Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture poster and companion references for the following Hyper-V features and components are available @below Microsoft site.

Failover Clustering
Networking
Replica
Storage
Virtual Machine Mobility

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29189

The link also contains further links for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Hyper-V features and components architecture posters.

iSCSI target configuring in Windows Server 2012 - Step-by-step

I was looking for free storage solution to create shared storage for my lab Windows Server 2012 cluster. After few Google, I found and choose to use Windows Server 2012 iSCSI target features. Microsoft started iSCSI target feature as a downloadable software: Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2. Refer to the following URLs:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2011/04/04/microsoft-iscsi-software-target-3-3-for-windows-server-2008-r2-available-for-public-download.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=19867

And now it’s a built-in feature in Windows Server 2012, just need enable it as and when needed. I’m going to enable and configure Windows Server 2012 iSCSI target in Step by step. I will not going to explain the iSCSI details in Windows Server 2012. You can visit Microsoft Storage Team blog here to get in depth understanding of iSCSI in general and also the new iSCSI feature in Windows 2012:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2012/05/21/introduction-of-iscsi-target-in-windows-server-2012.aspx

I’ll strongly recommend to go through the above URL before following my lab.

Let’s start:

I objective is to create shared quorum and data disk for Windows Server 2012 cluster, which I will later use for Hyper-V role. I’ve file and storage server named: CorpFileStorage which will be my iSCSI target server, and have 2 going to be failover cluster node server named: CORPHyperV1 and CORPHyperV2. IP address and IQN number of these servers for this demonstration are:

CorpFileStorage: Data LAN IP: 172.16.1.2, iSCSI LAN: 192.168.10.1

CorpHyperV1: Data LAN IP: 172.16.1.3, ISCSI LAN: 192.168.10.2, iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:corpHyperV1.corp.local

CorpHyperV1: Data LAN IP: 172.16.1.4, ISCSI LAN: 192.168.10.3, iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:corpHyperV2.corp.local

Note that, in the above VMs of my Windows 8 Hyper-V, if I created separated NIC for data and iSCSI communication. It is always recommended and best practice to separate both data and iSCSI in production.

We can add iSCSI feature and configure it both in GUI and through PowerShell. I’m going to cover the both.

Log on the server on which we are going to enable iSCSI target and open Server Manager

Click Manage and then click Add Roles and Features

On the Before you begin page click Next

Keep the Role-based and featured-based option selected and click Next

Select specific server and click Next

Scroll down and expand File and Storage Services, then expand File and iSCSI Services and select iSCSI Target Server

It will bring the window to add other services required by iSCSI target. Confirm File Server feature is selected under the File and iSCSI Services and also Include Management Tool (if applicable) is selected. Then click Add Features

Click Next

On the Select Features page, click Next

On the Confirm installation selection page review and confirm the selection also select the Restart the destination server automatically if required. Then click Install

For this demonstration, I’ve cancelled the wizard and instead I’m going to add the same feature using PowerShell:

Open PowerShell in privilege mode:

Type: Add-WindowsFeature FS-iSCSITarget-Server

It will start the iSCSI target feature installation

Once completed, it will show the result

To confirm the installation, type: Get-WindowFeature FS*

Now we are in the steps, to create and assign iSCSI LUN/iSCSI virtual disk to iSCSI initiator.

Open Server Manager, go to File and Storage Services the iSCSI page. Click To create an iSCSI virtual disk, start the New iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard

On the Select iSCSI virtual disk location page, we need to specify the location of the iSCSI virtual disk, which is basically a VHD file. There are 2 options to specify the locations: either based on the volume or specify the custom location. In the case of volume, we have to select the volume, e.g: C:,D: and iSCSI will create a folder under the root volume named \iSCSIVirtualDisk and stores the VHD files there. Click Next

Specify iSCSI Virtual Disk name. For my lab, I’m going to create a virtual disk named HyperVClusterQuorum.vhd under C:\ iSCSIVirtualDisk. Click Next

Specify the size and click Next

On the next page, we have the option to assign this virtual disk to existing iSCSI target or create a new target on the fly for this virtual disk. Since, I don’t have any previous target created, so I’ve selected New iSCSI Target and click Next

Give a name for the iSCSI Target and click Next

Now on the Specify the access servers page, we need to add the iSCSI Initiators, those will have rights to access this target and virtual disks. Click Add

It will open the Add Initiator ID page. Here we can add iSCSI initiator based on the Active Directory membership, IQN, DNS, IP (both IPv4 and IPv6) and MAC addresses. Since I’ve both initiator joined to AD, I added one of them based by querying the AD and another one by specifying the IQN

On the next Enable Authentication page, click Next

On the View Result page, click create

Once completed, click close

Now we’ve the iSCSI virtual disk created and added to a target. Also we have added 2 nodes/initiators to access the target and virtual disk.

Log on to the initiator server, which will access iSCSI virtual disk from iSCSI target. Open Server Manager

Click Tools, then click iSCSI initiator

By default, Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (msiscsi) windows service is set to manual for start-up and stopped. When we click iSCSI initiator from the Tools menu, it will prompt us whether we want the service start now and also if we want to service auto start every times windows start. Click Yes

iSCSI Initiator Properties will appear. Click Discovery tab and then click Discover Portal. Discover Target Portal window will appear, enter the IP address or DNS name of the iSCSI Target, and then click OK     

On the iSCSI initiator Properties page, click Target tab. It will list the Discovered Target available from the iSCSI target we have added in the discovery tab. If noting appear, please confirm the IQN you have entered during the target setup and also confirm that you have entered the right iSCSI target server IP or DNS name during discover. Click Connect

Click Advanced

If we have dedicated NIC for iSCSI we have defined that on the Advanced Settings page.

