I am not talking about 80`s or 90`s, Even few years back if you have to built a new file server with data redundancy, you needed two physical servers and a RAID / SAN drive which would have been a costly component. This could have cost you some good amount of money as well as time. Now days, If you ask some to built the same server, you just need one physical server. Yes, you heard it right. Only one physical server. That`s the power of "Virtualization"
Lets see how only one physical server would have fulfill the requirement. One physical server with Hyper-V, hosting three Virtual Machines. Two VM`s for File Servers and one VM to be used as SAN. Yes, you again read it correctly, you can configure a Windows 2012 R2 Server as a SAN Server. And it Works !!!!
More to it, you could have added another server on cloud (Trust me, hosting a server on cloud is extremely easy and not at all costly. You pay only for the time that VM is running)
In this post, we will see how we can configure a Windows 2012 R2 Server as a SAN Server and we will use this SAN as a cluster disk in our next post on How to Configure Microsoft Cluster on Windows 2008 R2
In case, you think that this (Windows 2012 R2) is the only possible solution for a virtualized SAN then I strongly recommend you to read the following post:-
Configuring SAN on OpenFiler
http://www.adshotgyan.com/2016/04/configuring-san-on-openfiler.html
So, Lets get started !!!!
Here in this lab, we have a Windows 2012 R2 Server named vSAN
Since this being a VM, I have attached two more drives on this server (20GB and 200GB). These two drives will be used later as Quorum and Storage Disk when we will configure cluster
In Disk Management (diskmgmt), we can view these two drives (Uninitialized)
Lets first install some required roles to make this machine as SAN
A SAN can be a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN or a iSCSI SAN
In this lab we will implement a iSCSI SAN
Under Roles, Highlight "File and Storage Services"
Remember, just highlight it, do not select the whole component
In the list under File and Storage Services, Select the following:-
- iSCSI Target Server
- iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and VSS Hardware Providers)
Once done, Select File and Storage Services in the left pane of the Server Manager
Below are the different tabs in left pane
Servers
Lists all the servers managed by this server
Lists events on a particular server (highlighted)
Volumes
List all the Volumes available on the server
List the Shares
Lists all the Disks
Disks
List all the Disks
List all the Volumes
List all the Storage Pools
Storage Pools
List all the storage pools
Storage Pool is a new feature of Windows Server 2012.
Shares
List all the Shares
List all the Volume
List all the Quota
iSCSI
List all the iSCSI Virtual Disks
Work Folders
List all the work folders configured on this server. Work Folder a new feature of Windows Server 2012 R2
Now lets start creating a SAN
Click on "Disks" and you will fond three disks listed on right pane
- 60 GB Disk (C Drive)
- 10 GB Disk
- 100 GB Disk
The two new disk we have added (10 GB and 100 GB) are Uninitialized. So, the first task is to "Initialize" the disks
Right click on a disk and select "Initialize"
Warning: Data will be Erased (Expected)
The disk is Initialized now
We now need to create a new volume
Right click on the disk and select "New Volume"
Select the Server and the Disk
Just a little warning stating that the disk will be Initialized
Select the Volume Size
Select the Drive Letter
The File System (NTFS), Allocation Unit Size and Volume Label
Once completed, the disk will be listed in Disk Management as Online
We now have two disks (10 GB - Quorum and 100 GB - Storage)
The disks are visible in Disks under "File and Storage Services"
Lets move to iSCSI Tab
Click on "To Create an iSCSI Virtual Disk, Start the New iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard"
Select the Server Name and the Volume
Provide a iSCSI Virtual Disk Name, Description and Path
Provide a Size and Type
Type:
1. Fixed Size
2. Dynamically Expanding
3. Differencing
Specify a size of the disk
Here you need to select the iSCSI Target
Since this is the first time we are configuring iSCSI, there wont be any iSCSI Targets
So lets select the second option to create a new iSCSI Target
Provide a Name and a Description
Specify the iSCSI Initiators which will access this iSCSI Target
Here you get three options
- Query Initiator Computer for ID
- Select the Initiator Cache on the Target Server
- Enter the Value for the Selected Type
Type:
- IQN
- DNS Name
- IP Address
- MAC Address
We will select the IP Address of the Cluster Node
Option to Enable CHAP Authentication
Done
Now the disk is available under "iSCSI"
Lets launch iSCSI on Node1
Since the service by default is set to stopped, so initiating the iSCSI Initiator will start the service
iSCSI Initiator
- Targets
- Discovery
- Favorite Targets
- Volumes and Devices
- RADIUS
- Configuration
The IP Address of the SAN Server is 192.168.1.25
Enter the IP Address of the SAN Server in the Target Field
Click on Connect
Connected
Click on Discovery Tab and you will find that the it has already discovered the target
Open the Disk Management and the disk you be visible here
Will do the same for the other node (Node4) as well
However, for the second drive, we will follow a different approach to present the disk
Click on iSCSI and then right click and choose the option "New iSCSI Virtual Disk"
Select the Disk (Storage - S)
Give a name to this disk
Select the size of the disk
And here this time since the target is already mentioned, just select this target
Now open the disk management on any of the node and the disk will be available on that node
Lets see how only one physical server would have fulfill the requirement. One physical server with Hyper-V, hosting three Virtual Machines. Two VM`s for File Servers and one VM to be used as SAN. Yes, you again read it correctly, you can configure a Windows 2012 R2 Server as a SAN Server. And it Works !!!!
