically attached and zoned into your iSCSI storage network.
- Don’t have an iSCSI Storage Array? Did you know that Windows Server 2012 includes an iSCSI Target role that, along with Failover Clustering, allows it to become a cost-effective and highly-available iSCSI Storage Array? Walk through the process of getting this configured in the following Step-by-Step Guide:
DO IT: Step-by-Step: Build a Windows Server 2012 Storage Server
Let’s Get Things “Started” … A software iSCSI initiator is installed by default on Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 as the MSiSCSI service. However, the MSiSCSI service isn't set to automatically startup, so we can start the MSiSCSI service with the following PowerShell command lines:
Set-Service –Name MSiSCSI –StartupType Automatic
Start-Service MSiSCSI
After running the above cmdlets, you can check on the status of the MSiSCSI service with the following command line:
Get-Service –Name MSiSCSI
Now Let’s Get “Connected’ … After starting the MSiSCSI service, we can connect from our Hyper-V host to the iSCSI target on the storage array with the following PowerShell command line:
New-IscsiTargetPortal –TargetPortalAddress <IP_Address or FQDN of storage array>
$target = Get-IscsiTarget
Connect-IscsiTarget –NodeAddress $target.NodeAddress
If you’re successfully connected to the target on your iSCSI storage array, you should see the connection status returned with the following cmdlet:
Get-IscsiConnection
Now, let’s make the session for this iSCSI connection persist across reboots with the following command:
Get-IscsiSession | Register-IscsiSession
You can check to make sure the IsPersistent value is True for this session with the following command line:
Get-IscsiSession
We’re ready to start using our new iSCSI disk! After successfully persisting our connection to the iSCSI target session, we’re ready to begin using our new iSCSI disk. To verify that your Hyper-V host sees the new iSCSI disk, use the following command:
Get-Disk | Where-Object BusType –eq “iSCSI”
Note the disk Number in the first column and verify that the Partition Style column shows “Raw” ( ie. unused ) for this new disk. To initialize and format the new disk, use the following command line, being careful to specify the correct disk number from the command output above:
Initialize-Disk –Number <Disk_Number> –PartitionStyle GPT –PassThru | New-Partition –AssignDriveLetter –UseMaximumSize | Format-Volume
After this command completes, you can use the following command to confirm the drive letter assigned to the new partition on your iSCSI disk so that you can begin using this path for storing new virtual machines and virtual hard disks!
Get-Partition
Great! But … What about High Availability? Good question! Highly available iSCSI connections are generally configured via MPIO ( Multipath IO ). MPIO support is also included in Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012, but this feature first needs to be installed with the following command line:
Install-WindowsFeature Multipath-IO
After MPIO is installed, configure it to automatically claim all iSCSI devices for MPIO with the following command lines:
Enable-MSDSMAutomaticClaim –BusType iSCSI
Set-MPIOSetting –NewDiskTimeout 60
After running these commands, restart your server for MPIO discovery to take effect. After restarting, you can also configure a Round Robin load-balancing policy for all newly claimed devices with the following command:
Set-MSDSMGlobalDefaultLoadBalancePolicy -Policy RR
NOTE: The above commands leverage the Microsoft MPIO DSM ( Device Specific Module ). Prior to attempting to implement MPIO between your hosts and storage array, be sure to check with your storage array vendor to confirm their compatibility with this DSM. In some cases, your storage vendor may require an alternate DSM and/or a different MPIO configuration. Many storage arrays that are SPC-3 compliant will work with the Microsoft DSM, but we recommend confirming compatibility with your storage vendor before proceeding.
Want More? Become a Virtualization Expert in 20 Days! This month, my fellow Technical Evangelists and I are writing a new blog article series, titled Become a Virtualization Expert in 20 Days! Each day we’ll be releasing a new article that focuses on a different area of virtualization as it relates to compute, storage and/or networking. Be sure to catch the whole series at:
After you’re done reading the series, if you’d like to learn more and begin preparing for MCSA certification on Windows Server 2012, join our FREE Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” online study group for IT Pros at:
 |
Build Your Lab! Download Windows Server 2012 |
 |
Don’t Have a Lab? Build Your Lab in the Cloud with Windows Azure Virtual Machines |
 |
Want to Get Certified? Join our Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Study Group |
Keith Mayer is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud. Keith has over 17 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles, such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of IT professionals worldwide on the design and implementation of enterprise technology solutions.
Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.