Click OK 3 times to close the iSCSI initiator setting page

Now we will find the iSCSI LUN/virtual disk presented to this initiator as a separated disk. We need to follow almost same procedures to configure this disk as we do for locally attached disk. Follow the screen shots below to configure the discovered iSCSI disk:

Windows Server 2012 – Configure First Active Directory Domain Controller using GUI

Windows Server 2012 server can be promoted to ADDS Domain Controller in 2 ways: GUI and PowerShell. I’ll show to how to promote first Domain Controller in a new Forest.

Previous, primary tool for domain controller promotion and demotion, DCPROMO is no longer applicable; in fact if we try to execute DCPROMO, it will refers us to Server Manager. Server Manager is now the primary GUI tool for DC promotion and demotion.

Obviously we need to change the server name as desired and assign a fixed IP address. For my lab here, I’m going to create a new forest domain named corp.local and DC CORPDC. Also 172.16.1.1 fixed IP is assigned to the DC.

There are 2 high level steps to install a domain controller:
1. Add Active Directory Services, roles and features to the desired server. In this step, all the binary files are copied and installed on the server.
2. Promote the server to domain controller.

Let’s start:

Log on to the server and open Server Manager

Click on the Manage menu and Select Add Roles and Features

Before you began, page will give some basic information to set strong password, static IP address and confirm the Windows update, click Next.

For all Role and Features, installations, including AD DS, select Role-based or feature-based installation. Click Next.

In the latest Server Manager, it’s possible to install role or features any remote server managed by Server Manager.

Select the desired server from the server pool, which is going to be promoted to DC and click Next.

On the Select server roles page, click Active Directory Domain Services. In turns, it will open a pop-up window listing the features; those are also need by the Active Directory Domain Services role. Confirm that, Include Management Tools (if applicable) is selected. Click Add Features

We will also install the DNS service role on the DC, so select DNS Server, on the Select server roles page. It too, in turns, it will open a pop-up window listing the features; those are also need by the DNS Server role. Confirm that, Include Management Tools (if applicable) is selected. Click Add Features and then click Next.

On the Select features page, Group Policy Management is already selected. Click Next.

On the “Active Directory Domain Services” page, it gives basic information about AD DS. Click Next.

On the “DNS Server” page, it gives basic information about DNS. Click Next.

On the “Confirmation” Page, we need to confirm this to continue with this configuration. It provides us an option to export the configuration settings and also if we want the server to be restarted automatically as required. It is always good idea to have a proper reboot circle after any role or feature installation. Select Restart the destination server automatically if required, if possible to do so in production. Click Install.

It will start installing the required binaries for AD DS. Once the role and feature installation completed, it will automatically close the wizard.

Now, it’s time to move to the next step, promote the server to domain controller.

From the Dashboard, click on the Notification flag. A warning for Post-deployment configuration task will appear. Click Promote this server to domain controller.

Since we are promoting first DC is new forest, click Add a new forest and enter root domain name. I named my new forest root domain as corp.local. Click Next.

As in my lab, I will have all DC running on Windows Server 2012, I’ve selected Windows Server 2012 as both Forest and Domain functional level to leverage all the latest features provided by Windows Server 2012 AD DS. Select both Forest and domain function level based on your scenario. Refer to this TechNet article for functional levels: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/understanding-active-directory-functional-levels(v=ws.10).aspx. As we have also installed the DNS server role on this server, so DNS server is select as this DC’s capabilities and greyed out. Since this server is going to be first DC in the forest and domain, it will automatically become the Global Catalog (GC) and we can’t change this setting. For Read only domain controller (RODC), we can’t configure first DC as RODC. Enter and confirm Directory services Restore Mode (DSRM) password and click Next.

I named my domain as corp.local and there is no way or need to delegate corp domain in local root domain DNS, so we can safely ignore DNS delegation warning on DNS option page. Click Next.

Specify the database, log and SYSVOL location on the Path page. Refer to Microsoft recommendation for these files and database placement, for this you can click more about Active Directory path at the bottom of the page. As a basic rule, don’t place database and log file on the same hard drive spindles.  Click Next.

Review all the selection. One of the cool features of this GUI based DC promotion, it generates a PowerShell single lined script based our selection. To view the script, click View Script. This is very handy if we decide to DC promotional steps in scripted installation, from PowerShell etc. Click Next.

Before the actual install of AD, all prerequisites are checked. If all prerequisite checks are passed successfully then click Install.

It will start domain controller promotional processes

On successfully configured the Domain Controller, it will display a message on the Result page. Click Close. The server will reboot afterward

Once restarted, log on to the server and open Server Manager, confirm AD DS and DNS are appeared as available and Role and services on the left side and installed server is listed under them.

Also Click the Tools and confirmed following have been installed:

Active Directory Administrative Center

Active Directory Domains and Trusts

Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

Active Directory Sites and Services

Active Directory Users and Computers

ADSI Edit

DNS

Group Policy Management

These will confirm the successful completion of ADDS Domain Controller installation.

Optionally, we can also run Active Directory Services Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) to confirm the configuration. To run BPA, on the Server Manager, on the left side, select AD DS, once selected, on the right side, scroll down until you find Best Practices Analyzer. Click Task under BPA section and click Start BPA

Select the desired server and click Start Scan

Once BPA finished running, review and rectify any warning and error that any have appeared