This end-to-end deployment guide provides an overview of Dell AX System for Windows Server, guidance on how to integrate solution components, and instructions for preparing and deploying the solution infrastructure. Dell AX System for Windows Server includes:

• Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server (based on Windows Server 2019 or 2022 Datacenter edition)

This guide applies only to infrastructure that is built using the validated and certified AX nodes from Dell Technologies and Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022.

The audience for this document includes systems engineers, field consultants, partner engineering team members, and customers with knowledge about deploying hyperconverged infrastructures (HCIs) with the Windows Server operating system, Hyper-V, and Storage Spaces Direct. Customers who do not have Volume License agreements with Microsoft can order AX nodes from Dell Technologies with a factory-installed operating system and OEM license or as a bare-metal installation.

An Azure Stack HCI cluster can be deployed in the following ways:

• Dell Technologies Services-led—Certified deployment engineers ensure accuracy, speed, and reduced risk and downtime.
• Customer led—Customers who have the qualified level of technical expertise follow the instructions in this guide.

include various configurations of AX nodes. These AX nodes power the primary compute cluster that is deployed as an HCI. The HCI uses a flexible solution architecture rather than a fixed component design.

For information about supported AX nodes and operating system support for each of the AX nodes, see the Support Matrix for Microsoft HCI Solutions.

The solutions are available in both hybrid and all-flash configurations. For more information about available configurations, see the AX nodes specification sheet.

offer the following types of cluster infrastructure deployments:

• Switchless storage networking
• Scalable infrastructure
• Stretched cluster infrastructure

This infrastructure type offers two to three nodes in a switchless configuration for storage traffic. This infrastructure can be implemented using any of the validated and supported AX nodes. However, the number of nodes in a cluster varies between the AX node models and the number of network adapters that each model supports.

Switchless storage networking offers two full-mesh configurations:

• Single-link
• Dual-link

For the two-node cluster deployment, configure a cluster witness. For details, see Configuring a cluster witness.

The switchless storage configuration has been validated with back-to-back connections for storage connectivity.

The following figure shows the switchless storage networking infrastructure:

Each of the variants in supports a specific type of network connectivity. The type of network connectivity determines the solution integration requirements.

• For switchless storage networking, install the server cabling according to the instructions detailed in E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Switchless Networking.
• For sample switch configurations for these network connectivity options, see Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies : Switch Configurations – RoCE/iWarp (Mellanox and Intel E810 Cards) and Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies : Switch Configurations - iWARP (Legacy Qlogic Cards Only).
  Note: Manually disable the DCB on the management adapters using the Disable-NetAdapterQos <nicName> command.
  
  

can be deployed in the following ways:

• Manual operating system deployment—Begin by manually installing the operating system on AX nodes.
• Factory-installed operating system deployment—Begin with AX nodes that have factory-installed Windows Server 2022 with the Desktop Experience feature.

Each deployment method has its own prerequisites, including configuring network switches, as described in this guide.

1. Ensure you have Windows Admin Center.
2. In WAC, go to Settings > Extensions.
3. Under the Available extensions tab, select and install Dell OpenManage Integration. Once it is installed, you can access it on the left panel on the cluster manager, under Extensions.

Before deploying AX nodes, complete the required predeployment configuration tasks.

Complete the following predeployment configuration before deploying the Azure Stack HCI solution.

Based on the selected network topology, configure the ToR network switches to enable storage and management/compute traffic.

Configuring switch VLT redundancy with Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) provides a virtual floating IP address that any node can reference as a gateway. If a switch fails, the virtual IP address is transferred to a peer switch.

VRRP is an active/standby, first-hop redundancy protocol (FHRP). When used with VLT peers, VRRP becomes an active/active protocol. The VRRP virtual MAC address is the local destination address in the forwarding information base (FIB) table of both VLT peers. Using this method, the backup VRRP router forwards intercepted frames that have a destination MAC address that matches the VRRP virtual MAC address.

A standard Storage Spaces Direct deployment requires three basic types of networks: OOB management, host management, and storage. The number of network ports (two or four) that are used within the storage configuration determines whether you have two or four fault domains.

For sample switch configurations, see Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: Switch Configurations – RoCE/iWarp (Mellanox and Intel E810 Cards) and Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: Switch Configurations - iWARP (Legacy Qlogic Cards Only).

