Deploying Your On-Premises Storsimple Device [HCS Deploy
MICROSOFT AZURE STORSIMPLE 8000 SERIES APPLIANCE: STEP-BY-STEP DEPLOYMENT GUIDE
Exported from MSDN online content on November 20, 2014 For the most up-to-date version of this guide, go to Deployment walkthrough
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Contents
MICROSOFT AZURE STORSIMPLE 8000 SERIES APPLIANCE: STEP-BY-STEP DEPLOYMENT GUIDE ...... 1 COPYRIGHT ...... 2 CONTENTS ...... 3 INTRODUCTION ...... 4 DEPLOYMENT CHECKLIST ...... 4 DEPLOYMENT PREREQUISITES ...... 5 For StorSimple Manager service...... 5 For the device in the datacenter ...... 5 DEPLOYMENT STEPS ...... 5 Step 1: Create a new service ...... 6 Step 2: Get the service registration key...... 7 Step 3: Configure and register the device through Windows PowerShell for StorSimple ...... 9 Step 4: Complete the minimum device setup ...... 12 Step 5: Create a volume container ...... 15 Step 6: Create a volume ...... 16 Step 7: Mount, initialize, and format a volume ...... 18 Step 8: Take a backup ...... 19 APPENDIX A: (OPTIONAL) CONFIGURE A NEW STORAGE ACCOUNT FOR THE SERVICE ...... 22 APPENDIX B: USE PUTTY TO CONNECT TO THE DEVICE SERIAL CONSOLE ...... 24 APPENDIX C: GET THE IQN OF A WINDOWS SERVER HOST ...... 26 APPENDIX D: INITIALIZE STORSIMPLE VOLUMES ON A WINDOWS SERVER HOST ...... 28 APPENDIX E: CREATE A MANUAL BACKUP ...... 30 APPENDIX F: CONFIGURE MPIO ON WINDOWS SERVER 2012 R2 ...... 32 Step 1: Install MPIO on the Windows Server host ...... 32 Step 2: Configure MPIO for StorSimple volumes ...... 37 Step 3: Mount StorSimple volumes on the host ...... 40 Step 4: Configure MPIO for high availability and load balancing ...... 43
Introduction
Welcome to the Microsoft Azure StorSimple Device Step-by-Step Deployment Guide. This guide describes how to configure your StorSimple devices, and includes a pre-installation checklist, configuration prerequisites, and detailed configuration steps. The StorSimple deployment information published in this guide applies to StorSimple 8000 series devices only. For complete information about the 7000 series device, go to StorSimple Online Help site. For 7000 series deployment information, see the StorSimple System Quick Start Guide.
Deployment checklist
The following pre-installation checklist details the information to be collected prior to the software configuration of your StorSimple device. Preparing this information ahead of time will help streamline the process of deploying the StorSimple device in your environment. Requirements Details Values 1. Friendly name for your device A descriptive name for the device
2. Network settings Total IPs required 8
1. Device IP address 1. One per device 2. Network interfaces, 4X1 GbE, 2X10 2. One per network interface enabled, total 6 GbE 3. One per controller, total 2 3. Fixed Controller IP 4. One for each IP address 4. Subnet masks 5. One per device 5. Gateway 3. Serial access Initial device configuration Yes/No
4. DNS server IP addresses Required to connect to Azure
Total 2 required for HA
5. NTP server IP addresses Required to synchronize time with Azure
1 required and 1 optional
6. Proxy server (optional) IP address/FQDN of the proxy server
Port to be used
7. Azure Storage account Access credentials such as account name and access key
Per storage account 8. Cloud storage encryption key Per volume container (recommended)
9. IQN of host Per host
Deployment prerequisites
Here you will find the configuration prerequisites for your StorSimple Manager service and your StorSimple device.
For StorSimple Manager service
Before you begin, make sure that: You have your Microsoft account with access credentials. You have your Microsoft Azure storage account with access credentials. Your Microsoft Azure subscription should be enabled for StorSimple Manager service. Your subscription should be purchased through the Enterprise Agreement. You have access to terminal emulation software such as PuTTY. For the device in the datacenter
Before configuring the device, make sure that: Your device is fully unpacked as described in Unpack your 8100 device or Unpack your 8600 device. Your device is mounted on a rack as described in Rack-mount your 8100 device or Rack-mount your 8600 device. Your device is fully cabled for power, network, and serial access as described in Cable your 8100 device or Cable your 8600 device.
