This end-to-end deployment guide offers an overview of Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server. It provides guidance on integrating solution components and detailed instructions for preparing and deploying the solution infrastructure. Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server includes the Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Data Center edition.

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. The 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.

This guide assumes that deployment personnel understand the following technologies and tasks:

• AX nodes from Dell Technologies
• Deploying and configuring BIOS and integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) settings
• Deploying and configuring Windows Server operating system and Hyper-V infrastructure

Dell AX Solutions for Microsoft includes various configurations of AX nodes. These AX nodes power the primary compute cluster that is deployed as an HCI solution. The HCI solution 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 Dell Technologies Solutions for Microsoft Azure > Support Matrix.

The solutions are available in both hybrid and all-flash configurations. For more information about available configurations, see the Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server specification sheet.

Dell AX Solutions for Microsoft offer the following types of cluster infrastructure deployments:

• Scalable infrastructure
• Switchless storage networking

Dell AX Solutions for Microsoft does not include:

• Management infrastructure components such as a cluster for hosting management virtual machines such as Windows Admin Center (WAC)
• Services such as Microsoft Active Directory and Domain Name System (DNS)

The instructions in this guide do not include deployment of any of these services and components, and they assume that at least an Active Directory domain controller is available in the existing management infrastructure. In a remote office scenario, Dell Technologies recommends that you deploy either an Active Directory replica or read-only domain controller (RODC) at the remote office. If you are using an RODC at the remote site, connectivity to the central management infrastructure with a writeable domain controller is mandatory during deployment of the cluster.

The scalable offering within Dell AX Solutions for Microsoft encompasses various AX node configurations. In this Windows Server 2025 solution, as many as 16 AX nodes power the primary compute cluster.

The following figure shows one of the flexible solution architectures. It includes the Windows Server instance, redundant top-of-rack (ToR) switches, a separate out-of-band (OOB) network, and an existing management infrastructure in the data center.

Dell AX System for Microsoft Windows Server hyperconverged scalable architectures support from two to sixteen nodes in a cluster. The scalable architectures support fully converged, non-converged, and disaggregated network topologies.

In the fully converged network topology, management, compute, and storage (SMB) ports from the server are connected to the same highly available network fabric. In the host operating system, the NIC ports are used for both storage and management/compute traffic. The following figure shows this configuration in the host operating system.

In this host operating system network configuration, a Fully Converged Intent is created with two ports and virtual adapters in the host operating system that is implemented for Storage 1, Storage 2, and Management traffic.

The following figure depicts the integration of the fully converged architecture.

The following figure depicts the AX-4510c fully converged network topology with embedded LOM.

In the non-converged configuration, Dell Technologies recommends the following:

• Storage intent is created for storage traffic using the dedicated PCIe NIC ports
• A management and compute intent is created for the OCP card ports

The following figure depicts this configuration:

The following figure depicts a non-converged network topology with embedded LOM:

The following figure depicts AX-4520c non-converged network topology with PCIe NICs:

Dell Technologies assumes that the management services that are required for the operating system deployment and cluster configuration are in the existing infrastructure where the HCI cluster is being deployed.

The following table describes the management services:

The following IP addresses and VLANs are part of the Network ATC configuration examples.

Partner Admin Link (PAL) is a simple telemetry-based capability that is built into Microsoft Azure. PAL enables Microsoft to track partner involvement in Azure related technical engagements.

Adding a Dell Partner ID to the Service Principal does not provide Dell with additional access to the customer system and does not change any Azure Role-Based Account Controls (RBACs).

Dell Technologies employees can add a PAL using the user ID associated with either the subscription or Service Principal that is used for Arc or for Azure Local registrations. During a deployment, the customer creates the Service Principal for their system.

Dell Technologies recommends that you use the user ID associated with the Service Principal for the registration as described in Add a PAL through the Azure portal by using Azure PowerShell with Service Principal user ID.

Alternatively, you can follow the procedure that is described in Add a PAL through the Azure portal using the subscription user ID.

The AX nodes are factory-configured with optimized system BIOS and iDRAC settings. This factory configuration 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.

Configure the top-of-rack (ToR) network switches to enable management and compute. Dell Technologies recommends that you deploy a network topology that supports a dual control plane while sharing a single data plane. Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) is Dell Technologies proprietary technology that provides network resiliency for data I/O.

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 Switch Configurations – RoCE/iWarp (Mellanox and Intel E810 Cards) Reference Guide.

Dell AX nodes support manual or factory-installed deployment of Windows Server 2025 using iDRAC and Lifecycle Controller.

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 2025 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 2025 operating system installation on the physical server is complete.

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 2025. After completing the OOBE steps, perform the steps to complete the cluster deployment and Storage Spaces Direct configuration.

