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Distributed Data Center Virtualization using Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2 Using Sanbolic’s Melio File System, LaScala Volume Manager and Microsoft Clustering Services to enable flexible migration of active virtual machines across physical hosts running Virtual Server 2005

Installation Guide

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Step-by-Step Guide for clustering Virtual Server 2005 R2 with Sanbolic’s Melio FS and LaScala VM Table of Contents

Data Center Virtualization…………………………..………………….….......2 Software Components………………………………….……………….......…3 Installation Requirements……………………………….……………......…....3 Step for Configuring Virtual Server Clustering………….…………….....…..4 Using the Microsoft Clustering Services to Migrate Virtual Machines ......14 Notes……………………………………………………………….……..........14 Data Center Infrastructure Virtualization Microsoft Windows Virtual Server 2005 is available at no charge and is an effective tool for partitioning a physical server to allow multiple operating systems to run simultaneously and independently as guest servers. If the host server is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, rights for up to four guest server OS licenses are included. Partitioning a server and running multiple separate OS instances on it facilitates the consolidation of multiple applications on a single server for better capacity utilization. As familiarity with virtualization grows, many users want to move from single-server partitioning to distributed datacenter infrastructure virtualization. By virtualizing the storage as well as the servers, and providing the flexibility to dynamically move virtual servers to any one of several physical hosts, the data center resources become much more flexible, can run at higher utilization, and have improved options for maintaining availability during hardware maintenance. The state of the Virtual Server and its application data are contained within a .VHD file which resides on the hard disk of the host server, or on a LUN assigned to it on external storage. It is possible to save the state of the Virtual Server instance, copy it to a second physical server, and then restore the Virtual Server instance so that it is running on the second host. However, this is a slow process, and the application will be unavailable during the migration. By clustering Virtual Server 2005 instances across physical hosts using Microsoft Clustering Services (a component of the Windows Server Enterprise or Datacenter license), and using Sanbolic’s clustered file system, users can overcome the limitation described above and create a distributed virtualization architecture using standard Windows Server components and management interfaces. Active virtual machines can easily be moved across physical hosts, and application data volumes on a central SAN storage pool are automatically mounted by the Virtual Server 2005 instance running the application from any physical host it is moved to. This paper describes in detail the configuration of Virtual Server clusters using Microsoft Clustering Services and Sanbolic’s file system and volume manager. Additional resource for configuring central storage management are listed in the notes section below.

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Software Components The state and virtual local disk for a Virtual Server 2005 instance is contained within a VHD file which typically resides on the file system of the host server when used for single server partitioning. In order to create a distributed virtualization architecture in which a Virtual Server instance can be dynamically moved to any host server, all host servers must have concurrent access to the VHD file. Sanbolic’s Melio clustered file system is designed to provide multiple Windows servers with concurrent access to shared data on a Fibre Channel or iSCSI SAN. By maintaining the .VHD files for all Virtual Servers on SAN storage and installing Melio file system on each host server, each physical host has concurrent access to all .VHD files. A Virtual Server 2005 instance can only be active on only one host at a time. Microsoft Clustering Services is typically used for high availability applications to failover application to a standby server when the primary server fails. It can also be used as a tool to migrate the state of a Virtual Server 2005 instance across physical hosts while the application remains active. Microsoft Clustering Services provides a central graphical interface for migrating virtual machines. Much of the complexity of typical failover configurations is removed when using Melio clustered file system since there is no need to move a storage resource between servers-- all hosts have concurrent access to the storage resource, so only the application needs to be moved. Although not described in detail in this paper, LaScala Volume manager can be used to virtualize storage access for Virtual Server 2005 when used with iSCSI SAN storage. LaScala can manage large shared storage pool spanning several storage arrays and be used to centrally configure logical volumes which are assigned to servers using Windows ACLs in conjunction with Active Directory. Because Virtual Server 2005 can mount an external iSCSI storage volume, LaScala enables a Virtual Server instance to automatically gain access to its application data volumes on the SAN after it moved across hosts. More detail can be found in http://www.sanbolic.com/pdfs/LaScala_manual.pdf 1. Installation Requirements In order to successfully complete the clustering procedure, the following software and hardware requirements must be met (this paper describes a configuration with two physical hosts, but host environments of up to eight hosts can be configured as well):

