One Stop Virtualization Shop
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged
2-Node Scenario
with Hyper-V Server 2016 FEBRUARY 2018
TECHNICAL PAPER
TECHNICAL PAPER 2
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Trademarks
“StarWind”, “StarWind Software” and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered
trademarks of StarWind Software. “StarWind LSFS” is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be
registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
Changes
The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While
reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, StarWind
Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the
information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in the product design
without reservation and without notification to its users.
Technical Support and Services
If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first - you will
find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind Forum. If you need
further assistance, please contact us.
About StarWind
StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this
technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and hardware
hyper-converged solutions. The company’s core product is the years-proven StarWind Virtual SAN, which
allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT infrastructure. Having earned a
reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and is actively tapping into
hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named StarWind “Cool Vendor for
Compute Platforms” following the success and popularity of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind
partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware, Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western
Digital, etc.
Copyright ©2009-2018 StarWind Software Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent
of StarWind Software.
TECHNICAL PAPER 3
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Solution Diagram ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Pre-Configuring the Servers ............................................................................................................................. 6
Downloading, Installing, and Registering the Software .............................................................................. 9
Configuring Shared Storage ........................................................................................................................... 15
Extending StarWind Device ............................................................................................................................. 28
Discovering Target Portals .............................................................................................................................. 30
Connecting Targets ........................................................................................................................................... 34
Multipath Configuration .................................................................................................................................. 39
Creating a Cluster .............................................................................................................................................. 42
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 46
TECHNICAL PAPER 4
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Introduction
StarWind Virtual SAN® is a native Windows hypervisor-centric hardware-less VM
storage solution. It creates a fully fault-tolerant and high performing storage pool built
for the virtualization workloads by mirroring existing server’s storage and RAM
between the participating storage cluster nodes. The mirrored storage resource is
then connected to all the cluster nodes and treated just as local storage by all
hypervisors and clustered applications. High Availability is achieved by providing the
multipath access to all storage nodes. StarWind Virtual SAN delivers supreme
performance compared to any dedicated SAN solution since it runs locally on the
hypervisor and all I/O is processed by local RAM, SSD cache, and disks. This way it
never gets bottlenecked by storage fabric.
This guide is intended for experienced Windows Server users or system
administrators. It provides the detailed instructions on how to setup a 2-node
Hyperconverged Hyper-V 2016 Cluster with StarWind Virtual SAN as a storage
provider.
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.
TECHNICAL PAPER 5
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Solution Diagram
The diagram bellow illustrates the network and storage configuration of the resulting solution
described in this guide.
TECHNICAL PAPER 6
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Pre-Configuring the Servers
1. Enable Remote Desktop to the servers.
2. Join the servers to the domain.
Rename and adjust static IPs for all NICs. To do so, perform the steps 3-6 below:
3. Run powershell.exe in the Command Prompt to check the network adapters availability
in the system:
Get-NetAdapter
TECHNICAL PAPER 7
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
4. To change the name and set the static IP for Heartbeat/Sync channel, type the next
command in the PowerShell console:
Get-NetAdapter “Ethernet2” | Rename-NetAdapter –NewName “Sync” Get-NetAdapter “Sync” | New-NetIPAddress –IPAddress 172.16.20.10 –PrefixLength 24
5. Alternatively, the network settings can be changed through the sconfig.cmd window. In
Network Settings (option 8), select the Index of the NIC, which should serve as a
synchronization link:
The following actions are possible:
• Set Network Adapter Address – selection between DHCP or Static IP
• Set DNS Servers – providing DNS settings
• Clear DNS Server Settings
• Return to Main Menu
6. Disable Firewall on each server via PowerShell:
Get-NetFirewallProfile | Set-NetFirewallProfile –Enabled False
TECHNICAL PAPER 8
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
7. It is highly recommended to enable Jumbo packets (9014) on the Sync and iSCSI
networks. This can be done via PowerShell in two ways.
Directly on the Sync/iSCSI NIC: Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty –Name “Sync” –RegistryKeyword “*JumboPacket” –Registryvalue 9014 Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty –Name “iSCSI” –RegistryKeyword “*JumboPacket” –Registryvalue 9014
For all NICs available in the system: Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty –Name “*” –RegistryKeyword “*JumboPacket” –Registryvalue 9014
8. Ping each node with Jumbo packets (change the asterisk to the partner node’s IP
address):
ping 172.16.20.* -f –l 8900 for Sync
ping 172.16.10.* -f –l 8900 for iSCSI
9. Install Failover Clustering and Multipath I/O features on both servers using PowerShell:
Install-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering –IncludeAllSubFeature –Restart Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature –Online –FeatureName MultiPathIO Enable-MSDSMAutomaticClaim –BusType iSCSI
10. Create a Virtual Switch via PowerShell:
New-VMSwitch –Name “vSwitch” –NetAdapterName “management”
NOTE: The Virtual Switch name must be the same on both nodes.
