StarWind Virtual SAN Compute and Storage Separated … · TECHNICAL PAPER 5 StarWind Virtual SAN® Compute and Storage Separated 3-node with Hyper-V Preconfiguring the Servers Here

One Stop Virtualization Shop

StarWind Virtual SAN®

Compute and Storage Separated

3-node with Hyper-V JULY 2018

TECHNICAL PAPER

TECHNICAL PAPER 2


Compute and Storage Separated 3-node with Hyper-V

Trademarks

“StarWind”, “StarWind Software” and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered

trademarks of StarWind Software. “StarWind LSFS” is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be

registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Changes

The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While

reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy,

StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from

the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in

the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.

Technical Support and Services

If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first -

you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind

Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us.

About StarWind

StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this

technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and

hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company’s core product is the years-proven StarWind

Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT

infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and

is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named

StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms” following the success and popularity of StarWind

HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware,

Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc.

Copyright ©2009-2018 StarWind Software Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

written consent of StarWind Software.

https://www.starwind.com/resource-library/

https://www.starwind.com/resource-library

https://www.starwind.com/forums/

https://www.starwind.com/forums/

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/contact-us

https://www.starwind.com/contact-us

TECHNICAL PAPER 3



Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Preconfiguring the Servers ............................................................................................................. 5

Enabling Multipath Support ........................................................................................................... 6

Configuring Shared Storage ........................................................................................................... 7

Discovering Target Portals ........................................................................................................... 28

Connecting Targets ........................................................................................................................ 36

Configuring Multipath .................................................................................................................... 40

Creating a Cluster ........................................................................................................................... 42

Adding Cluster Shared Volumes ................................................................................................. 47

Post-Configuration Tasks .............................................................................................................. 50

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 51

TECHNICAL PAPER 4



Introduction

StarWind Virtual SAN® is a native Windows hypervisor-centric hardware-less VM

storage solution. It creates a fully fault-tolerant and high performing storage pool built

for the virtualization workloads by mirroring existing server’s storage and RAM

between the participating storage cluster nodes. The mirrored storage resources are

then connected to all cluster nodes and treated just as a local storage by all

hypervisors and clustered applications. High Availability is achieved by providing

multipath access to all storage nodes. StarWind Virtual SAN® delivers supreme

performance compared to any dedicated SAN solution since it runs locally on the

hypervisor and all I/O is processed by local RAM, SSD cache, and disks. This way it

never gets bottlenecked by storage fabric.

This guide is written for experienced Windows Server users or system administrators.

It provides the detailed instructions on how to set up a 3-node dedicated scenario with

Hyper-V Cluster on Windows Server 2016 with StarWind Virtual SAN® as a storage

provider to convert the local or iSCSI attached storage of the cluster nodes into a fault

tolerant shared storage resource to be then presented to the compute servers using

iSCSI protocol.

A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by

pressing the Help button in the StarWind Management Console.

For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked

Questions page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library

https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-faq

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-faq

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/support-form

TECHNICAL PAPER 5



Preconfiguring the Servers

Here is a network diagram of the configuration described in this guide.

NOTE: Additional network connections may be necessary, depending on the cluster setup and

applications' requirements. For any technical help with configuring the additional networks,

please, do not hesitate to contact StarWind support department via online community forum, or

via support form (depending on your support plan).

1. Make sure to have a domain controller and the servers added to the domain.

2. Install Failover Clustering and Multipath I/O features, as well as the Hyper-V role on

all servers. This can be done through the Server Manager (Add Roles and

Features menu item).

3. Configure network interfaces on each node to make sure that Synchronization and

iSCSI/StarWind Heartbeat interfaces are in different subnets and connected according to

the network diagram above. In this document, 172.16.10.x and 172.16.11.x subnets are

used for iSCSI/StarWind Heartbeat traffic, while 172.16.110.x, 172.16.111.x and

172.16.112.x subnets are used for the Synchronization traffic.

http://www.starwind.com/forums

http://www.starwind.com/support-form

TECHNICAL PAPER 6



4. In order to allow iSCSI Initiators discover all StarWind Virtual SAN interfaces, the

StarWind configuration file (StarWind.cfg) should be changed after stopping the StarWind

service on the node where it will be edited. Locate the StarWind Virtual SAN configuration

file (the default path is “C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWind.cfg”) and

open it via WordPad as Administrator. Find the <iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces

value=”0”/> string and change the value from 0 to 1 (should look as

follows: <iScsiDiscoveryListInterfaces value=”1”/>). Save the changes and exit Wordpad. Once

StarWind.cfg is changed and saved, the StarWind service can be restarted.