Deployment steps
Follow these steps to configure your StorSimple device and connect it to your StorSimple Manager service. Step 1: Create a new service Step 2: Get the service registration key Step 3: Configure and register the device through Windows PowerShell for StorSimple Step 4: Complete minimum device setup Step 5: Create a volume container Step 6: Create a volume Step 7: Mount, initialize, and format a volume Step 8: Take a backup
Step 1: Create a new service
A StorSimple Manager service can manage multiple StorSimple devices. Perform the following steps to create a new StorSimple Manager service. To create a new service 1. Use your Microsoft account credentials to log on to the Azure Management Portal at this URL: https://manage.windowsazure.com/ 2. In the Management Portal, click New > Data Services > StorSimple Manager > Quick Create. 3. In the form that is displayed, do the following: a. Supply a unique Name for your service. This is a friendly name that can be used to identify the service. The name can have between 2 and 50 characters that can be letters, numbers, and hyphens. The name must start and end with a letter or a number. b. Supply a Location for your service. Location refers to the geographical region where you want to deploy your device. c. Choose a Subscription from the drop-down list. The subscription is linked to your billing account. This field is not present when you have only one subscription. d. Select Create a new storage account to automatically create a storage account with the service. This storage account will have a special name like "storsimplebwv8c6dcnf". e. Click Create StorSimple Manager to create the service.
You will be directed to the Service landing page. The service creation will take a few minutes. After the service is successfully created, you will be notified appropriately and the status of the service will change to Active.
Important
If you did not enable the automatic creation of a storage account with your service, you will need to create at least one storage account after you have successfully created a service. This storage account will be used when you create a volume container. After you have created a service, proceed to Appendix A: (Optional) Configure a new storage account for the service for detailed instructions. If you enabled the automatic creation of a storage account, you can proceed to Step 2: Get the service registration key.
Step 2: Get the service registration key
After the StorSimple Manager service is up and running, you will need to get the service registration key. This key is used to register and connect your StorSimple device with the service. Perform the following steps in the Management Portal to get the service registration key. To get the service registration key 1. On the StorSimple Manager service page, click the service that you created. This will take you to the Quick Start page. (You can click the quick start icon to access the Quick Start page at any time.)
2. Click Get service registration key. You can also click Registration Key at the bottom of the page. You will have to wait for a few minutes while the key is retrieved. In the Service Registration Key dialog box, do the following: a. Locate the Service Registration Key. b. Click the copy icon to copy the key and save it for later use.
Note The service registration key is used to register all the devices that need to register with your StorSimple Manager service.
3. Click the check icon to close this dialog box and return to the Quick Start page.
Step 3: Configure and register the device through Windows PowerShell for StorSimple
Use Windows PowerShell for StorSimple to complete the initial setup of your StorSimple device as explained in the following procedure. To configure and register the device 1. Access the Windows PowerShell interface on your StorSimple device serial console. See Appendix B: Use PuTTY to connect to the device serial console for instructions. Be sure to follow the procedure exactly or you will not be able to access the console. 2. In the session that opens, press Enter one time to get a command prompt. 3. You will be prompted to choose the language you would like to set for your device. Specify the language, and then press Enter.
4. In the serial console menu that is presented, choose option 1 to log on with full access.
Perform the following steps to configure the minimum required network settings for your device: Important
These configuration steps need to be performed on the active controller of the device. The serial console menu indicates the controller state in the banner message. If you are not connected to the active controller, disconnect and then connect to the active controller.
a. At the command prompt, type your password. The default device password is Password1. b. Type the following command: Invoke-HcsSetupWizard c. A setup wizard will appear to help you configure the network settings for the device. Supply the following information: IP address for DATA 0 network interface Subnet mask Gateway IP address for Primary DNS server IP address for Primary NTP server Note
You may have to wait for a few minutes for the subnet mask and the DNS settings to be applied. If you get a "The device is not ready." error message, check the physical network connection on the DATA0 network interface of your active controller. d. Optionally, configure your web proxy server.
