70-247 Series: Part 2

Part 1

Series Summary

Part 3

Design and Deploy System Center (19%) Continued….

Installing a Highly-Available Virtual Machine Manager Server
Virtual Machine Manager high availability can be achieved by installing Virtual Machine Manager on a Windows Failover Cluster. To provide high availability to the related components, you would also need to configure:

• Active Directory with more than one Domain Controller
• A File Server Failover Cluster (or DFS Replication with a DFS Namespace)
• A SQL Server Failover Cluster
• A SAN or other highly available storage
• At least two physical hosts

I have configured the following environment to support a highly available instance of Virtual Machine Manager. The File Server Cluster and SQL Server Cluster are pre-existing. If you would like some guidance on installing a SQL Server Cluster or a File Server Cluster, search this blog or see TechNet.
The VMM Servers are going to be installed as part of this blog post.

• Active Directory
  • DC1 192.168.10.100
  • DC2 192.168.10.101
• Storage
  • SAN1 192.168.10.105
• SQL Server Cluster
  • SQL1-FOC 192.168.10.110
  • SQL1-1 192.16.10.111
  • SQL1-2 192.168.10.112
  • SQL1-SCVMM 192.168.10.113
  • SQL1-1-Private 172.16.20.1
  • SQL1-2-Private 172.16.20.2
• VMM (To be deployed)
  • VMM1-FOC 192.168.10.120
  • VMM1-1 192.168.10.121
  • VMM1-2 192.168.10.122
  • VMM1 192.168.10.125
  • VMM1-1-Private 172.16.1.1
  • VMM1-2-Private 172.16.1.2
• File Server Cluster
  • FS1-FOC 192.168.10.130
  • FS1-1 192.168.10.131
  • FS1-2 192.168.10.132
  • FS1 192.168.10.135
  • FS1-1-Private 172.16.10.1
  • FS1-2-Private 172.16.10.2

Start by configuring your networking. You will need at least 2 network adapters to configure your Failover Cluster, it will work with just one if you are working in an extremely limited environment. The ideal setup is:

• 1 Network adapter for the Production network
• 1 Network adapter for the Cluster Private network
• 1 Network adapter for iSCSI (if used)

In my lab environment, iSCSI runs on the production network, so I have two network adapters. The production network is configured with an IP Address, DNS and a Gateway. The Cluster Private network is configured with just an IP address (no default gateway, see below in red), and it is on a different subnet to the Production network (see green arrows below).

You will want to repeat the configuration of the network adapters on each VMM server.
Next up, you’ll want to configure your storage. Connect to your storage array and connect to the iSCSI targets.
Please Note: I will not cover the process of configuring the Storage Array or SAN. This is very specific to your requirements. If you need a free iSCSI Target to get started, you can use Microsoft’s iSCSI Target software or Windows Server 2012 iSCSI or StarWind iSCSI. I have configured a StarWind iSCSI SAN for testing. There is one important option you need to select, shown below:

That’s about all the SAN discussions you will get in this series of blog posts. If you need assistance getting your “SAN” up and running, please post a comment.
Alright, let’s get onto the Servers.
Start the iSCSI initiator service


Click the Discovery tab and click Discover Portal

Enter the IP Address of your SAN and click OK
Please note: In the screenshot below, I have entered the hostname of my SAN, this works because I have the SAN running on my production network, which also has DNS running. This is not best practice – You should be entering in an IP Address.

Select the iSCSI target for your Quorum disk and click Connect
Please Note: I have multiple iSCSI targets to select here, if your SAN is configured properly, you will not have this many to pick from, you will only have the target you need to pick.

Click OK

You’ll want to repeat this process on each of the VMM Servers.
Configure the disks
Start Disk Management

Bring the disk online

Initialise the disk


Create a volume and assign it the label Quorum and the drive letter Q:\




You don’t need to configure the disks on the other node (There is only one disk and it’s shared between them). The disk won’t have a drive letter on the other node and it will be offline, that’s ok.

Install Failover Clustering Role
Run the PowerShell commands shown below (or use Server Manager)

Repeat this process on both nodes.
Create Failover Cluster
Start the Failover Cluster Manager

Right Click Failover Cluster Manager and select Create a Cluster

Click Next
Enter the name of your VMM servers and click Next

I have chosen not to validate the cluster. You should always validate the cluster. I will not be covering the process of validating a cluster. Search my blog if you would like help on validating a Failover Cluster.

Enter an IP Address and Name for your cluster and click Next

Click Next

Click Finish
Create a Service Account for SCVMM in Active Directory



Create Distributed Key Management Container in Active Directory
Start ADSI Edit


Connect to the Default Naming Context (Default)

Right-click the Domain and Select New –> Object

Select Container and click Next

Enter a Value (name) and click Next

Click Finish

Set permissions on the Container
Right-click the container and select Properties

Select the Security tab and click Add

Enter the service account username, check the name and click OK

Select Full Control and click Advanced

Select the service account and click Edit

In the Apply to drop down, select This object and all descendant objects and click OK

OK all the way out and close ADSI Edit, we’re all done there.
Configure SCVMM Service Account Local Permissions
The service account needs to be set as a local administrator on the VMM servers.

Install SCVMM Pre-requisites

• WAIK – Windows Automated Installation Kit
• .Net 3.5.1 Windows Feature
• Install the next two in this order:
  • SQL Server Native Client
  • Microsoft SQL Server Command Line Utilities

Install first SCVMM Node
Alright, time to install the First SCVMM server
Click Install

Select VMM Management ServerSetup will prompt you to install in HA mode. Click Yes
Click NextClick Accept and NextChoose CEIP options and click NextChoose Microsoft Update options and click NextChoose a path and click NextClick Next. If you have any issues here, correct them.
Connect to the clustered database network name and instance name and click NextEnter the VMM Cluster network name and IP Address and click Next
Configure the service account and DKM container and click NextOptionally configure the ports and click Next
Click Next
Click Finish
Install second SCVMM Node
Click Install
Click VMM Management ServerInstall in HA mode, click YesClick NextAccept and click NextChoose CEIP option and click NextChoose Microsoft Update option and click NextChoose installation directory and click NextClick Next
Click Next
Enter the password for the service account and click NextClick NextClick NextClick Install
Click Finish
Connecting to a Highly Available Library Share
Create a Shared folder on your Clustered File Server

There are more steps required to add a clustered file share. I have included the first two steps to get you started. The remaining steps are fairly straight-forward.
Login to VMM by connecting to the Cluster network name. Do not use one of the nodes.

Click Library, Right-click Library Servers and select Add Library Server

Select or enter credentials and click Next

Enter the server name and click Add

Click NextSelect the appropriate share, optionally add default resources and click Next
Click Add Library Servers

Summary
That wraps up the installation guide for highly-available Virtual Machine Manager. Next up we’ll take a look at the other System Center components and what is required to install them in a highly-available configuration. I will install the components in a later blog post.

Part 1

Series Summary

Part 3