The AX nodes are factory-configured with optimized system BIOS and iDRAC settings. This preconfiguration eliminates the need for you to manually configure the settings to a recommended baseline.

The iDRAC in AX nodes can be configured to obtain an IP address from DHCP or can be assigned a static IP address. When the OOB network in the environment does not provide DHCP IP addresses, you must manually set a static IPv4 address on each iDRAC network interface. You can access the physical server console to set the addresses by using KVM or other means.

The QLogic FastLinQ 41262 network adapter supports both iWARP and RoCE.

When used with the QLogic network adapters, the AX nodes are validated only with iWARP. Manually configure the adapter to enable iWARP based on the chosen network configuration.

Perform the following steps to configure the QLogic network adapter for each port.

1. During system startup, press F2 to enter system setup and select Device Settings.
2. Select the QLogic network adapter from the list of adapters.
3. Click Device Level Configuration and ensure that Virtualization Mode is set to None.
4. Click Back, and then click NIC Configuration.
5. On the NIC Configuration page, select the following options:
   • Link Speed: SmartAN
   • NIC + RDMA Mode: Enabled
   • RDMA Operational Mode: iWARP
   • Boot Protocol: None
   • Virtual LAN Mode: Disabled
6. Click Back, and then click Data Center Bridging (DCB) Settings.
7. On the Data Center Bridging (DCB) Settings page, set DCBX Protocol to Disabled.
8. Click Back, click Finish, and then click Yes to save the settings.
9. Click Yes to return to the Device Settings page.
10. Select the second port of the QLogic adapter and repeat the preceding steps.
11. Click Finish to return to the System Setup page.
12. Click Finish to reboot the system.

The following figure shows the two storage networks needed to create a dual-link direct interconnect between two clustered nodes (also known as back-to-back). The numbered blue lines indicate the recommended cabling order, beginning with the network adapter in the lowest slot number (port 1). After cabling storage, connect all nodes, LOM/rNDC/OCP, and ports 1 and 2 to a management/VM network.

The following figure shows an example of a three-node cluster that is configured with a single-link full mesh storage network interconnect. External network traffic uses the LOM/rNDC/OCP integrated network adapter, while storage network traffic uses one RDMA-capable PCIe network adapter for each server node. The management network offers some redundancy in the event of a storage network connectivity (cable or port) failure.

This figure shows the three storage networks that are needed to create a single-link full mesh interconnect between three clustered nodes. The numbered blue lines indicate the recommended cabling order, beginning with the RDMA-capable PCIe network adapter in the lowest slot number, Port 1.

After cabling storage, connect all nodes, LOM/rNDC/OCP, and Ports 1 and 2 to a management/VM network.

The following figure shows an example of a three-node cluster that is configured with a dual-link full mesh storage network interconnect. External network traffic uses the LOM/rNDC/OCP integrated network adapter, while storage network traffic uses two RDMA-capable PCIe adapters for each server node. In this case, each clustered node has redundant storage network connectivity to every other node in the cluster.

The following figure shows the six storage networks needed to create a dual-link full mesh interconnect between three clustered nodes. The numbered blue lines indicate the recommended cabling order, beginning with the RDMA adapter in the lowest slot number (Port 1). After cabling storage, connect all nodes, LOM/rNDC/OCP, and Ports 1 and 2 to a management/VM network.

The following figure shows the three-node, single-link full mesh cabling diagram for AX-4520c.

The following figure shows the three-node, dual-link full mesh cabling diagram for AX-4520c.

The following figure shows the twelve storage networks needed to create a dual-link full mesh interconnect between four clustered nodes. The numbered blue lines indicate the recommended cabling order, beginning with the RDMA-capable PCIe adapter in the lowest slot number, Port 1. After cabling storage, connect all nodes, LOM/rNDC/OCP, and Ports 1 and 2 to a management/VM network.

The following figure shows the AX-4520c, four-node, dual-link full mesh cabling.

These instructions are for manual deployment of the Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2022 operating system. Unless otherwise specified, perform the steps on each physical node in the infrastructure that will be a part of Azure Stack HCI.

Dell Lifecycle Controller and iDRAC provide operating system deployment options. Options include manual installation or unattended installation by using virtual media and the operating system deployment feature in Lifecycle Controller for Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 operating system.

