Create an AZSHCI Cluster using Windows Admin Center and Register it in Azure.

• What is AZSHCI
  • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/overview 
• Why is registration of AZSHCI in Azure needed?
  • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/deploy/register-with-azure 
• What is Windows Admin Center?
  • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/manage/windows-admin-center/understand/what-is 
• Azure Trial License
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/ 

• Hyper-V
• Failover Clustering
• Storage Spaces Direct
• PowerShell
• DISM

• VM1 = DC1 = Windows Server 2022 Domain Controller > 2 GB of RAM > 30 GB VHDX
• VM2 = WAC1 = Windows Server 2019 Windows Admin Center > 4 GB of RAM > 30 GB VHDX
• VM3 = AZSHCIOS-N1 = Azure Stack HCI OS > 8GB of RAM > 30 GB VHDX + 4x200GB VHDX’s (S2D)
• VM4 = AZSHCIOS-N2 = Azure Stack HCI OS > 8GB of RAM > 30 GB VHDX + 4x200GB VHDX’s (S2D)

dism /online /Remove-Capability /CapabilityName:Browser.InternetExplorer~~~~0.0.11.0

Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V

• On WAC1, the Windows Admin Center gateway server, open Windows Admin Center.
• On the top-left side, click Add and then under Server clusters click on Create new.
• Select Azure Stack HCI as the cluster type and then click "Create.”
• On the prerequisites screen, click Next.
• On the Add servers screen, enter the administrative credentials for connecting to the servers that will be part of the cluster (AZSHCIOS-N1 and AZSHCIOS-N2 in this demo).
• Still on the Add servers screen type the computer name of the nodes and click on Add. When the servers appear listed as "Ready", click Next.
• When the two servers are listed as ready, click Next.
• On the Join Domain screen, enter the credentials for joining the servers to the domain and click Apply changes and then Next.
• On the Install required features screen, click Install and then Next.
• On the Install updates screen, click Next.
• On the Install hardware updates screen, click Next.
• On the Restart servers screen, click Restart servers and then Next.
• On the Choose how to configure host networking screen, click Manually configure host networking and then click Next.
• On the Check the network adapters screen click Next.
• Click to select One physical network adapter for management and then select the management adapters on each host and click Apply and test, then click Next.

• On the Virtual switch screen, click the Skip virtual switch creation checkbox, and click Next.
• Click Next on the RDMA configuration screen (skip).
• On the Define networks screen enter a name, IP address and subnet mask for the storage adapters and then click Apply and test. Click Next: Clustering.
• On Validate the cluster screen, click Validate and wait for the validation to finish. When it does, click Next.
• On the Create the cluster screen assign a name and an IP address to the cluster and then click on Create cluster. When the cluster creation is complete, click Next: Storage.
• On the “Optionally erase all existing data” screen, click Next.
• On the Check the drives screen, click to expand and view the drives assigned to the Azure Stack HCI nodes to be used for Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and then click Next to validate storage.

• On the Enable Storage Spaces Direct screen, click Enable to enable Storage Spaces Direct.
• When this is finished, click Next:SDN and on the Deploy the Network Controller screen click Skip.

• Open Windows Admin Center and, under All connections, click the hyperlink for the newly created Azure Stack HCI cluster (Cluster1.domain1.local in this demo) to open the Dashboard for this cluster.
• On the Dashboard, under Azure connection, the status displays as "Not yet registered".

• In the management computer where Windows Admin Center is installed (WAC1 in this demo), open Powershell and run the command below to download the required module and get it ready:
  • Install-Module -Name Az.StackHCI
• Confirm the prompts to trust the package and to install NuGet if these appear.
• Run the command below to register the Azure Stack HCI cluster to an azure subscription:

  • Register-AzStackHCI  -SubscriptionId "<Subscription ID>" -ComputerName AZSHCIOS-N1

• Back in Windows Admin Center, under "All connections,” click the hyperlink for the Azure Stack HCI cluster object to open the Dashboard of Cluster1.
• In the Dashboard, under Azure connection, the newly created cluster shows as "Connected".