TECHNICAL PAPER 9
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
11. Create Local Partition for the Storage drive. In the CMD window, run the following:
Diskpart list disk
select disk X where X is the number of the disk to be processed online disk attributes disk clear readonly convert GPT create partition Primary
format fs=ntfs label=X quick where X is the name for the Volume list volume select volume X
assign letter X where X is the letter for the Volume list Volume
Any of the arrays to be used by StarWind Virtual SAN for storing virtual disk images should meet
the following requirements:
• Initialized as GPT
• Have a single NTFS-formatted partition
• Have a drive letter assigned
Downloading, Installing, and Registering the Software
12. Download the StarWind VSAN software by following the link:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san
13. Copy the StarWind VSAN installer to both Hyper-V Server instances. Launch the
downloaded installer on the server where StarWind Virtual SAN or one of its components
needs to be installed. The Setup Wizard will appear. Click Next to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 10
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
14. Read and accept the License Agreement. Click Next to continue.
15. Carefully read the information about new features and improvements. Red text indicates
warnings for users who are updating existing software installations. Click Next to
continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 11
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
16. Click Browse to modify the installation path if necessary. Click Next to continue.
17. Select the required deployment scenario for StarWind VSAN.
This installation type is designed for GUI-less OS editions. The StarWind service is the “core” of
the software. It can create iSCSI targets as well as share virtual and physical devices. The service
can be managed by StarWind Management Console from any Windows computer on the
network that has StarWind Management Console installed (GUI required). Click Next to
continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 12
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
18. Specify the Start Menu Folder. Click Next to continue.
19. When the license prompt appears, request a time-limited fully functional evaluation key,
or a FREE version key, or use the commercial license key obtained with the purchase of
StarWind Virtual SAN by selecting the corresponding option. Click Next to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 13
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
20. Click on the Browse button to locate the license file. Clink Next to continue.
21. Review the licensing information. Click Next to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 14
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
22. Verify the installation settings. Click Back to make any changes. Click Install to continue.
23. Click Finish to close the wizard.
Repeat the steps 13-24 on the partner node.
To manage StarWind Virtual SAN deployed on the OS edition with no GUI enabled, StarWind
Management Console should be installed on a computer that runs the GUI-enabled Windows
edition.
TECHNICAL PAPER 15
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Configuring Shared Storage
24. Run StarWind Management Console from the GUI-enabled Windows OS. Press Add
Server.
25. Type the management IP for your Hyper-V Server 2016. Add both StarWind servers.
Otherwise, type in the StarWind servers’domain names. Click OK to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 16
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
26. Connect to your servers and specify the path for the storage pool.
Press Yes to configure the storage pool. If the storage pool destination needs to be changed,
press Choose path… and point the file browser to the necessary disk.
NOTE: StarWind Management Console will request the default storage pool location on the
server that is connected for the first time. Configure the default storage pool to use one of the
volumes prepared earlier. All the devices created through the Add Device wizard will be stored
there. If an alternative storage path for StarWind virtual disks is needed, the Add Device
(advanced) menu item can be used.
27. Select the StarWind server where the device should be created. Press the Add Device
(advanced) button on the toolbar or right-click on the StarWind server.
TECHNICAL PAPER 17
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
28. In Add Device Wizard, select Hard Disk Device and click Next to continue.
29. Select Virtual Disk and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 18
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
30. Specify the name for the StarWind device, its location and size. Click Next.
NOTE: It is recommended to create a 1 GB device to avoid long synchronization process. This
device can be extended after the creation.
31. Specify the vitual disk options. Choose 4096 bytes sector size for Microsoft Windows.
TECHNICAL PAPER 19
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
32. Define the caching policy and specify the RAM cache size (in MB). Click Next to continue.
33. Define the Flash (L2, SSD) cache parameters and size if necessary. Choose the SSD drive
path using the wizard.
NOTE: It is recommended to put the 1 GB of L1 cache in write-back mode per 1 TB storage
capacity. The recommended size of L2 cache is 10% of the initial StarWind device size.
TECHNICAL PAPER 20
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
34. 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 to continue.
35. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target. Then click Close to finish
working with the wizard.
TECHNICAL PAPER 21
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
36. Right-click on the device that has just been created and select Replication Manager.
37. The Replication Manager window will appear. Press the Add Replica button.
TECHNICAL PAPER 22
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
38. Select Synchronous two-way replication. Click Next to proceed.
39. The default StarWind management port is 3261. If a different port needs to be
configured, please type it in the Port number field.
TECHNICAL PAPER 23
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
40. Choose Heartbeat Failover Strategy.
41. Choose Create new Partner Device and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 24
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
42. Specify the partner device location if necessary. Modify the target name of the device if
required.
43. Select the Synchronization and Heartbeat networks for the HA device. Modify the ALUA
settings if required.
TECHNICAL PAPER 25
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
44. Click Change network settings and specify the interfaces for Synchronization and
Heartbeat. Click OK and Next.