A step-by-step procedure for deploying the operating system is not within the scope of this guide.

This guide assumes that:

• Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2022 operating system version 22H2 installation on the physical server is complete.
• You have access to the iDRAC virtual console of the physical server.

If the cluster nodes are shipped from Dell Technologies with a preinstalled operating system, complete the out-of-box experience (OOBE):

• Select language and locale settings.
• Accept the Microsoft and OEM EULAs.
• Set up a password for the local administrator account.
• Update the operating system partition size, and shrink it as needed.

The OEM operating system is preactivated and the Hyper-V role is predeployed for Windows Server 2019/2022. After completing the OOBE steps, perform the steps in Install roles and features to complete the cluster deployment and Storage Spaces Direct configuration.

The Azure Stack HCI operating system factory image has multilingual support for these languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Polish, and Italian. To change language:

• Run the following PowerShell commands. <LANGUAGE> can be en-US, fr-FR, ja-JP, ko-KR, de-DE, pl-PL, it-IT, or es-ES.
  • Set-WinUserLanguageList <LANGUAGE>
  • Set-WinSystemLocale -systemlocale <LANGUAGE>
• Reboot after running the commands.

If you purchased a license for a secondary operation system to run your virtual machines, the VHD file is located in the C:\Dell_OEM\VM folder. Copy this VHD file to a virtual disk in your Azure Stack HCI cluster and create virtual machines using this VHD.

Identify the network interface controllers to be used for the management or compute traffic and assign the IP address to the first port.

Log in to the host console of each system using iDRAC virtual console and assign host IPs and respective VLANs.

Run the following commands in PowerShell:

1. Disable the DHCP on the management adapters.

   Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceAlias "Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1","Integrated NIC 1 Port 2-1" -Dhcp Disabled

2. Disable disconnected network interface controllers.

   Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.status -eq "disconnected"} | Disable-NetAdapter

3. Assign management IP address to the first port.

   New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1" -IPAddress 192.168.11.11 -DefaultGateway 192.168.10.1 -PrefixLength 24 -AddressFamily IPv4 –Verbose

4. Set VLAN ID for management adapters.

   Get-NetAdapter -Name "Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1" | Set-NetAdapter -VlanID 202 -Confirm: $false

5. Set a DNS IP address.

   Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1" -ServerAddresses 192.168.11.50

are validated and certified with certain firmware versions that are related to the solution infrastructure components.

Use the validated firmware and software, as specified in the Support Matrix, to ensure that the solution infrastructure remains supported and delivers optimal performance.

You can verify compliance and update the nodes with an Azure Stack HCI online or offline catalog by using Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center. To verify compliance and to update firmware and drivers on a standalone node, see the Day 1 operations overview.

1. In Windows Admin Center, in the left pane, click Add.
2. Enter the node name and click Add.
3. Under All connections, select the server and click Manage as.
4. Select use another account for this connection, and then provide the credentials in the domain\username or hostname\username format.
5. Click Confirm.
6. In the Connections window, click the server name.
7. In the left pane of Windows Admin Center, under EXTENSIONS, click OpenManage Integration.
8. Review the Dell Software License Agreement and Customer Notice and select the check box to accept the terms of the license agreement.
9. Click View > Compliance. Another menu appears, select Hardware Updates.
10. Click Check compliance and select either the online catalog or offline catalog.
11. Click Fix Compliance and select update to update the node.

1. Depending on the platform, many devices may not automatically be recognized with in-box drivers. Install the proper Intel or AMD chipset drivers.
2. Run the following PowerShell command to retrieve a list of all driver versions that are installed on the local system:

   Get-PnpDevice | Select-Object Name, @{l='DriverVersion';e={(Get-PnpDeviceProperty -
   InstanceId $_.InstanceId -KeyName 'DEVPKEY_Device_DriverVersion').Data}} -Unique |
   Where-Object {($_.Name -like "*HBA*") -or ($_.Name -like "*mellanox*") -or ($_.Name
   -like "*Qlogic*") -or ($_.Name -like "*X710*") -or
   ($_.Name -like "*Broadcom*")  -or
   ($_.Name -like "*marvell*")  -or
   ($_.Name -like "*E810*")  }

3. Update the out-of-box drivers to the required versions, if necessary.

   For the latest Dell Technologies supported versions of system components, see the Support Matrix for Microsoft HCI Solutions. Download the driver installers from https://www.dell.com/support or by using the Dell Azure Stack HCI Solution Catalog.

