New features of Windows Server 2016 HCI (Hyper-converged infrastructure) by s2d

Hyper-converged infrastructure (hyper-converged Infrastructure, or "HCI"), also known as hyper-converged architecture, refers to not only resources and technologies such as compute, networking, storage, and server virtualization in the same set of unit devices (x86 servers), It also includes elements such as cache acceleration, deduplication, online data compression, backup software, snapshot technology, and multiple nodes can be aggregated over the network to achieve modular, seamless scale-out (scale-out) to form a unified resource pool. Hyper-converged Architecture (Hyperconvergence Infrastructure, HCI) consolidates virtualized compute and storage into the same system platform. The simple thing is to run the virtualization software (hpyervisor) on the physical server and run the Distributed storage service on the virtualization software for use by the virtual machine. Distributed storage can be run in virtual machines on virtualization software, or it can be a module that integrates with virtualization software. In a broad sense, hyper-converged architectures can also consolidate networks and other more platforms and services, in addition to virtualized computing and storage. A common consensus in the industry today is that software-defined distributed storage tiers and virtualization computing are the smallest set of hyper-converged architectures.

Architectures based on traditional centralized shared storage have the following drawbacks:

• Heterogeneous hardware, high cost, difficult to upgrade
• Centralized storage architecture, deposit point failure risk
• The number of storage controllers is limited and cannot be extended
• Inability to take full advantage of SSD performance, I/O is vulnerable to bottlenecks
• Managing Operations Complex

Microsoft Solutions:

Storage Spaces Direct (Storage Spaces Direct, S2D) uses industry-standard servers with locally attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of a traditional SAN or NAS array. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture greatly simplifies procurement and deployment, while features such as caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, such as RDMA networks and NVMe drives, are the latest in hardware innovation and delivering unmatched efficiency and performance. Storage space is a technology in Windows and Windows Server that can help protect your data from drive failures. It is conceptually similar to software-implemented raid. You can use storage spaces to combine three or more drives into one storage pool, and then use the capacity in that storage pool to create storage space. These typically store additional copies of the data, so if one of the drives fails, you still have a complete copy of the data. If there is not enough capacity, simply add more drives to the storage pool. Note The S2D feature must be a version of Windows Server Datacenter.

Storage Spaces Direct Hardware requirements:

Https://docs.microsoft.com/zh-cn/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-hardware-requirements

Fault tolerance and storage efficiency in storage spaces Direct:

Https://docs.microsoft.com/zh-cn/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-fault-tolerance

This lab uses two Windows Server Datacenter to implement S2D functionality

Hostname	Ip	Disk	OS	Role
DC01.yueque.local	192.168.2.121	N/A	Windows Server STD	Domain Controller
Host01.yueque.local	192.168.2.122	1x OS 2x HDD	Windows Server DC	Cluster Host 1
Host01.yueque.local	192.168.2.123	1x OS 2x HDD	Windows Server DC	Cluster Host 2
Cluster01.yueque.local	192.168.2.124	N/A	N/A	Cluster Management

Main steps:

1. Install Windows Clustering features;
2. Start the cluster s2d function;
3. Create a storage pool; (similar to traditional storage create RAID)
4. Create virtual disks and volumes; (similar to traditional storage partitioning LUNs)
5. Fault testing;

S2d is a feature inside Windows Server Cluster, after the Cluster service is installed, check that the existing environment is composite during the validation cluster s2d

Check storage Spaces direct for detection (by default all cluster conditions must be met, this experiment has been detected by other criteria)

View Test Reports

View test report hard disk requirements (there is not enough disk cache here, virtual environment setting constraints)

After cluster testing, use the following PowerShell command to enable the S2D feature

Enable-clusters2d

View disk aggregation and health status

Create a storage pool

Enter Storage Pool Name

Select the disks you want to add

Confirm the selected disk

Storage Pool Creation Succeeded

Here you can see the storage pool free space is 25GB and the next step is to create the virtual disk.

Create a virtual disk based on a s2d storage pool

Start creating

Enter the virtual disk name

Set Disk size

When you are sure, click Create

Create complete

Create a volume

?

Select the virtual disk you just created

When you are sure, click Create

Create Volume complete

Detects cluster disk status, shuts down a host, and remains in normal condition.

At this point, the new features of the Windows Server 2016 HCI (Hyper-converged infrastructure) by S2D test are complete.

New features of Windows Server 2016 HCI (Hyper-converged infrastructure) by s2d