45. Select Synchronize from existing Device for the partner device initialization mode.
Click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 26
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
46. Press the Create Replica button. Then click Close to exit the wizard.
47. The added devices will appear in the StarWind Management Console.
TECHNICAL PAPER 27
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
48. Repeat steps 28-47 for the remaining virtual disks that will be used as Cluster Shared
Volumes. Once all devices are created, the Management console should look as
demonstrated in the screenshot below:
TECHNICAL PAPER 28
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Extending StarWind Device
49. Right-click the StarWind device and choose Extend Size of HA.
50. Specify the Amount of Space to Extend for this device and press Extend to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 29
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
After extension is over, the new size of the StarWind HA device will appear in StarWind
Management Console.
TECHNICAL PAPER 30
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Discovering Target Portals
This part describes how to connect the previously created disks, which need to be further added
to the cluster servers.
51. In the CMD window, run the following command to start configuring the Microsoft iSCSI
initiator:
iscsicpl
If the dialog below appears, press Yes.
TECHNICAL PAPER 31
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
52. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties window, click the Discovery tab:
53. Click on the Discover Portal button. In the Discover Target Portal dialog, type in
127.0.0.1 for the portal IP address:
TECHNICAL PAPER 32
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
54. Click on the Advanced button. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator as the Local Adapter
and select the Initiator IP (keep it default for 127.0.0.1). Confirm your actions to complete
the Target Portal discovery.
55. Click on the Discovery Portal button once again and specify the IP address of the
partner’s iSCSI link.
56. In Advanced settings, 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 step 55.
Confirm your actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.
TECHNICAL PAPER 33
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
57. The resulting Discovery tab will look as demonstrated in the screenshot below:
58. Complete the steps 52-57 for the other node.
TECHNICAL PAPER 34
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Connecting Targets
59. Select the Targets tab. Choose the target of the Cluster Shared Volume available from
the local server and click Connect.
60. Enable the checkboxes as in the image below.
TECHNICAL PAPER 35
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
61. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown menu. Select 127.0.0.1
for the Target portal IP. Confirm your actions.
62. From the Targets tab, select the Witness target available from the local server and click
Connect. Enable the checkboxes as in the image below:
TECHNICAL PAPER 36
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
63. In Advanced settings, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter dropdown
menu. Set 127.0.0.1 for the Target portal IP. Confirm your actions.
NOTE: Do not connect the partner target for the Witness device available from the other
StarWind node.
64. From the Targets tab, select the partner target from the other StarWind node and click
Connect. Enable checkboxes as in the image below.
TECHNICAL PAPER 37
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
65. In Advanced settings, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local Adapter
dropdown menu. In the Initiator IP dropdown, select the IP address of the host’s iSCSI
link. In Target portal IP, select the corresponding partner’s IP address from the same
subnet. Confirm your actions.
66. The resulting Targets tab will look as demonstrated on the screenshot below:
TECHNICAL PAPER 38
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
67. Initialize the disks and create the partitions on them using DISKPART. To create a cluster,
the disk devices are required to be visible on both nodes.
Run diskpart in the CMD window:
List disk Select disk X Online disk Clean Attributes disk clear readonly Convert GPT Create Partition Primary
Format fs=ntfs label=X quick where X is the name of the Volume
Do not assign any letter for the cluster disks.
NOTE: It is recommended to initialize the disks as GPT.
68. Perform the steps 59-67 for the other node.
TECHNICAL PAPER 39
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Multipath Configuration
Configure the MPIO policy for each device, specifying localhost (127.0.0.1) as the active path. To
achieve this, perform the following steps.
69. Select a target located on the local server and click Devices.
TECHNICAL PAPER 40
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
70. In the Devices dialog, press MPIO.
TECHNICAL PAPER 41
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
71. Select Least Queue Depth in the Load balance policy dropdown menu.
72. Repeat the steps 69-71 for each device on the current and the second node.
TECHNICAL PAPER 42
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Creating a Cluster
73. Open the Failover Cluster Manager using the desktop version of Windows or a
different GUI-based Windows Server and click on the Create Cluster link in the Actions
section of Failover Cluster Manger.
TECHNICAL PAPER 43
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
74. Specify the servers to be added to the cluster. Click Next to continue.
75. Validate the configuration by passing the cluster validation tests: select Yes and Run all
tests. Click Next to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 44
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
76. Specify the cluster name.
NOTE: If the cluster servers get IP addresses over DHCP, the cluster also gets its IP address over
DHCP. If the IP addresses are set statically, you need to set the cluster IP address manually. Click
Next to continue.
77. Make sure that all settings are correct. Use the Previous button to make any changes.
TECHNICAL PAPER 45
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
NOTE: If the Add all eligible storage to the cluster checkbox is enabled, the wizard will try to
add all disks to the cluster automatically. The smallest device will be assigned as the Witness. It is
recommended to disable this option before you click Next and add Witness manually.
Click Finish to close the wizard.
TECHNICAL PAPER 46
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
Conclusion
Windows Failover Cluster on top of Hyper-V Server 2016 is successfully created. This cluster will
increase the availability of the services or applications on it, as well as exclude the downtime
during the maintenance.
Please note that StarWind does not recommend repeating the steps above as this process
violates the Microsoft license agreement.
In case you have any additional questions, visit our Support Forum.
TECHNICAL PAPER 47
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 2-Node Scenario with Hyper-V 2016
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