4. Attach a folder containing the driver DUP files to the system as a virtual media image:
   1. In the iDRAC virtual console menu, click Virtual Media.
   2. In the Create Image from Folder window, click Create Image.
   3. Click Browse, select the folder where the driver DUP files are stored, and, if required, change the name of the image.
   4. Click Create Image.
   5. Click Finish.
   6. From the Virtual Media menu, select Connect Virtual Media.
   7. Select Map Removable Disk, click Browse, and select the image that you created.
   8. Click Map Device.

   After the image is mapped, it appears as a drive in the host operating system.

5. Go to the driver DUP files and run them to install the updated out-of-box drivers.

Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI encompasses various configurations of the following platforms to power the primary compute cluster that is deployed as Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI):

• AX-640
• AX-650
• AX-740xd
• AX-750
• AX-6515
• AX-7525
• AX-760
• AX-4510c
• AX-4520c

These configurations use a flexible architecture rather than a fixed component design. This flexibility in component choice provides different options for integrating the server nodes as a solution and in the host network configuration.

Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI can be deployed in two different usage models:

• The scalable model supports from one to 16 nodes in a cluster, and uses top-of-rack switches for management and storage traffic networking.
• The switchless storage usage model uses full mesh connections between the cluster nodes for storage traffic and supports from two to three nodes in a cluster.

The following figure shows the network integration options available based on Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI:

This guide describes the complete list of integration options for the switchless storage usage model, host operating system configuration options, and provides PowerShell commands to complete the host operating system network configuration. It includes adapter-specific configuration instructions that are related to RoCEv2 or iWARP configurations in the host operating system.

This guide provides an overview of the topology and deployment instructions for the switchless integration option.

Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI requires a reliable, high bandwidth, low latency network connection between each clustered node for storage network traffic. Dell Technologies recommends using redundant 10 Gbps/25 Gbps/100 Gbps top-of-rack network switches for storage network traffic.

Dell PowerSwitch data center switches offer a flexible, easy-to-deploy, cost-effective network solution that is best for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and Failover Clustering. However, Microsoft announced support for two-node switchless clusters for Windows Server 2019 Azure Stack HCI and failover clustering. Most recently, Microsoft has extended this support for three-node clusters, using a full mesh storage network topology. A full mesh interconnect requires direct network cable connections between every node of the cluster. These direct connections can be configured either using single- or dual-link full mesh topologies. For redundancy and performance purposes, dual-link direct network connections between every node of the cluster are recommended.

Advantages of a full mesh, switchless Storage Spaces Direct cluster include:

• Datacenter environments with an existing 1 GbE network switch infrastructure reduce costs that are associated with upgrading to 10 GbE (or faster) switches since 10 GbE is a storage network minimum requirement of Storage Spaces Direct.
• Datacenter environments with an existing 10 GbE network switch infrastructure gain increased network throughput for storage traffic since there are 25 GbE network adapter connections between each clustered node.

Consider cluster size carefully before deploying a full mesh switchless Storage Spaces Direct cluster. Expanding a switchless storage cluster with an additional node may require additional network adapter cards to be installed.

Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI encompasses various configurations across our portfolio of servers. In each of these platforms, various chassis riser configurations may be available, which determine the total number of network adapters allowed. Often, the BOSS or HBA adapters consume up to two of the available PCIe slots. Additionally, some models may not be able to physically accommodate the additional network adapters that are required for a switchless network topology, such as the AX-640 with a 12x 2.5" hard drive chassis configuration, which has limited PCIe slots. Instead, dual-port rNDC is required for RDMA traffic.

The following RDMA network adapters are validated with three-node switchless mesh topologies:

• Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
• Mellanox ConnectX-5 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
• Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
• QLogic FastLinQ 41262 Dual Port 25 GbE
• Intel E810-XXV Dual Port 10/25 GbE SFP28 Adapter
• Intel E823

The following table lists the maximum number of RDMA network adapters that can be physically installed into each platform.

The following table lists the number of PCIe network adapters that are required per clustered node to create a full mesh switchless interconnect.

*For single-link full mesh interconnect topologies, 10 GbE (or faster) external management network switch connectivity is required. This network provides redundancy for storage network traffic if a storage network link (cable, port, or card) fails.