Enabling Multipath Support

5. Open the MPIO manager: Start->Administrative Tools->MPIO.

6. In the Discover Multi-Paths tab, tick the Add support for iSCSI devices checkbox and

click on Add.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/word-image-179.png

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/word-image-179.png

TECHNICAL PAPER 7



7. When prompted to restart the server, click Yes to proceed.

NOTE: Repeat procedures on each Compute node.

Configuring Shared Storage

8. Download the StarWind setup executable file from the StarWind website:

https://www.starwind.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san

NOTE: The setup file is the same for x86 and x64 systems, as well as for all Virtual SAN

deployment scenarios.

Install StarWind Virtual SAN on all nodes, using default settings. Apply a time-limited fully

functional evaluation key or a FREE version key. Alternatively, use the already

purchased StarWind Virtual SAN commercial license key. After successful installation, launch

the StarWind Management Console: double-click the StarWind tray icon.

If StarWind Service and Management Console are installed on the same server,

Management Console will automatically add the local StarWind instance to the console tree

after the first launch. In future, the Management Console will automatically connect to it using

the default credentials. To add remote StarWind VSAN servers to the console, use the Add

Server button on the control panel.

https://www.starwind.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san

TECHNICAL PAPER 8



9. StarWind Management Сonsole will ask to specify the default storage pool on the server

for the first-time connection. Please configure the storage pool to use one of the volumes

prepared earlier. All devices created through Add Device wizard will be stored on it. In

case an alternative storage path is used for StarWind virtual disks, please use Add

Device (advanced) menu item.

Press Yes button to configure the storage pool. In case storage pool destination should

be changed, press Choose path… and point the browser to the necessary disk.

NOTE: Each array that will be used by StarWind Virtual SAN to store virtual disk images has to

meet the following requirements:

• Initialized as GPT

• Have a single NTFS-formatted partition

• Have a drive letter assigned

10. Select the StarWind server to create the device.

11. Press Add Device (advanced) button on the toolbar.

12. Add Device Wizard will appear. Select Hard disk device and click Next.

13. Select Virtual disk and click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 9



14. Specify the virtual disk location and size.

Click Next.

15. Specify the virtual disk options. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 10



16. Define the caching policy and specify the cache size (in GB).

NOTE: The basic recommendation is to assign 1 GB of L1 cache in Write-Back or Write-Through

mode per 1 TB of storage capacity. Yet, the cache size should correspond to the storage working

set of the servers.

Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 11



17. Define L2 caching policy and size if necessary.

NOTE: The recommended size of the L2 cache is 10% of the initial StarWind device capacity.

Click Next to continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 12



18. Specify target parameters.

Select the Target Name checkbox to enter a custom name of a target.

Otherwise, the name will be generated automatically based on the target alias.

19. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target. Then click Close to close the

wizard.

20. Right-click on the Server field and select Add Server. Add new StarWind Server, which will

be used as a second HA node. Click OK to continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 13



21. Right-click on the Server field and select Add Server again. Add new StarWind Server,

which will be used as a third HA node. Click OK to continue.

22. Right-click on the device that was just created and select Replication Manager.

Replication Manager Window will appear. Press Add Replica button.

TECHNICAL PAPER 14



23. Select Synchronous Two-Way Replication. Click Next to proceed.

TECHNICAL PAPER 15



24. Specify the partner server IP address.

Default StarWind management port is 3261. If a different port has been configured,

please type it in the Port number field. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 16



25. Select the failover strategy for the HA device. For the purposes of this document,

the Heartbeat failover strategy is used. Click Next to continue.

NOTE: In scenarios with 3-way mirrored StarWind devices only Heartbeat failover strategy can

be used.

TECHNICAL PAPER 17



26. Choose Create new Partner Device. Click Next.

27. Specify partner device location if necessary. You can also modify the target name of the

device. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 18



28. The following screen allows selecting the Synchronization and Heartbeat channels for the

HA device. The ALUA settings and the target name of the device can also be modified.

Click Change Network Settings… to continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 19



29. Specify the interfaces for Synchronization and Heartbeat. Click OK. Then click Next.

NOTE: It is recommended to configure the Heartbeat and iSCSI channels on the same interfaces

to avoid the split-brain issue. If the Synchronization and Heartbeat interfaces are located on the

same network adapter, it is recommended to assign one more Heartbeat interface to a separate

adapter.

TECHNICAL PAPER 20



30. Select Synchronize from existing Device for the partner device initialization mode.

Click Next.

31. Press the Create Replica button. Then click Close to close the wizard.

TECHNICAL PAPER 21



32. Click Add replica again. Select Synchronous ”Two-Way” Replication as a replication

mode. Click Next to proceed.