1.1 OS requirements - Windows 2003 enterprise or datacenter edition

1.2 Software requirements – Virtual Server 2005 R2, IIS 6, Melio FS and LaScala VM

1.3 MSCS fully functioning two-node cluster, configured with an appropriate

quorum resource - http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/dba487bf-61b9-45af-b927-e2333ec810b61033.mspx ]

1.4 Storage requirements – access to shared storage by Fibre Channel, SCSI or

iSCSI

1.5 Network requirements – at least 2 network adapters dedicated to network communication

1.6 Hardware requirements – Two identical server computers listed in Windows

Server Catalog - [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=4303 ]

1.7 Cluster script - [http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/1f146877-94a0-4e24-8324-0552fc1dbdf21033.mspx ]

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2. Steps for configuring a simple Virtual Server host clustering

2.1. The storage should contain at least two separate volumes, that is, two separate logical unit numbers (LUNs). One volume will function as the quorum formatted with NTFS file system (Q:) (disk containing configuration information needed for the cluster), and one will contain the virtual disk for the guest and will be Melio FS formatted (X:).

2.2. Next step involves the proper configuration of a server cluster. After this setup is completed and you open the Cluster Administrator Console, you will come-up with a screen similar to the one below. Here MSCS-SANBOLIC is the name of the cluster; 2k3R2SRV1 and 2k3R2SRV2 are the names of its node members.

2.3. This step involve configuration of a shutdown script on each node. To do this, follow the steps:

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2.3.1. Click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then press ENTER.

2.3.2. In the left pane, click Local Computer Policy, click Computer Configuration, click Windows Settings, and then click Scripts (Startup/Shutdown). In the right pane, double-click Shutdown.

2.3.3. In the Shutdown Properties dialog box,click Add. For the Script Name,type: c:\Stop_clussvc_script.cmd and click OK

2.4. In Cluster Administrator, create a new resource group and name it Guest1Group. If you want to specify a Preferred Owner for the group, specify the node on which you want the guest to run most of the time.

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2.5. Ensure that Guest1Group is online on a node. Then, on that node, use

Explorer to create a folder on disk X: called \Guest1.

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2.6. On each node's local disk, in the systemroot\Cluster folder, copy the script

called Havm.vbs

2.7. On the computer that contains the management tool for Virtual Server 2005 R2, click Start, click Programs or All Programs, click Microsoft Virtual Server, and then click Virtual Server Administration Website. View the clusternode that currently owns DiskResourceQ. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Networks, click Create. In Virtual network name, type ClusterNetwork.

In Network adapter on physical computer, select the network adapter associated with the public network (not the private network)

and then click OK.

2.8. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Networks, click Configure, and then click View All. Point to the virtual network you just created, and then click Edit Configuration. In the line labeled .vnc file, select the path, and then open a text editor such as Notepad and copy and paste the path into a file for later use.

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2.9. Point to the virtual network you just created, and then click Remove.

2.10. On the cluster node on which you created the .vnc file, open Explorer, and

then navigate to the path that you copied into a text file in step 4.3.8 . Right-click ClusterNetwork.vnc, and then click Cut.

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2.11. Navigate to X:\Guest1 and paste the .vnc file, ClusterNetwork.vnc

2.12. In the virtual Server Administration Website, under Virtual Networks, click Add. In the box next to Existing Configuration (.vnc) file, type:

X:\Guest1\ClusterNetwork.vnc and click Add

2.13. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Machines, click Create. - In Virtual machine name, instead of simply typing the name, type the following path, which not only names thevirtual machine Guest1, but places the virtual machine's configuration file on the cluster storage:X:\Guest1\Guest1.vmc

- In Memory, type a value in megabytes for the amount of RAM used by the virtual machine. If you plan to create other virtual machines on this physical host, be sure to use only part of the physical RAM forGuest1.