The Windows Server 2025 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.

Set up host networking through iDRAC and PowerShell by assigning IPs, setting VLANs, enabling remote access, and configuring time sync and WinRM for cluster readiness.

In the fully converged network topology, all storage ports from the server are connected to the same network fabric. In the host operating system, the NIC ports are used for both storage and management/compute traffic.

In this example, SLOT 1 Port 1 and SLOT 1 Port 2 are being used to create a converged Intent. Verify that SLOT 1 Port 1 and SLOT 1 Port 2 are up across all the nodes.

1. Modify the NIC variables to match the deployment requirements.

   $mgmt_compute_stor_nics = @('SLOT 1 Port 1','SLOT 1 Port 2')
   $storage_vlans =@(711,712)
   $Mgmt_Vlan=202
   

2. Create an override object for the DCB Quality of Service (QoS) configuration.

   $QoSOverride = New-NetIntentQoSPolicyOverrides
   $QoSOverride.BandwidthPercentage_Cluster = 2
   $QoSOverride.PriorityValue8021Action_Cluster = 5
   

   Note: The cluster bandwidth is defined as 2 percent using an override to ensure the configuration on the host operating system and the switch is consistent.
   
   

   The following table shows the QoS flow priorities for each network type:

   Table 6. QoS priorities for network intents

   Traffic class	Purpose	QoS flow	ETS bandwidth allocation
   3	RDMA (SMB Direct)	Enabled	50 percent
   7	Cluster network	Disabled	10 GbE equals 2 percent Greater than 25 GbE equals 1 percent
   0-2, 4-6	0 - Best-effort traffic	Disabled	Remaining percentage distributed across the traffic classes

3. Create a jumbo packet override for converged topology.

   $AdapterPropertyOverrides = New-NetIntentAdapterPropertyOverrides
   $AdapterPropertyOverrides.JumboPacket = 9014
   

4. Disable the DCBX Willing state in the operating system.

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

   Note: Before changing net intents, you must set the DCBX Willing mode on every cluster node.
   
   
5. Choose the RDMA protocol to be used for deployment.

   #Intel E810 or E823 network adapter supports iWARP and RoCEV2, while Mellanox by NVIDIA supports only RoCEV2.

   #iWARP = 1 RoCEv2 = 4

   $AdapterPropertyOverrides.NetworkDirectTechnology = 4

   Note: If you have Intel E810 or E823 cards, you can choose iWARP or RoCE protocols for SMB Direct traffic according to your data-center standards. Dell Engineering does not have a recommendation on using one over the other.
   
   
6. Set storage overrides if you do not want Network ATC to assign SMB IPs automatically.

   $StorageOverride = New-NetIntentStorageOverrides
   $StorageOverride.EnableAutomaticIPGeneration = $false
   

7. Create a management, compute, and storage intent.

   Add-NetIntent -Name Management_Compute_Storage -Management –Compute -Storage -AdapterName $mgmt_compute_stor_nics -ManagementVlan $Mgmt_Vlan -StorageVLANs $storage_vlans -QosPolicyOverrides $QoSOverride -AdapterPropertyOverrides $AdapterPropertyOverrides -StorageOverrides $Storageoverride
   

8. Verify intent creation status.

   Get-NetIntentStatus | select IntentName, Host, ConfigurationStatus, ProvisioningStatus, RetryCount, Error, LastSuccess, LastUpdated, LastConfigApplied | ft
   

9. Add global overrides.

   $clusterOverride = New-NetIntentGlobalClusterOverrides
   $clusterOverride.EnableVirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceSelection = $false
   $clusterOverride.VirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceOption = "SMB"
   $clusterOverride.MaximumVirtualMachineMigrations = 2
   Set-NetIntent -GlobalClusterOverrides $clusterOverride
   

10. Identify the storage virtual network interface controller and assign IP addresses for the storage network.

    Get-NetAdapter -Name *SMB* | Select Name,interfacedescription,ifindex

    # Assign IP addresses for each storage network which we identified in the previous step.
    $stor_prefix='24'
    $stor1_ip_address = '192.168.11.11' 
    $stor2_ip_address = '192.168.12.11'
    

    New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "vSMB(compute_management_storage#SLOT 1 Port 1)" -IPAddress $stor1_ip_address -PrefixLength $stor_prefix -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
    New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "vSMB(compute_management_storage#SLOT 1 Port 2)" -IPAddress $stor2_ip_address -PrefixLength $stor_prefix -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
    

    Note: Assigning IP address command must run on all the cluster nodes by incrementing the IP addresses.
    