TECHNICAL PAPER 22



33. Specify the partner server IP address. The default StarWind management port is 3261. If a

different port has been configured, type it in the Port Number field. Click Next to

continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 23



34. Choose Create new Partner Device. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 24



35. Specify the partner device location if necessary and/or modify the target name of the

device. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 25



36. Select the Synchronization and Heartbeat networks for the HA device by clicking Change

Network Settings.

TECHNICAL PAPER 26



37. Specify the interfaces for Synchronization and Heartbeat. Click OK. Then click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 27



38. Select partner device initialization mode Synchronize from existing Device. Click Next.

39. Press Create Replica button. Then click Close to close the wizard.

40. The successfully added devices will appear in StarWind Management Console.

Repeat HA device creation steps for any virtual disks that will be further used as Cluster Shared

Volumes.

TECHNICAL PAPER 28



Once all devices are created, Management Console should look similar to the screenshot below.

Discovering Target Portals

This part describes how to discover Target Portals from each StarWind node on each Cluster

node.

41. Launch Microsoft iSCSI Initiator: Start > Administrative Tools >

iSCSI Initiator or iscsicpl from the command line interface. The iSCSI Initiator

Properties window appears.

42. Navigate to the Discovery tab.

TECHNICAL PAPER 29



43. Click the Discover Portal button. Discover Target Portal dialog appears. Type in first

iSCSI IP address of the first StarWind node.

44. Click on Advanced button. Select Microsoft ISCSI Initiator as your Local adapter and

select the Initiator IP (within the same subnet) of the first Cluster node. Confirm the

actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.

TECHNICAL PAPER 30



45. Click Discover Portal button again. Type in the second iSCSI IP address of the first

StarWind node.

46. Click on Advanced button. Select Microsoft ISCSI Initiator as your Local adapter and

select the Initiator IP (within the same subnet) of the first Cluster node. Confirm the

actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.

TECHNICAL PAPER 31



47. Click Discover Portal button again. Type in the first iSCSI IP address of the second

StarWind node.

48. Click on the Advanced button. Select Microsoft ISCSI Initiator as your Local

adapter and select the Initiator IP (within the same subnet) of the first Cluster node.

Confirm the actions to complete the Target Portal discovery.

TECHNICAL PAPER 32



49. Click Discover Portal button again. Type in second iSCSI IP address of the second

StarWind node.




TECHNICAL PAPER 33



51. Click Discover Portal button again. Type in the first iSCSI IP address of the third

StarWind node.




TECHNICAL PAPER 34



53. Click Discover Portal button again. Type in the second iSCSI IP address of the third

StarWind node.




TECHNICAL PAPER 35



55. All target portals added on the first Compute node.

56. Complete the steps (41-56) for the rest of the Compute nodes, which will be in the

cluster. The result should look like the screenshot below.

TECHNICAL PAPER 36



Connecting Targets

57. Switch to the iSCSI Initiator of the first Compute node. Click on the Targets tab. The

previously created targets are listed under Discovered Targets section.

NOTE: If the created targets are not listed, check the firewall settings of the StarWind Server as

well as the list of networks served by the StarWind Server (go to StarWind Management

Console -> Configuration -> Network). Alternatively, check the Access Rights tab on the

corresponding StarWind VSAN server in StarWind Management Console for any restrictions

implemented.

58. Connecting CSV1. Select CSV1 target located on the first StarWind server and

click Connect.

TECHNICAL PAPER 37



59. Enable checkbox as in the image below. Press Advanced.

60. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter text field.

In the Target portal IP select the IP address of the first StarWind node and Initiator IP

address from the same subnet. Click OK.

61. To connect CSV1 via the second iSCSI subnet, select the same target (Step 60) and click

Connect again.

TECHNICAL PAPER 38



62. Enable checkbox as in the image below. Press Advanced.

63. Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter text field.

In the Target portal IP select the IP address of the first StarWind node and Initiator IP

address from the same subnet. Click OK.

TECHNICAL PAPER 39



64. Repeat the actions described in the steps 60-65 and connect the targets for the rest of

StarWind devices. All iSCSI targets must be connected as on the screenshot below.

65. Repeat the steps 60-66 of this section on each Compute node, specifying corresponding

data channel IP addresses. The result should look like the screenshot below.

TECHNICAL PAPER 40



Configuring Multipath

NOTE: It is recommended to configure the different MPIO policies depending on iSCSI channel

throughput. For 1 Gbps iSCSI channel throughput, it is recommended to set Failover Only or

Least Queue Depth MPIO load balancing policy. For 10 Gbps iSCSI channel throughput, it is

recommended to set Round Robin or Least Queue Depth MPIO load balancing policy.