- In Virtual hard disk, select Create a new virtual hard disk. To set the size of the virtual hard disk, specify a value in Size, and then select either MB for megabytes or GB for gigabytes. This size must be smaller than or equal to the size of disk X:.

- In Virtual network adapter, select ClusterNetwork. Click Create.

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2.14. To complete the configuration of Guest1 so it can fail over Complete the previous procedures. - In Cluster Administrator, move Guest1Group to the other node (not the

node on which you were working in the previous procedure). - For the cluster node on which Guest1Group is currently located, open

the Virtual Server Administration Website. - In the navigation pane, under Virtual Networks, click Add. - In the box next to Existing configuration (.vnc) file type: X:\Guest1\ClusterNetwork.vnc Click Add.

2.15. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Machines, click Add. In Fully qualified path to file, type: X:\Guest1\Guest1.vmc Click Add.

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2.16. On either cluster node, in Cluster Administrator, create a new script resource with the properties in the following list.

Note: Do not bring this new resource online until you have completed step 4.17. • Call it Guest1Script. • Make it a Generic Script resource. • Assign the resource to Guest1Group.

• For Possible Owners, make sure both cluster nodes are listed.

• For the Script filepath, specify the following, typing the percent character (%) as shown:%windir%\Cluster\Havm.vbs

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2.17. With Guest1Script in the Offline state, on the same node as in the previous

step, click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then press ENTER: cluster res "Guest1Script" /priv VirtualMachineName=Guest1 This command associates the Guest1Script resource with the guest named Guest1.

2.18. In Cluster Administrator, bring Guest1Group online.

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2.19. After completing the configuration of Guest1 so it can fail over, you can install an operating system on Guest1. After installing the operating system, you must install Virtual Machine Additions on the guest. Virtual Machine Additions is included in Virtual Server 2005 R2.

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If you have followed the above procedure step-by-step, you’ll have a highly available clustered virtual machine. Using the Microsoft Clustering Services to Migrate Virtual Machines Provided that Virtual Machine Remote Control is configured, one can observe the process of Virtual Machine instance. Below is a screenshot taken form one of the cluster nodes. There are two Administrative Console instances connected each of the cluster nodes also a Cluster Administrator window opened.

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Migrating virtual servers is as simple as moving a cluster group from one cluster node to another.

The last step in the process of Virtual Machine migration is to check that it has been properly moved to the other node and the first owner of the VM Instance is off is now offloaded with the VM instance.

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NOTES For the preparation of this guide, excerpts were used from a document called “Virtual Server Host Clustering Step-by-Step Guide for Virtual Server 2005 R2”. [ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=09cc042b-154f-4eba-a548-89282d6eb1b3&displaylang=en ] For the proper installation and configuration of the required software below is a list of additional resources: • LaScala Installation Guide http://www.sanbolic.com/pdfs/LaScala_manual.pdf • Melio FS Installation Guide http://www.sanbolic.com/pdfs/MelioFS_Installation_Guide.pdf • "Microsoft Virtual Server" on the Microsoft Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55574

• "Using iSCSI with Virtual Server 2005 R2" on the Microsoft Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55646 • Windows Server Catalog http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=4303 • "Setting up operating systems for virtual machines" on the Microsoft Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55573 • "Quick Start Guide for Server Clusters" on the Microsoft Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55162 • "Installing Virtual Server" on the Microsoft Web site http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55163 Sanbolic Inc. 304 Pleasant Street, 2nd Floor Watertown, MA 02472 phone: 617 833 4249 fax: 617 926 2808 email: sales@sanbolic.com