*Single-link full mesh is not recommended for high-performance configurations where the VM or storage is expected to have high throughput requirements.

If a storage network cable or port fails on single-link full mesh topologies, storage traffic between the affected nodes are rerouted automatically over the management network. Since the management network does not support the RDMA protocol, TCP storage traffic is sent over the management network.

Dell Technologies recommends Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cabling instead of Active Optical Cabling (AOC) and optical transceivers, especially for direct server-to-server storage network connectivity. DAC cabling offers a cost-effective, highly reliable solution for short distance data transmission. AOC and optical transceivers generally require higher power consumption from each server. Optical transceivers may also require the proper polarity of fiber optic cable in order to allow server-to-server network communication. For instances when optical cables are required, ensure that only Dell validated, high temperature optical transceivers are used for Intel QLogic and Mellanox 25 GbE network adapters.

You can use PowerShell commands to assign IP addresses and VLANs for storage networks.

The following example demonstrates how to configure these settings for a two-node cluster.

Assign IP address and VLANs on Node1 
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 1 Port 1" -IPAddress 192.168.11.1 -PrefixLength 30 -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 1 Port 2" -IPAddress 192.168.11.5 -PrefixLength 30 -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose

Get-NetAdapter -Name "SLOT 1 Port 1" | Set-NetAdapter -VlanID 711 -Confirm:$false
Get-NetAdapter -Name "SLOT 1 Port 2" | Set-NetAdapter -VlanID 711 -Confirm:$false

Assign IP address and VLANs on Node2 
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 1 Port 1" -IPAddress 192.168.11.2 -PrefixLength 30 -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 1 Port 2" -IPAddress 192.168.11.6 -PrefixLength 30 -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose

This section provides guidance that applies to all configurations described in this guide.

QLogic 41262 and Intel E810/E823 NICs are configured to use iWARP. However, the operating system driver defaults to RoCEv2 for RDMA. Configure Mellanox NICs to ensure that the DcbxMode property is set to Host in charge.

Storage Spaces Direct hyper-converged Infrastructures with Mellanox ConnectX-4 LX, Mellanox ConnectX-5, Mellanox ConnectX-6 DX, Nvidia ConnectX-6 LX, Intel E810 25 GbE, Intel E823 10/25 GbE (AX-4510/AX-4520) only, and QLogic FastLinQ 41262 adapters use converged network design and RDMA for storage traffic.

It is important to ensure that the physical and virtual adapters used for storage traffic have RDMA enabled.

# Variables for the scenario
$StorageAdaptersAll = @('SLOT 1 PORT 1', 'SLOT 1 PORT 2', 'vEthernet (Storage1)', 'vEthernet (Storage2)')
Enable-NetAdapterRdma -Name $StorageAdaptersAll

Dell Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI is configured in the fully converged or non-converged network topology with the following adapters:

• Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx
• Mellanox ConnectX-5 LX
• Mellanox ConnectX-6 DX
• NVIDIA ConnectX-6 LX
• Intel E810 25GbE/100GbE (when RDMA protocol is RoCEV2)
• Intel E823

These adapters require DCB configuration on the ToR switches and Quality of Service (QoS) configuration in the host operating system. High-performance NVMe configurations using QLogic network interface controllers might also require these configurations.

Ensure that the QoS policies are configured to prioritize the SMB traffic related to the storage adapters. Ensure that the QoS configuration in the host operating system matches the QoS configuration that is performed in the network switch configuration.

The following tables provide an overview of QoS priorities and the required state for the set of priorities.

Perform the following steps to configure QoS in the host operating system.

# Variables for the scenario
$StorageAdapters = @('StorageAdapter')

# New QoS policy with a match condition set to 445 (TCP Port 445 is dedicated for SMB)
# Arguments 3 and 5 to the PriorityValue8021Action parameter indicate the IEEE 802.1p
# values for SMB and cluster traffic.
New-NetQosPolicy -Name 'SMB' –NetDirectPortMatchCondition 445 –PriorityValue8021Action 3
New-NetQosPolicy 'Cluster' -Cluster -PriorityValue8021Action 5