    
11. (Optional) To configure proxy settings, see Manage Network ATC.
12. Note: Enable IEEE Priority Tagging on all virtual network adapters in the management operating system.
    
    
    To modify virtual network adapter settings, log in with sufficient permissions to each node, and then run the following command:

    Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS | ForEach-Object { Set-VMNetworkAdapter -VMNetworkAdapter $_ -IeeePriorityTag On -ErrorAction Stop -Verbose }

13. To initiate cluster validation, run the following commands:

    Test-Cluster -Node <node1>,<node2>,<node3>,<node4> -Include 'Storage Spaces Direct', 'Inventory', 'System Configuration', 'Network'

    The Test-Cluster cmdlet generates an HTML report of all performed validations and includes a summary of the validations. Review this report, resolve all warnings and errors.

In a non-converged network topology, storage (SMB) traffic passes using dedicated NICs and is separated from Management and Compute traffic. This topology is ideal for environments where you expect heavy write IOs. Management and Storage traffic pass using a different pair of NIC ports. In the host operating system, a pair of RDMA capable NICs that is used for storage traffic while Management/Compute can use any supported network card.

In this example, Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1, Integrated NIC 1 Port 2-1 are being used for the management and compute intent and SLOT 6 Port 1 and SLOT 6 Port 2 are used for the storage intent.

Verify that Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1, Integrated NIC 1 Port 2-1, SLOT 6 Port 1, and SLOT 6 Port 2 are up across all the nodes.

1. Modify NIC variables to match the deployment requirements.

   $mgmt_compute_nics = @('Integrated NIC 1 Port 1-1','Integrated NIC 1 Port 2-1')
   $storage_nics = @('SLOT 6 Port 1','SLOT 6 Port 2')
   $storage_vlans =@(711,712) 
   $Mgmt_Vlan=202
   

2. Create an override object for the DCB Quality of Service (QoS) configuration.

   $QoSOverride = New-NetIntentQoSPolicyOverrides $QoSOverride.BandwidthPercentage_Cluster = 2 $QoSOverride.PriorityValue8021Action_Cluster = 5

   The following table shows the QoS flow priorities for each network type:

   Table 7. QoS priorities for network intents

   Traffic class	Purpose	QoS flow	ETS bandwidth allocation
   3	RDMA (SMB Direct)	Enabled	50 percent
   7	Cluster network	Disabled	10 GbE equals 2 percent Greater than 25 GbE equals 1 percent
   0-2, 4-6	0 - Best-effort traffic	Disabled	Remaining percentage distributed across the traffic classes

3. Create a jumbo packet override for SMB and Management NIC.

   $MgmtAdapterPropertyOverrides = New-NetIntentAdapterPropertyOverrides
   $MgmtAdapterPropertyOverrides.NetworkDirect = 0
   $MgmtAdapterPropertyOverrides.JumboPacket = 1514
   $StorAdapterPropertyOverrides = New-NetIntentAdapterPropertyOverrides
   $StorAdapterPropertyOverrides.JumboPacket = 9014
   

4. Disable the DCBX Willing state in the operating system.

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

   Note: Before changing net intents, you must set the DCBX Willing mode on every cluster node.
   
   
5. Choose the RDMA protocol to be used for deployment.

   #Intel E810 network adaptor support iWARP and RoCEV2 while Mellanox/Nvidia support only RoCEV2. 
   #iWARP = 1 RoCEv2 = 4
   $StorAdapterPropertyOverrides.NetworkDirectTechnology = 4
   

6. Set storage overrides if you do not want Network ATC to assign SMB IPs automatically.

   $StorageOverride = New-NetIntentStorageOverrides
   $StorageOverride.EnableAutomaticIPGeneration = $false
   

7. Create a management and compute intent.

   Add-NetIntent -Name Management_Compute -Management -Compute -AdapterName $mgmt_compute_nics -ManagementVlan $Mgmt_Vlan -AdapterPropertyOverrides $MgmtAdapterPropertyOverrides
   

8. Verify intent creation status.

   Get-NetIntentStatus | select IntentName, Host, ConfigurationStatus, ProvisioningStatus, RetryCount, Error, LastSuccess, LastUpdated, LastConfigApplied | ft
   

9. Create a storage intent.

   Add-NetIntent -Name Storage -Storage -AdapterName $storage_nics -StorageVLANs $storage_vlans -QosPolicyOverrides $QoSOverride -AdapterPropertyOverrides $StorAdapterPropertyOverrides -StorageOverrides $Storageoverride
   

10. Verify intent creation status.

    Get-NetIntentStatus -Name Storage | select IntentName,Host,ConfigurationStatus,ProvisioningStatus,RetryCount,Error,LastSuccess,LastUpdated,LastConfigApplied | ft