Important
Although web proxy configuration is optional, be aware that if you use a web proxy, you can only configure it here. For more information, go to Configure web proxy for your device. e. For security reasons, the device administrator password expires after the first session, and you will need to change it for subsequent sessions. When prompted, provide a device administrator password. A valid device administrator password must be between 8 and 15 characters. The password must contain a combination of three of the following: lowercase, uppercase, numeric, and special characters. f. The StorSimple Snapshot Manager password is also set here. (You use this password when you authenticate a device to your Windows host running StorSimple Snapshot Manager.) When prompted, provide a 14 to 15 character password. The password must contain a combination of three of the following: lowercase, uppercase, numeric, and special characters. You can reset the StorSimple Snapshot Manager password from the StorSimple Manager service interface. g. The final step in the setup wizard involves registering your device with the StorSimple Manager service. For this, you will need the service registration key that you obtained in Step 2: Get the service registration key. After you supply the registration key, you may need to wait for 2-3 minutes before the device is registered.
Note
You can press Ctrl + C at any time to exit the setup wizard. Any settings that you applied before you issued this command will be retained. h. After the device is registered, a Service Data Encryption key will appear. Copy this key and save it in a safe location. This key will be required with the service registration key to register additional devices with the StorSimple Manager service. Refer to StorSimple Security for more information about this key.
Important
To copy the text from the serial console window, simply select the text. You should then be able to paste it in the clipboard or any text editor. DO NOT use Ctrl + C to copy the service data encryption key. This command will cause you to exit the setup wizard. As a result, the device administrator password and the StorSimple Snapshot Manager password will not be changed and the device will revert to the default passwords.
i. Exit the serial console. 5. Return to the Management Portal. In the Management Portal: a. Double-click your StorSimple Manager service to access the Quick Start page. b. Click View connected devices. c. On the Devices page, verify that the device has successfully connected to the service by looking up the status. The device status should show as Online.
Note
If the device state is Offline, wait for a couple of minutes for the device to come online.
Step 4: Complete the minimum device setup
For the minimum device configuration of your StorSimple device, you are required to: Set up the secondary DNS server. Enable iSCSI on at least one network interface. Assign fixed IP addresses to both the controllers. Perform the following steps in the Management Portal to complete the minimum device setup: To complete the minimum device setup 1. Select the device and click Quick Start. Click complete device setup to start the Configure device wizard. 2. In the Configure device wizard, do the following: a. Supply a friendly name for your device. The default device name reflects information such as the device model and serial number. You can assign a friendly name of up to 64 characters to manage your device. b. Set the time zone based on the geographic location in which the device is being deployed. Your device will use this time zone for all scheduled operations. c. Under DNS Settings, provide an address for your Secondary DNS Server. If you are using IPv6, the field will be populated based on the IPv6 prefix provided in the Windows PowerShell interface.
Note
If the secondary DNS server is not configured, you will not be allowed to save your device configuration.
d. Under iSCSI enabled interfaces, enable at least one network for iSCSI.
Note
At least one network interface needs to be cloud-enabled and one interface needs to be iSCSI-enabled. DATA 0 is automatically cloud-enabled.
e. Click the arrow icon . f. Provide the fixed IP addresses for Controller 0 and Controller 1. The controller fixed IP addresses need to be free IPs within the subnet accessible by the device IP address. If the DATA 0 interface was configured for IPv4, the fixed IP addresses need to be provided in the IPv4 format. If you provided a prefix for IPv6 configuration, the fixed IP addresses will be populated automatically in these fields. g. Click the check icon .
3. You will return to the device Quick Start page.
Note
You can modify all the other device settings at any time by accessing the Configure page.