# Map the IEEE 802.1p priority enabled in the system to a traffic class
# Customer may change the bandwidth for the below traffic class based on their environments
New-NetQosTrafficClass -Name 'SMB' –Priority 3 –BandwidthPercentage 50 –Algorithm ETS
New-NetQosTrafficClass -Name 'Cluster' –Priority 5 –BandwidthPercentage 2 –Algorithm ETS

# Configure flow control for the priorities shown in the above table
Enable-NetQosFlowControl –Priority 3
Disable-NetQosFlowControl –Priority 0,1,2,4,5,6,7

# Enable QoS for the Mellanox network adapter ports.
foreach ($port in $StorageAdapters) {
    Enable-NetAdapterQos –InterfaceAlias $port
}

# Disable DCBX Willing mode
Set-NetQosDcbxSetting -Willing $false

# Enable IEEE Priority Tag on all network interfaces to ensure the vSwitch does not drop
# the VLAN tag information.
$nics = Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS
ForEach ($nic in $nics) {
    Set-VMNetworkAdapter -VMNetworkAdapter $nic -IeeePriorityTag ON
}

After joining the cluster nodes to an Active Directory domain, you can create a host cluster and configure it for Storage Spaces Direct.

BitLocker is a drive encryption feature from Microsoft that is designed to protect the user data on a system. BitLocker provides elevated protection when combined with a hardware component called trusted platform module (TPM).

Use the following PowerShell commands for each server to enable and configure BitLocker:

1. Enable BitLocker encryption.

   Enable-BitLocker -MountPoint "C:" -RecoveryPasswordProtector -UsedSpaceOnly -SkipHardwareTest -WarningAction SilentlyContinue

2. Check the BitLocker status. Encryption percentage should be 100%, and protection status should be ON for the operating system drive.

   Get-BitLockerVolume

3. Get the BitLocker volume recovery password and save it in a location accessible to all nodes.

   (Get-BitLockerVolume -MountPoint "C:").KeyProtector | Where-Object {$_.KeyProtectorType -eq "RecoveryPassword"}

4. Repeat the steps on all the cluster nodes.
   Note: To backup recovery password to an active directory, see Learn.Microsoft | Backup To AAD-Bit Locker Key Protector.
   
   

Before you proceed with operational management of the cluster, Dell Technologies recommends that you validate the cluster deployment, verify that the infrastructure is operational, and, if needed, activate the operating system license.

1. Run the test-Cluster cmdlet to generate a cluster validation report:

   Test-Cluster -Node Node01,Node02, Node03, Node04 -Include 'System Configuration', 'Inventory', 'Network', 'Storage Spaces Direct'

   This command generates an HTML report with a list of all the tests that were performed and completed without errors.
2. If the operating system was not factory-installed, activate the operating system license.

   By default, the operating system is installed in evaluation mode. For information about activating the operating system license and the management and operational aspects for the Azure Stack HCI solution, see the Day 1 operations overview.

Dell Technologies recommends using the company's deployment services to install Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies. Issues that arise during do-it-yourself installations and configuration are not covered even if you have purchased Dell Technologies ProSupport or ProSupport Plus. Support for installation and configuration issues is provided under a separate paid services package.

When you call Dell Technologies with an installation and configuration issue, Dell Tech Support routes you to your Sales Account Manager. The Account Manager will then help you to purchase the onsite deployment services package.

Intel Optane DC persistent memory is designed to improve overall data center system performance and lower storage latencies by placing storage data closer to the processor on nonvolatile media. The persistent memory modules are compatible with DDR4 sockets and can exist on the same platform with conventional DDR4 DRAM DIMMs. In App Direct Mode, the operating system distinguishes between the RAM and persistent storage memory spaces.

Intel Optane DC persistent memory provides an ideal capacity to be used as a cache device (SBL) for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. Storage data is interleaved between the Intel Optane DC persistent memory DIMMs within each CPU socket to achieve the best performance. A single region per CPU socket is configured in the system BIOS. Thus, a dual CPU server platform provides Storage Spaces Direct with two persistent memory cache devices. These high-endurance, write-intensive cache devices can be used to enhance the performance of many slower-performing NVMe/SAS/SATA devices that are used for storage capacity, as shown in the following figure:

Three types of device objects are related to persistent memory on Windows Server 2019 and Windows Sever 2022: the NVDIMM root device, physical INVDIMMs, and logical persistent memory disks. In Device Manager, physical INVDIMMs are displayed under Memory devices, while logical persistent disks are under Persistent memory disks. The NVDIMM root device is under System Devices. The scmbus.sys driver controls the NVDIMM root device.