Keith is the author of the IT Pros ROCK! Blog on Microsoft TechNet, voted as one of the Top 50 "Must Read" IT Blogs.
Keith also manages the Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Challenge - a FREE online study group for IT Pros interested in studying and preparing for certification on Windows Server 2012. Join us and become the next "Early Expert"!
@ThingsExpo Stories By Carmen Gonzalez  The IoT's basic concept of collecting data from as many sources possible to drive better decision making, create process innovation and realize additional revenue has been in use at large enterprises with deep pockets for decades. So what has changed?
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Prasanna Sivaramakrishnan, Solutions Architect at Red Hat, will discuss the impact commodity hardware, ubiquitous connectivity, and innovations in open source software are having on the connected universe of people, things and information in the IoT. Oct. 24, 2015 12:45 PM EDT Reads: 195 | By Liz McMillan  SYS-CON Events announced today that Super Micro Computer, Inc., a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server, storage technology and green computing, will exhibit at the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions® for Data Center, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IT, Hadoop/Big Data, HPC and Embedded Systems worldwide. Supermi... Oct. 24, 2015 12:30 PM EDT Reads: 609 | By Carmen Gonzalez  Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, and June 7-9, 2016 at Javits Center, New York City, is co-located with Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world and ThingsExpo New York Call for Papers is now open. Oct. 24, 2015 12:15 PM EDT Reads: 263 | By Yeshim Deniz  The broad selection of hardware, the rapid evolution of operating systems and the time-to-market for mobile apps has been so rapid that new challenges for developers and engineers arise every day. Security, testing, hosting, and other metrics have to be considered through the process.
In his session at Big Data Expo, Walter Maguire, Chief Field Technologist, HP Big Data Group, at Hewlett-Packard, will discuss the challenges faced by developers and a composite Big Data applications builder, focusing on how to help solve the problems that developers are continuously battling. Oct. 24, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 202 | By Pat Romanski  Discussions of cloud computing have evolved in recent years from a focus on specific types of cloud, to a world of hybrid cloud, and to a world dominated by the APIs that make today's multi-cloud environments and hybrid clouds possible.
In this Power Panel at 17th Cloud Expo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists will address the importance of customers being able to use the specific technologies they need, through environments and ecosystems that expose their APIs to make true change and transformation possible. Oct. 24, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 354 | By Elizabeth White  SYS-CON Events announced today that Colovore, the Bay Area’s leading provider of scalable, high-density colocation solutions, will exhibit at the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
With power densities of 20 kW per rack and a pay-by-the-kW pricing model, Colovore is Silicon Valley’s premier provider of flexible, high-density colocation solutions. Our 9 MW facility has the power and cooling your servers need, and our team has decades of experience managing web infrastructure. We are optimized to ... Oct. 24, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 261 | By Liz McMillan  Most of the IoT Gateway scenarios involve collecting data from machines/processing and pushing data upstream to cloud for further analytics. The gateway hardware varies from Raspberry Pi to Industrial PCs. The document states the process of allowing deploying polyglot data pipelining software with the clear notion of supporting immutability.
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Shashank Jain, a development architect for SAP Labs, will discuss the objective, which is to automate the IoT deployment process from development to production scenarios using Docker containers. Oct. 24, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 233 | By Liz McMillan  The Internet of Things (IoT), in all its myriad manifestations, has great potential. Much of that potential comes from the evolving data management and analytic (DMA) technologies and processes that allow us to gain insight from all of the IoT data that can be generated and gathered. This potential may never be met as those data sets are tied to specific industry verticals and single markets, with no clear way to use IoT data and sensor analytics to fulfill the hype being given the IoT today. Oct. 24, 2015 11:30 AM EDT Reads: 304 | By Liz McMillan  The Internet of Things is clearly many things: data collection and analytics, wearables, Smart Grids and Smart Cities, the Industrial Internet, and more. Cool platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Intel's Galileo and Edison, and a diverse world of sensors are making the IoT a great toy box for developers in all these areas.
In this Power Panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists will discuss what things are the most important, which will have the most profound effect on the world, and what should we expect to see over the next couple of years. Oct. 24, 2015 11:15 AM EDT Reads: 269 | By Pat Romanski  Too often with compelling new technologies market participants become overly enamored with that attractiveness of the technology and neglect underlying business drivers. This tendency, what some call the “newest shiny object syndrome” is understandable given that virtually all of us are heavily engaged in technology. But it is also mistaken. Without concrete business cases driving its deployment, IoT, like many other technologies before it, will fade into obscurity. Oct. 24, 2015 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 252 | By Elizabeth White  For manufacturers, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a jumping-off point for innovation, jobs, and revenue creation. But to adequately seize the opportunity, manufacturers must design devices that are interconnected, can continually sense their environment and process huge amounts of data.