66. Configure the MPIO policy for each device. Select a target of Witness located on the local

server and click Devices.

67. Devices dialog will appear. Click MPIO.

TECHNICAL PAPER 41



68. For the Witness target, set the load balance policy to Round Robin or Least Queue

Depth.

69. Repeat the same steps for all devices on the second and third nodes.

70. Initialize the disks and create partitions on them using computer management snap-in. It

is required that disk devices are visible on all three nodes to create the cluster.

NOTE: It is recommended to initialize disks as GPT.

TECHNICAL PAPER 42



Creating a Cluster

NOTE: To avoid issues during the cluster validation configuration, it is recommended to install

the latest Microsoft updates on each node.

71. Open Server Manager. Select the Failover Cluster Manager item from the Tools menu.

72. Click the Create Cluster link in the Actions section of the Failover Cluster Manager.

TECHNICAL PAPER 43



73. Specify the servers to be added to the cluster. Click Next to continue.

74. Validate the configuration by passing the cluster validation tests: select Yes… and

click Next to continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 44



75. Specify the cluster name.

NOTE: If the cluster servers get IP addresses over DHCP, the cluster also gets its IP address over

DHCP, though this scenario is not advisable. If the IP addresses are set statically, setting the

cluster IP address manually is required. Click Next to continue.

TECHNICAL PAPER 45



76. Make sure that all settings are correct. Click Previous to make any changes. Click Next to

proceed.

NOTE: If the Add all eligible storage to the cluster checkbox is enabled, the wizard will try to

add all disks to the cluster automatically. The smallest device will be assigned as the cluster

witness disk. It is recommended to uncheck this checkbox before clicking Next and assign the

cluster witness disk later manually.

TECHNICAL PAPER 46



77. Upon cluster creation completion, the system displays a report with the detailed

information that can be viewed by clicking on the View Report button. Alternatively,

click Finish to close the wizard.

TECHNICAL PAPER 47



Adding Cluster Shared Volumes

Follow the steps below to add the Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) that are necessary for working

with Hyper-V virtual machines.

78. In the Failover Cluster Manager, go to Cluster -> Storage -> Disks. Click Add Disk in

the Actions panel, choose StarWind disks from the list and confirm the selection.

79. To configure the cluster witness disk, right-click on Cluster and proceed to More

Actions -> Configure Cluster Quorum Settings.

TECHNICAL PAPER 48



80. Follow the wizard and use the Select the quorum witness option. Click Next.

81. Select Configure a disk witness. Click Next.

TECHNICAL PAPER 49



82. Select the Witness disk to be assigned as the cluster witness disk. Click Next and

press Finish to complete the operation.

83. In Failover Cluster Manager, select a disk from the list of the available storage devices.

Right-click on it and select Add to Cluster Shared Volumes.

TECHNICAL PAPER 50



84. Perform the steps above for any other disk in Failover Cluster Manager. The resulting list

of disks will look similar to the screenshot below.

Post-Configuration Tasks

85. Once the disks are added to the Cluster Shared Volumes and the network preferences

are set, highly available virtual machines can be created on the Cluster Shared Volumes.

Select Roles and in the Action tab, click Virtual Machines -> New Virtual Machine.

Complete the wizard.

NOTE: to avoid unnecessary CSV overhead, configure each CSV to be owned by different cluster

node. This node should also be the preferred owner of the VMs running on that CSV.

TECHNICAL PAPER 51



Conclusion

The Windows Failover Cluster will increase availability of services or applications running in it, as

well as exclude the downtime during maintenance.

In case of any additional questions, visit the StarWind Support Forum and StarWind Tech

Support engineers will gladly assist.

TECHNICAL PAPER 52



Contacts

US Headquarters EMEA and APAC

1-617-449-77 17

1-617-507-58 45

1-866-790-26 46

+44 203 769 18 57 (UK)

+34 629 03 07 17

(Spain and Portugal)

Customer Support Portal:

Support Forum:

Sales:

General Information:

https://www.starwind.com/support

https://www.starwind.com/forums

[email protected]

[email protected]

StarWind Software, Inc. 35 Village Rd., Suite 100, Middleton, MA 01949 USA www.starwind.com

©2018, StarWind Software Inc. All rights reserved.

https://www.starwind.com/support

https://www.starwind.com/forums%0d

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.starwind.com/

Documents

StarWind Virtual SAN Compute and Storage Separated … · TECHNICAL PAPER 5 StarWind Virtual SAN® Compute and Storage Separated 3-node with Hyper-V Preconfiguring the Servers Here