The nvdimm.sys driver controls all NVDIMM devices, while the pmem.sys driver controls the logical disks. Both the nvdimm.sys and pmem.sys drivers are the same for all types of persistent memory, such as NVDIMM-N and Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory (INVDIMM).

The following figure shows the Device Manager on a system with 12 INVDIMMs across dual CPU sockets and two persistent storage disks:

encompass various configurations of AX nodes from Dell Technologies to power the primary compute cluster that is deployed as a HCI. The HCI that is built by using these AX nodes uses a flexible solution architecture rather than a fixed component design. The following figure illustrates one of the flexible solution architectures. It consists of a compute cluster alongside the redundant top-of-rack (ToR) switches, a separate out-of-band network, and an existing management infrastructure in the data center.

For deployment guidance and instructions for configuring a cluster using Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies, see Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies. This operations guidance is applicable only to cluster infrastructure that is built using the instructions provided in the deployment documentation for AX nodes.

Cluster creation and enabling Storage Spaces Direct configuration on the cluster creates only a storage pool and does not provision any virtual disks in the storage pool. Use the New-Volume cmdlet to provision new virtual disks as the shared volumes for the cluster.

When creating volumes in the Azure Stack HCI cluster infrastructure:

• Ensure that you create multiple volumes—a multiple of the number of servers in the cluster. For optimal performance, each cluster node should own at least one virtual disk volume. Virtual machines (VMs) on each volume perform optimally when running on the volume owner node.
• Limit the number of volumes in the cluster to 64 on the Windows Server 2019 or 2022 operating system.
• Ensure that the storage pool has enough reserve capacity for any in-place volume repairs due to failed disk replacement. The reserved capacity must be at least equivalent to the size of one capacity drive per server and up to four drives.
• A single node cluster supports two three-way mirror volumes and nested two-way mirror volumes.

For general guidance about planning volume creation, see Planning volumes in Storage Spaces Direct.

Windows Admin Center is a browser-based management tool developed by Microsoft to monitor and manage Windows Servers, failover clusters, and hyperconverged clusters.

The AX nodes for Storage Spaces Direct offer software-defined storage building blocks for creating highly available and highly scalable HCI. The AX nodes are preconfigured with certified components and validated as a Storage Spaces Direct solution that includes Dell PowerSwitch S-Series switches, with simplified ordering and reduced deployment risks. Dell Technologies offers configuration options within these building blocks to meet different capacity and performance points. With Windows Admin Center, you can seamlessly monitor and manage the HCI clusters that are created on these building blocks.

To view the dashboard for the HCI cluster that you have added to Windows Admin Center, click the cluster name in the Cluster Manager window.

This dashboard provides the real-time performance view from the HCI cluster. This view includes total IOPS, average latency values, throughput achieved, average CPU usage, memory usage, and storage usage from all cluster nodes. It also provides a summarized view of the Azure Stack HCI cluster with drives, volumes, and VM health.

You can examine an alert by clicking the alerts tile in the dashboard.

The virtual switches tool in Windows Admin Center enables you to manage Hyper-V virtual switches of the cluster nodes.

The virtual switches tool supports the following features:

• View existing virtual switches on the server.
• Create a new virtual switch.
• Modify virtual switch properties.
• Delete a virtual switch.

Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center enables IT administrators to manage the HCI that is created by using . OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center simplifies the tasks of IT administrators by remotely managing the AX nodes and clusters throughout their life cycle.

For more information about the features, benefits, and installation of OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center, see the documentation at OpenManage Integration with Microsoft Windows Admin Center.

Select View > Overview. The Overview page displays the following:

Infrastructure lock (also known as iDRAC lockdown mode or system lockdown mode) helps to prevent unintended changes after a system is provisioned. Infrastructure lock is applicable to both hardware configuration and firmware updates. When the infrastructure is locked, any attempt to change the system configuration is blocked. If any attempts are made to change the critical system settings, an error message is displayed. Enabling infrastructure lock also blocks server or cluster firmware updates using the OpenManage Integration extension tool.