As a first step, manufacturers must embrace a new product development ecosystem in order to support these products. Oct. 24, 2015 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 194 | By Yeshim Deniz  Today air travel is a minefield of delays, hassles and customer disappointment. Airlines struggle to revitalize the experience. GE and M2Mi will demonstrate practical examples of how IoT solutions are helping airlines bring back personalization, reduce trip time and improve reliability.
In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect with GE, and Dr. Sarah Cooper, M2Mi’s VP Business Development and Engineering, will explore the IoT cloud-based platform technologies driving this change including privacy controls, data transparency and integration of real time context wi... Oct. 24, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 186 | By Pat Romanski  Container technology is shaping the future of DevOps and it’s also changing the way organizations think about application development. With the rise of mobile applications in the enterprise, businesses are abandoning year-long development cycles and embracing technologies that enable rapid development and continuous deployment of apps.
In his session at DevOps Summit, Kurt Collins, Developer Evangelist at Built.io, examines how Docker has evolved into a highly effective tool for application delivery by allowing increasingly popular Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS) platforms to quickly crea... Oct. 24, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 195 | By Pat Romanski  In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ben Bromhead, CTO of Instaclustr, will walk you through the basics of building an IoT-based platform leveraging Cassandra, Spark and Kafka. This session is aimed at developers, admins and DevOps engineers who have to build, run and maintain high performance IoT platforms as well as data scientists/engineers who are sick of ETL and want to work with the most up to date information. Oct. 24, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 406 | By Elizabeth White  Organizations already struggle with the simple collection of data resulting from the proliferation of IoT, lacking the right infrastructure to manage it. They can't only rely on the cloud to collect and utilize this data because many applications still require dedicated infrastructure for security, redundancy, performance, etc.
In his session at 17th Cloud Expo, Emil Sayegh, CEO of Codero Hosting, will discuss how in order to resolve the inherent issues, companies need to combine dedicated and cloud solutions through hybrid hosting – a sustainable solution for the data required to manage I... Oct. 24, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 600 | By Pat Romanski  Beacon technology offers a new way for companies to deliver value to their customers by enabling micro-location based interaction at every physical touch point. This knowledge opens up a new playground for creating personalized services and inventing new experiences between a company and its customers, but how exactly can organizations monetize this? For the past two years we have heard about mobile notifications and messaging, but this has not taken off and could be considered spamming. Oct. 24, 2015 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 146 | By Carmen Gonzalez  The Internet of Things is in the early stages of mainstream deployment but it promises to unlock value and rapidly transform how organizations manage, operationalize, and monetize their assets. IoT is a complex structure of hardware, sensors, applications, analytics and devices that need to be able to communicate geographically and across all functions. Once the data is collected from numerous endpoints, the challenge then becomes converting it into actionable insight. Oct. 24, 2015 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 356 | By Liz McMillan  WebRTC has had a real tough three or four years, and so have those working with it. Only a few short years ago, the development world were excited about WebRTC and proclaiming how awesome it was.
You might have played with the technology a couple of years ago, only to find the extra infrastructure requirements were painful to implement and poorly documented. This probably left a bitter taste in your mouth, especially when things went wrong. Oct. 24, 2015 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 990 |  In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect at GE, and Ibrahim Gokcen, who leads GE's advanced IoT analytics, focused on the Internet of Things / Industrial Internet and how to make it operational for business end-users. Learn about the challenges posed by machine and sensor data and how to marry it with enterprise data. They also discussed the tips and tricks to provide the Industrial Internet as an end-user consumable service using Big Data Analytics and Industrial Cloud. Oct. 24, 2015 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 141 | By Elizabeth White  From Fitbits, to connected cars, to sensors that water crops, making decisions is no longer enough, now you need to make decisions in context. To bring your next great IoT decision to life you need to be able to extend and connect beyond your traditional enterprise. But with thousands if not millions of different devices all with their own technologies, standards and security how do you connect with the right ones effectively. And technology is only one aspect of the challenge; how do you create the right business model to drive value from your solution? An IoT solution that doesn’t connect to... Oct. 24, 2015 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 209 |
|
|
|
|
|
|