Advanced Configuration Scenario
New_Network
Week1-AdvancedConfigurationScenario.pptxWestlake Olive: Configuration Scenario
Michael Boddie
Advanced Windows Services
NTC/328
April 2, 2018
-Welcome-
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Introduction
In this presentation I will play the role of an IT manager for Westlake Olive. As IT manager, I will be responsible for the administration and configuration of all the organization servers
Microsoft Company have made large improvements in clustering in server 2012; more new features are in windows server 2012 R2.
Configuring Clustering services in windows server 2012 R2
The reason as to why Westlake Olive company need to implement cluster services is to increase availability and scalability
Over view of Westlake Olive Company
Westlake is a large producer of olive oil which produces only one product. The company have dominated the industry for the last five years.
The company has two facilities which are Sacramento and California. The production facility is in Colorado and Denver
Previously my team had configured network services between the two locations where we used MPLS network and what we referred to as westlakeolives.local domain which had been already established.
My team will consist of the a system administrator and a network administrator.
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Overview of Failover clustering
Failover clustering is a group of computers which are independent that work together to increase scalability and availability of cluster roles
Usually the clustered servers formerly called nodes are usually connected using physical cables and by software
One of the reason we are implementing this service in this organization is, when one if one of the cluster nodes fails, other nodes are able to provide the service
Clustering begins with definition of terms:
Nodes are defined as individual servers. A node can also be an active or inactive member of cluster depending on whether it is currently online or in communication with other cluster nodes.
A cluster service refer to as a collection of clustering software which manages all cluster-specific activity
Resource dependencies is the reliance between two resources which makes it necessary for both resources to run on the same node.
Failover is term that has been used widely and it is the process of moving a group of resources from one node to another in case of failure.
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Requirements of Fail-Clustering
Failover cluster is available in both datacenter and standard editions of server 2012 R2
For failover clustering to be implemented successfully each of the organization server must be equipped with four NICs
All the hardware components must have a Microsoft logo on windows 2012 designations
The role of the four NICs
First NIC: For external connections
Second NIC: For dedicated to iSCSI storage connectivity
Third NIC: to handle the VMs network traffic
Forth NIC: To handle cluster node communication
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Prior to the installation of fail-over clustering it is important to ensure to set-up private and public interfaces on the network adapters where one uses two separates NICs
Since we will use NIC streaming, the teams will need to configure before we create the cluster as NICs cannot be changes after there are added to a cluster
There are two common methods used to install and configure fail-over clustering
Installing Fail-over clustering
Description of private and public adapters
Private interface will be used to communicate with other cluster nodes
Public interface will be used to communicate with clients over the network
The very best practice to use NIC streaming for this is to make two disks on the server available to the cluster:
one for the cluster quorum
one for the storage of data
Methods used to install and configure fail-over clustering are using server manager and windows powershell
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By using server manager we use the add roles and features wizard to install and configure fail-over clustering.
The installation type that is common here is the role-based or feature-based installation
One selects the installation and then clicks next where one is required to select a server from a pool of servers and the installs that the one chooses.
A pop-up screen appears listing additional requirements for the feature (Rob-MSFT, 2012).
By scrolling down, we expand the Role administration feature
The last step is to confirm the selections and clicking install
Installing Fail-over using Server manager
In the installation type menu; we have the role-based feature installation where we configure a single server by adding roles, roles services and features and the remote desktop server installation
In the server selection menu, the page displays a list of servers which are running windows server 2012 and which have been added by using the add server command
In the server menu lists roles to install on the selected server
In the role administration feature we select hyper-V feature.
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After installation of fail-over clustering and enables in each server. We will open the fail-over cluster manager on the primary server
This is followed by validation of configuration so as to identify if any some potential issues prior to configuration where we click validate cluster
Once validation is complete without any errors one is taken to the create wizard automatically. In the first step one creates their cluster and picks an IP address (Finn, 2013).
Configuring fail-over clustering
Prior to configuring fail-over clustering one needs to consider the kind of storage to use. Since we are not building cluster to support SQL server we will use SAN
In validation configuration we select the servers that we want to cluster which is followed by running all the tests since hyper-V is enabled they will be Hyper-V specific tests for clusters in this step
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By clicking next one is taken to the confirmation screen where one is able to view the IP address and name that they selected. An option of “Add all eligible storage to the cluster” is also available.
By clicking next one is able to see that the cluster has finished the creating process although they will some warnings
Cont.…
Assuming one passed validation tests a report should be generated which contains “Warning” but no any errors.
Since for this case we will not have shared storage we will not be using disk majority and node
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Westlake Olive Company need to implement fail-over clustering because of its high availability and scalability.
In this presentation we have created a simple hyper-V failover cluster based on iSCSI
Conclusion
iSCSI stands for Internet Small Computer System Interface)
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Finn, A. (2013). Windows server 2012 hyper-v installation and configuration guide.
Rob-MSFT. (2012, April 6th). Clustering and High availability. Retrieved from Installing the Failover cluster Feature and Tools in Windows server 2012: https://blogs.msdn.Microsoft.com/clustering/2012/04/06/installing-thefailover-cluster-feature-and-tools-in-windws-server-2012/
References
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