The following table lists the functional and nonfunctional features that are affected when the infrastructure lock is enabled:

To enable or disable the Infrastructure lock in Dell OpenManage Integration extension for better security, select View > Security. From the drop-down menu, select Infrastructure Lock, and then click Enable or Disable.

The infrastructure lock can also be disabled during server or cluster management operations such as server update, CAU, full stack update, manage CPU cores, and so on. If the lock is already enabled, OMIMSWAC displays an error during the management operation and gives an option in the same window to disable the lock and proceed. To allow OMIMSWAC to automatically lock the infrastructure after the operation is complete, select Allow OMIMSWAC to re-enable the infrastructure lock after the operation is complete.

These procedures describe how to prepare and update firmware and drivers on an Azure Stack HCI cluster manually.

For certain system components, you might need to update the drivers to the latest Dell supported versions, which are listed in the Supported Firmware and Software Matrix.

Run the following PowerShell command to retrieve the list of all driver versions that are installed on the local system:

Get-PnpDevice | 
Select-Object Name, @{l='DriverVersion';e={(Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId $_.InstanceId -KeyName 'DEVPKEY_Device_DriverVersion').Data}} -Unique | 
Where-Object {
    ($_.Name -like "*HBA*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*mellanox*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*Qlogic*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*X710*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*Broadcom*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*marvell*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*E810*") -or 
    ($_.Name -like "*E823*")
}

Run the following PowerShell command to check the chipset driver installation status. If there is an error, install the chipset driver:

Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly | Where-Object {($_.Status -ne 'OK') -and ($_.Problem -ne 'CM_PROB_NONE' -and $_.Problem -ne 'CM_PROB_DISABLED')}

After you identify the required driver version, including for the chipset and the HBA, download the driver installers from Dell Support or by using the Dell Repository Manager (DRM) as described in Obtaining the firmware catalog for AX nodes or Ready Nodes using the Dell Repository Manager.

After the drivers are downloaded, copy the identified drivers to AX nodes from where you can manually run the driver DUP files to install the drivers and restart the node.

Alternatively, to install the drivers silently, go to the folder and run the following command:

<DriverUpdate>.EXE /s /f

You can resize volumes that are created in Spaces Direct storage pools by using the Resize-VirtualDisk cmdlet. For more information, see Learn.Microsoft | Manage volumes in Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server.

If a cluster node fails, perform node operating system recovery in a systematic manner to ensure that the node is brought up with the configuration that is consistent with other cluster nodes.

The following sections provide details about operating system recovery and post-recovery configuration that is required to bring the node into an existing Azure Stack HCI cluster.

This section provides an overview of the steps involved in operating system recovery on Dell Solutions for Azure Stack HCI.

For manually deployed nodes, you can recover the operating system on the node by using any of the methods that were used for operating system deployment.

For the factory-installed OEM license of the operating system, Dell Technologies recommends that you use the operating system recovery media that shipped with the PowerEdge server. Using this media for operating system recovery ensures that the operating system stays activated after the recovery. Using any other operating system media triggers the need for activation after operating system deployment. Operating system deployment using the recovery media is the same as either retail or other operating system media-based installation.

After completing the operating system deployment using the recovery media, perform the following steps to bring the node into an existing Azure Stack HCI cluster:

1. Update CPU chipset, network, and storage drivers.
2. Configure host networking.
3. Change the hostname.
4. Perform AD Domain Join.
5. Configure the QoS policy (for RoCE for RDMA only).
6. Configure RDMA.
7. Configure the firewall.
8. Perform Day 0 operating system updates.
9. Add server nodes to the cluster.

For instructions on steps 1 through 7, see Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: End-to-End Deployment with Switchless Networking or Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: End-to-End Deployment with Scalable Networking.

FullPowerCycle is a calling interface function that provides a way to reset the server auxiliary power. An increasing amount of server hardware runs on server auxiliary power. Troubleshooting some server issues requires you to physically unplug the server power cable to reset the hardware running on auxiliary power.

The FullPowerCycle feature enables the administrator to connect or disconnect auxiliary power remotely without visiting the data center. This feature is supported on AX nodes and Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes.

These are the relevant commands to run in the PowerShell console:

• To request FullPowerCycle on your system: Invoke-FullPowerCycle —status request
• To get the status of FullPowerCycle on your system: Invoke-FullPowerCycle -status Get
• To cancel FullPowerCycle on your system: Invoke-FullPowerCycle -status cancel