Step 5: Create a volume container
A volume container has storage account, bandwidth, and encryption settings for all the volumes contained in it. You will need to create a volume container before you can start provisioning volumes on your StorSimple device. Perform the following steps in the Management Portal to create a volume container. To create a volume container 1. In the device Quick Start page, click Add a volume container. 2. In the Create Volume container dialog box: a. Supply a Name for your volume container. The name must be 3 to 32 characters long. b. Select a Storage Account to associate with this volume container. You can choose the default account that is generated at the time of service creation. You can also use the Add new option to specify a storage account that is not linked to this service subscription. c. Select Enable Cloud Storage Encryption to enable encryption of the data sent from the device to the cloud. d. Provide and confirm a Cloud Storage Encryption Key that is 8 to 32 characters long. This key is used by the device to access encrypted data. For more information, go to Cloud Storage Encryption key used for Data-at-rest. e. Select Unlimited in the Specify bandwidth drop-down list if you wish to consume all the available bandwidth. You can also set this option to Custom to employ bandwidth controls and specify a value between 1 and 1,000 Mbps.
If you have your bandwidth usage information available, you may be able to allocate bandwidth based on a schedule by specifying Select a bandwidth template. For a step-by-step procedure, see how to add a bandwidth template.
f. Click the check icon to save this volume container and exit the wizard. The newly created volume container will be listed on the Volume containers page.
Step 6: Create a volume
After you create a volume container, you can provision a storage volume on the StorSimple device for your servers. Perform the following steps in Management Portal to create a volume: Important
Azure StorSimple can create thinly provisioned volumes only. You cannot create fully provisioned or partially provisioned volumes on an Azure StorSimple system.
To create a volume 1. On the device Quick Start page, click Add a volume. This starts the Add a volume wizard. 2. In the Add a volume wizard, under Basic Settings: a. Type a Name for your volume. b. Specify the Provisioned Capacity for your volume.
Important
The volume capacity must be between 1 GB and 64 TB.
c. In the drop-down list, select the Usage Type for your volume. For less frequently accessed archival data, select an Archive volume. For all other types of data, specify Primary volume. d. Click the arrow icon to go to the next page.
3. Under Additional Settings, add a new access control record (ACR): a. Supply a Name for your ACR.
b. Under iSCSI Initiator Name, provide the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) of your Windows host. Follow the steps in Appendix C: Get the IQN of a Windows Server host. c. Under Default backup for this volume?, select the Enable check box. The default backup will create a policy that executes at 22:30 each day (device time) and creates a cloud snapshot of this volume.
Note
After the backup is enabled here, it cannot be reverted. You will need to edit the volume to modify this setting.
d. Click the check icon . A volume will be created with the specified settings.
Step 7: Mount, initialize, and format a volume
Perform these steps on your Windows Server host. To mount, initialize, and format a volume 1. Start the Microsoft iSCSI initiator. 2. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties window, perform the following steps: a. On the Discovery tab, click Discover Portal. b. In the Discover Target Portal dialog box, supply the IP address of your iSCSI-enabled network interface. c. Click OK. 3. On the Targets tab of the iSCSI Initiator Properties window, locate the Discovered targets. The device status should appear as Inactive. Select the target device and click Connect. After the device is connected, the status should change to Connected. Note
For more information about using the Microsoft iSCSI initiator, see Installing and Configuring Microsoft iSCSI Initiator.
4. On your Windows host, press Windows Logo key + X, and then click Run. 5. In the Run dialog box, type Diskmgmt.msc. Click OK, and the Disk Management dialog box will appear. The right pane will show the volumes on your host. 6. Initialize your volumes by using the steps in Appendix D: Initialize StorSimple volumes on a Windows Server host.
Step 8: Take a backup
Backups provide point-in-time protection of volumes and improve recoverability while minimizing restore times. You can take two types of backup on your StorSimple device: local snapshots and cloud snapshots. Each of these backup types can be Scheduled or Manual.
Perform the following steps in Management Portal to create a scheduled backup.
To take a backup 1. On the device Quick Start page, click Add a backup policy. This will initiate the Add Backup Policy wizard. 2. On the Define your backup policy page: a. Supply a name that contains between 3 and 150 characters for your backup policy. b. Select the volumes to be backed up. If you select more than one volume, these volumes will be grouped together to create a crash-consistent backup. c. Click the arrow icon .