11. Add a global override.

    $clusterOverride = New-NetIntentGlobalClusterOverrides
    $clusterOverride.EnableVirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceSelection = $false
    $clusterOverride.VirtualMachineMigrationPerformanceOption = "SMB"
    $clusterOverride.MaximumVirtualMachineMigrations = 2
    Set-NetIntent -GlobalClusterOverrides $clusterOverride
    

12. Assign IP addresses for storage network.

    $stor_prefix = '24'
    $stor1_ip_address = '192.168.21.11'
    $stor2_ip_address = '192.168.22.11'
    New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 6 Port 1" -IPAddress $stor1_ip_address -PrefixLength $stor_prefix -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
    New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "SLOT 6 Port 2" -IPAddress $stor2_ip_address -PrefixLength $stor_prefix -AddressFamily IPv4 -Verbose
    

    Note: Assigning IP address commands must run on all the cluster nodes by incrementing the IP addresses.
    
    
13. Update network adapter advanced properties for Mellanox cards. The following commands updates advanced properties for the Mellanox cards.

    Get-NetAdapter -InterfaceDescription Mellanox* | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName 'DcbxMode' -DisplayValue 'Host In Charge'

    Note: Run this command on all the nodes of the cluster.
    
    
14. (Optional) If you want to configure proxy settings, see Manage Network ATC.
15. Note: Enable IEEE Priority Tagging on all virtual network adapters in the management operating system.
    
    
    To modify virtual network adapter settings, log in with sufficient permissions to each node, and then run the following command:

    Get-VMNetworkAdapter -ManagementOS | ForEach-Object { Set-VMNetworkAdapter -VMNetworkAdapter $_ -IeeePriorityTag On -ErrorAction Stop -Verbose }

16. Run the following PowerShell commands to initiate cluster validation:

    Test-Cluster -Node <node1>,<node2>,<node3>,<node4> -Include 'Storage Spaces Direct', 'Inventory', 'System Configuration', 'Network'

    The Test-Cluster cmdlet generates an HTML report of all performed validations and includes a summary of the validations. Review this report, resolve all warnings and errors.

You can install and configure GPUs on AX platforms. For a list of GPUs that are supported on AX nodes from Dell Technologies, see the Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure > Azure Local Support Matrix.

For deployed Azure Local instance, before performing any GPU hardware changes, place the target machine into maintenance mode (pause and drain).

Use Dell Support to follow the platform-specific GPU installation procedure for your server model.

For model-specific GPU slot or riser matrices and riser configuration options, see the applicable Dell installation and service manual sections for your platform, including:

• Expansion card riser specifications
• Expansion card installation guidelines
• GPU kit (if available)
• GPU specifications

For the most up-to-date list of supported GPUs for AX nodes, see the Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure > Azure Local Support Matrix.

You can use Discrete Device Assignment (DDA) on supported GPUs so that the Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server 2025 and later operating system servers contain GPU-enabled clustered VMs.

For a list of supported GPUs, see the latest version of the Dell Technologies Solutions for Microsoft Azure Local > Support Matrix.

On the Azure Stack HCI or Windows Server 2025 or later operating-system servers, you can use GPU partitioning (GPU-P) for different workloads, such as artificial intelligence. To avoid mistakes and for a streamlined visual experience, Dell Technologies recommends that you use Windows Admin Center (WAC) for GPU-P.

For the latest supported GPU-P enabled GPUs, see Dell Technologies for Microsoft Azure Local > Support Matrix.

Dell Technologies servers do not come with a GPU-P driver. The GPU-P driver requires separate licensing from NVIDIA. For more information about licensing options and the benefits of GPU-P, see: NVIDIA Virtual GPUs.

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 a trusted platform module (TPM).

To enable and configure BitLocker, do the following steps for each server:

1. To enable BitLocker encryption, run the following PowerShell command:

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

2. To check the BitLocker status, run the following command. Encryption should be at 100 percent, and Protection status should be set to ON for the operating system drive.

   Get-BitLockerVolume

3. To get the BitLocker volume recovery password and save it in a location accessible to all nodes, run the following command:

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

4. Repeat the previous steps on all cluster nodes.

Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center (OMIMSWAC) simplifies the tasks of IT administrators by remotely managing the AX nodes from Dell Technologies and Windows Server clusters throughout their life cycle.

For more information about the features, benefits, and installation of OMISWAC, see the documentation at Dell 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:

For better security, to enable or disable the infrastructure lock in the Dell OpenManage Integration with Microsoft Windows Admin Center (OMIMSWAC) extension, select View > Security. From the menu options, 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.

The following figure shows the Infrastructure Lock (iDRAC Lockdown mode) page with the status set to Unlocked.