More to it, you could have added another server on cloud (Trust me, hosting a server on cloud is extremely easy and not at all costly. You pay only for the time that VM is running)
In this post, we will see how we can configure a Windows 2012 R2 Server as a SAN Server and we will use this SAN as a cluster disk in our next post on How to Configure Microsoft Cluster on Windows 2008 R2
In case, you think that this (Windows 2012 R2) is the only possible solution for a virtualized SAN then I strongly recommend you to read the following post:-
Configuring SAN on OpenFiler
http://www.adshotgyan.com/2016/04/configuring-san-on-openfiler.html
So, Lets get started !!!!
Here in this lab, we have a Windows 2012 R2 Server named vSAN
Since this being a VM, I have attached two more drives on this server (20GB and 200GB). These two drives will be used later as Quorum and Storage Disk when we will configure cluster
In Disk Management (diskmgmt), we can view these two drives (Uninitialized)
Lets first install some required roles to make this machine as SAN
A SAN can be a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN or a iSCSI SAN
In this lab we will implement a iSCSI SAN
Under Roles, Highlight "File and Storage Services"
Remember, just highlight it, do not select the whole component
In the list under File and Storage Services, Select the following:-
- iSCSI Target Server
- iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and VSS Hardware Providers)
Once done, Select File and Storage Services in the left pane of the Server Manager
Below are the different tabs in left pane
Servers
Lists all the servers managed by this server
Lists events on a particular server (highlighted)
Volumes
List all the Volumes available on the server
List the Shares
Lists all the Disks
Disks
List all the Disks
List all the Volumes
List all the Storage Pools
Storage Pools
List all the storage pools
Storage Pool is a new feature of Windows Server 2012.
Shares
List all the Shares
List all the Volume
List all the Quota
iSCSI
List all the iSCSI Virtual Disks
Work Folders
List all the work folders configured on this server. Work Folder a new feature of Windows Server 2012 R2
Now lets start creating a SAN
Click on "Disks" and you will fond three disks listed on right pane
- 60 GB Disk (C Drive)
- 10 GB Disk
- 100 GB Disk
The two new disk we have added (10 GB and 100 GB) are Uninitialized. So, the first task is to "Initialize" the disks
Right click on a disk and select "Initialize"
Warning: Data will be Erased (Expected)
The disk is Initialized now
We now need to create a new volume
Right click on the disk and select "New Volume"
Select the Server and the Disk
Just a little warning stating that the disk will be Initialized
Select the Volume Size
Select the Drive Letter
The File System (NTFS), Allocation Unit Size and Volume Label
Once completed, the disk will be listed in Disk Management as Online
We now have two disks (10 GB - Quorum and 100 GB - Storage)
The disks are visible in Disks under "File and Storage Services"
Lets move to iSCSI Tab
Click on "To Create an iSCSI Virtual Disk, Start the New iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard"
Select the Server Name and the Volume
Provide a iSCSI Virtual Disk Name, Description and Path
Provide a Size and Type
Type:
1. Fixed Size
2. Dynamically Expanding
3. Differencing
Specify a size of the disk
Here you need to select the iSCSI Target
Since this is the first time we are configuring iSCSI, there wont be any iSCSI Targets
So lets select the second option to create a new iSCSI Target
Provide a Name and a Description
Specify the iSCSI Initiators which will access this iSCSI Target
Here you get three options
- Query Initiator Computer for ID
- Select the Initiator Cache on the Target Server
- Enter the Value for the Selected Type
Type:
- IQN
- DNS Name
- IP Address
- MAC Address
We will select the IP Address of the Cluster Node
Both Nodes Added
Option to Enable CHAP Authentication
Done
Now the disk is available under "iSCSI"
Lets launch iSCSI on Node1
Since the service by default is set to stopped, so initiating the iSCSI Initiator will start the service
iSCSI Initiator
- Targets
- Discovery
- Favorite Targets
- Volumes and Devices
- RADIUS
- Configuration
The IP Address of the SAN Server is 192.168.1.25
Enter the IP Address of the SAN Server in the Target Field
Click on Connect
Connected
Click on Discovery Tab and you will find that the it has already discovered the target
Open the Disk Management and the disk you be visible here
Will do the same for the other node (Node4) as well
However, for the second drive, we will follow a different approach to present the disk
Click on iSCSI and then right click and choose the option "New iSCSI Virtual Disk"
Select the Disk (Storage - S)
Give a name to this disk
Select the size of the disk
And here this time since the target is already mentioned, just select this target
Now open the disk management on any of the node and the disk will be available on that node