3. On the Define a schedule page: a. Select the type of backup from the drop-down list. For faster restores, select Local Snapshot. For data resiliency, select Cloud Snapshot. b. Specify the backup frequency in minutes, hours, days, or weeks. c. Select a retention time. The retention choices depend on the backup frequency. For example, for a daily policy, the retention can be specified in weeks, whereas retention for a weekly policy is in months. d. Select the starting time and date for the policy. e. Select the Enable check box to enable the backup policy. Click the check icon to save the policy.
You now have a backup policy that will create scheduled backups of your volume data. You have completed the device configuration.
See also
Create a manual backup Appendix A: (Optional) Configure a new storage account for the service
This is an optional step that needs to be performed only if you did not enable the automatic creation of a storage account with your service. An Azure storage account is required to create a StorSimple volume container. If you need to create an Azure storage account in a different region, see How to create a storage account for step-by-step instructions. Perform the following steps in the Management Portal on the StorSimple Manager service page to add a Microsoft Azure storage account. To add a storage account 1. On the StorSimple Manager service landing page, select your service and double-click it. This will take you to the Quick Start page. Select the Configure page. 2. Click Add/edit storage account. 3. In the Add/Edit Storage Account dialog box, do the following: a. Click Add new. b. Provide a name for your storage account. c. Supply the primary Access Key for your Microsoft Azure storage account. d. Select Enable SSL mode to create a secure channel for network communication between your device and the cloud. Clear the Enable SSL mode check box only if you are operating within a private cloud. e. Click the check icon . You will be notified after the storage account is successfully created.
4. The newly created storage account will be displayed on the Configure page under Storage accounts. Click Save to save the newly created storage account. Click OK when prompted for confirmation.
Next step
Step 2: Get the service registration key
Appendix B: Use PuTTY to connect to the device serial console
To connect to the Windows PowerShell for StorSimple through the device serial console, you need to use terminal emulation software such as PuTTY. To connect through the serial console 1. Connect your serial cable to the device (directly or through a USB-serial adapter). 2. Click Control Panel, and then click Device Manager. 3. Identify the COM port as shown in the following illustration.
4. Start PuTTY. 5. In the right pane, change the Connection type to Serial. 6. In the right pane, type the appropriate COM port. Make sure that the serial configuration parameters are set as follows. Speed: 115,200 Data bits: 8 Stop bits: 1 Parity: None Flow control: None These settings are shown in the following illustration.
Note
If the default flow control setting does not work, try setting the flow control to XON/XOFF.
7. Click Open to start a serial session.
See also
Connecting through the device serial console Step 3: Configure and register the device through Windows PowerShell for StorSimple
Appendix C: Get the IQN of a Windows Server host
Perform the following steps to get the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) of a Windows host that is running Windows Server® 2012. To get the IQN of a Windows host 1. Start the Microsoft iSCSI initiator on your Windows host. 2. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties window, on the Configuration tab, select and copy the string from the Initiator Name field.
3. Save this string.
See also
Step 6: Create a volume
Appendix D: Initialize StorSimple volumes on a Windows Server host
Perform the following steps to initialize your StorSimple device volumes on a Windows Server host. The procedure described here applies to basic disks only. For more information on how to initialize, move, remove, or change disk types from within the Disk Management, refer to the Windows Server documentation.
To initialize and format volumes on a Windows Server host 1. In the Disk Management window, the mounted volumes will appear as shown in the following illustration.
Right-click the discovered volume (click the disk name), and then click Online. 2. Right-click the volume (click the disk name) again, and then click Initialize. 3. To format a simple volume, perform the following steps: a. Select the volume, right-click it (click the right area), and click New Simple Volume. b. In the New Simple Volume wizard, specify the volume size and drive letter, and configure the volume as an NTFS file system. c. Specify a 64 KB allocation unit size. This allocation unit size works well with the deduplication algorithms used in the StorSimple solution. d. Perform a quick format.
Next step
Step 8: Take a backup
Appendix E: Create a manual backup
Perform the following steps in the Management Portal to create an on-demand manual backup for a single volume on your StorSimple device. To create a manual backup 1. On the Devices page, go to the Backup Policies tab. This tab lists all the backup policies in a tabular format, including the policy for the volume that you want to back up. 2. Select the policy by clicking anywhere in the corresponding row except for the first column. At the bottom of the page, click Take backup. The button will expand to show the backup options: local snapshot and cloud snapshot. When you choose either of these options, you will be prompted for confirmation. Click Yes.
This will start a job to create a snapshot. You will see a notification at the bottom of the page after the job is successfully created. 3. To monitor the job, click View Job in the notification area (at the bottom of the page).
4. After the backup job is finished, go to the Backup catalog tab. 5. Set the filter selections to the appropriate device, backup policy, and time range. Click the check icon after setting the filters. The backup should appear in the list of backup sets that is displayed in the catalog.
See also
Step 8: Take a backup
Appendix F: Configure MPIO on Windows Server 2012 R2
Multipath I/O (MPIO) is an optional feature and is not installed on Windows Server by default. It should be installed as a feature through Server Manager. This topic describes the steps you should follow to install and use the MPIO feature on a host running Windows Server 2012 R2 and connected to a StorSimple physical device.
Note MPIO is not supported on a StorSimple virtual device.
Step 1: Install MPIO on the Windows Server host Step 2: Configure MPIO for StorSimple volumes Step 3: Mount StorSimple volumes on the host Step 4: Configure MPIO for high availability and load balancing
Step 1: Install MPIO on the Windows Server host
To install this feature on your Windows Server host, perform the following steps:
To install MPIO on the host 1. Open Server Manager on your Windows Server host. By default, Server Manager starts when a member of the Administrators group logs on to a computer that is running Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012. If Server Manager is not already open, click Start > Server Manager.
2. Click Server Manager > Dashboard > Add roles and features. This starts the Add Roles and Features wizard.
3. In the Add Roles and Features wizard, do the following: a. On the Before you begin page, click Next. b. On the Select installation type page, accept the default setting of Role-based or feature-based installation. Click Next.
c. On the Select destination server page, choose Select a server from the server pool. Your host server should be discovered automatically. Click Next. d. On the Select server roles page, click Next. e. On the Select features page, select Multipath I/O, and click Next.
f. On the Confirm installation selections page, confirm the selection and then select Restart the destination server automatically if required, as shown below. Click Install.
g. You will be notified when the installation is complete. Click Close to close the wizard.
Step 2: Configure MPIO for StorSimple volumes
MPIO needs to be configured to identify StorSimple volumes. To configure MPIO to recognize StorSimple volumes, perform the following steps.
To configure MPIO for StorSimple volumes 1. Open the MPIO configuration. Click Server Manager > Dashboard > Tools > MPIO. 2. In the MPIO Properties dialog box, select the Discover Multi-Paths tab. 3. Select Add support for iSCSI devices, and then click Add.
4. Reboot the server when prompted. 5. In the MPIO Properties dialog box, click the MPIO Devices tab. Click Add.
6. In the Add MPIO Support dialog box, under Device Hardware ID, enter your device serial number.
You can get the device serial number by accessing your StorSimple Manager service and navigating to Devices > Dashboard. The device serial number is displayed in the right Quick Glance pane of the device dashboard. 7. Reboot the server when prompted. Step 3: Mount StorSimple volumes on the host
After MPIO is configured on Windows Server, volume(s) created on the StorSimple device can be mounted and can then take advantage of MPIO for redundancy. To mount a volume, perform the following steps.
To mount volumes on the host 1. Open the iSCSI Initiator Properties window on the Windows Server host: click Server Manager > Dashboard > Tools > iSCSI Initiator. 2. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, click the Discovery tab, and then click Discover Target Portal. 3. In the Discover Target Portal dialog box, do the following: a. Enter the IP address of the DATA port of your StorSimple device (for example, enter DATA 0). b. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box.
Important If you are using a private network for iSCSI connections, enter the IP address of the DATA port that is connected to the private network.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for a second network interface (for example, DATA 1) on your device. Keep in mind that these interfaces should be enabled for iSCSI. To learn more about this, go to Configure network interfaces. 5. Select the Targets tab in the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. You should see the StorSimple device target IQN under Discovered Targets.
6. Click Connect to establish an iSCSI session with your StorSimple device. A Connect to Target dialog box will appear. 7. In the Connect to Target dialog box, select the Enable multi-path check box. Click Advanced. 8. In the Advanced Settings dialog box, do the following: a. On the Local Adapter drop-down list, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. b. On the Initiator IP drop-down list, select the IP address of the host. c. On the Target Portal IP drop-down list, select the IP of device interface. d. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. 9. Click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click Add Session. 10. In the Connect to Target dialog box, select the Enable multi-path check box. Click Advanced. 11. In the Advanced Settings dialog box: a. On the Local adapter drop-down list, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. b. On the Initiator IP drop-down list, select the IP address corresponding to the host. In this case, we are connecting two network interfaces on the device to a single network interface on the host. Therefore, this interface is the same as that provided for the first session. c. On the Target Portal IP drop-down list, select the IP address for the second data interface enabled on the device. d. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. You have added a second session to the target. 12. Open Computer Management by navigating to Server Manager > Dashboard > Computer Management. In the left pane, click Storage > Disk Management. The volume(s) created on the StorSimple device that are visible to this host will appear under Disk Management as new disk(s). 13. Initialize the disk and create a new volume. During the format process, select a block size of 64 KB.
14. Under Disk Management, right-click the Disk and select Properties. 15. In the StorSimple Model #### Multi-Path Disk Device Properties dialog box, click the MPIO tab.
16. In the DSM Name section, click Details and verify that the parameters are set to the default parameters.
Note Please do not modify the default parameters.
The default parameters are: o Path Verify Period = 30 o Retry Count = 3 o PDO Remove Period = 20 o Retry Interval = 1 o Path Verify Enabled = Unchecked. Step 4: Configure MPIO for high availability and load balancing
For multi-path based high availability and load balancing, multiple sessions must be manually added to declare the different paths available. For example, if the host has two interfaces connected to SAN and the device has two interfaces connected to SAN, then you need up to four sessions configured with proper path permutations (only 2 sessions will be required when each DATA interface and host interface are on a different IP subnet and are not routable).
Important
Keep in mind that you cannot mix 1 GbE and 10 GbE network interfaces. When using two network interfaces, both the interfaces should be the identical type.
The following procedure describes how to add sessions when a StorSimple device with two network interfaces is connected to a host with two network interfaces.
To configure MPIO for high availability and load balancing 1. Perform a discovery of the target: in the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, on the Discovery tab, click Discover Portal. 2. In the Connect to Target dialog box, enter the IP address of one of the device network interfaces. 3. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. 4. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, select the Targets tab, highlight the discovered target, and then click Connect. The Connect to Target dialog box appears. 5. In the Connect to Target dialog box: a. Leave the default selected target setting for Add this connection to the list of favorite targets. This will make the device automatically attempt to restart the connection every time this computer restarts. b. Select the Enable multi-path check box. c. Click Advanced. 6. In the Advanced Settings dialog box: a. On the Local Adapter drop-down list, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. b. On the Initiator IP drop-down list, select the IP address of the host. c. On the Target Portal IP drop-down list, select the IP address of the data interface enabled on the device. d. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. 7. Click Properties, and in the Properties dialog box, click Add Session. 8. In the Connect to Target dialog box, select the Enable multi-path check box, and then click Advanced. 9. In the Advanced Settings dialog box: a. On the Local adapter drop-down list, select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. b. On the Initiator IP drop-down list, select the IP address corresponding to the second interface on the host. c. On the Target Portal IP drop-down list, select the IP address for the second data interface enabled on the device. d. Click OK to return to the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box. You have now added a second session to the target. 10. Repeat Steps 8-10 to add additional sessions (paths) to the target. With two interfaces on the host and two on the device, you can add a total of four sessions. 11. After adding the desired sessions (paths), in the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, select the target and click Properties. On the Sessions tab of the Properties dialog box, note the four session identifiers that correspond to the possible path permutations. To cancel a session, select the check box next to a session identifier, and then click Disconnect. 12. To view devices presented within sessions, select the Devices tab. To configure the MPIO policy for a selected device, click MPIO. The Device Details dialog box will appear. On the MPIO tab, you can select the appropriate Load Balance Policy settings. You can also view the Active or Standby path type.