Windows Admin Center (formerly Honolulu Project) was released in April 2018 by Microsoft. WAC is a web-based management tool to help to administrate Windows Server and hyperconverged cluster. In part of my job, I use primarily Windows Admin Center for Storage Spaces Direct Cluster and to manage Windows Server in Core edition especially drivers. Since the release of Windows Admin ...
Read More »Configure Dell S4048 switches for Storage Spaces Direct
When we deploy Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), either hyperconverged or disaggregated, we have to configure the networking part. Usually we work with Dell hardware to deploy Storage Spaces Direct and the one of the switches supported by the Dell reference architectures is the Dell S4048 (Force 10). In this topic, we will see how to configure this switch from scratch. ...
Read More »Archive backups with Veeam and StarWind Virtual Tape Library
In this previous topic, I shown you how to configure StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL for friends). In this topic I connected StarWind VTL to my Veeam Backup & Replication server through iSCSI. Now I’d like add the libraries to Veeam to run tape jobs in order to archive backup. In this topic, I’ll show you how to add a ...
Read More »Real Case: Implement Storage Replica between two S2D clusters
This week, in part of my job I deployed a Storage Replica between two S2D Clusters. I’d like to share with you the steps I followed to implement the storage replication between two S2D hyperconverged cluster. Storage Replica enables to replicate volumes at the block-level. For my customer, Storage Replica is part of a Disaster Recovery Plan in case of ...
Read More »Connect StarWind Virtual Tape Library to a Windows Server 2016
StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL) is a feature included in StarWind Virtual SAN. StarWind VTL provides a virtual LTO library to store your backup archival. StarWind VTL eliminates the heavy process of tape management and also a costly LTO library. StarWind VTL provides virtual tape to store your backup archival. The connection between StarWind Virtual Tape Library and a server ...
Read More »Monitor and troubleshoot VMware vSAN performance issue
When you deploy VMware vSAN in the vSphere environment, the solution comes from several tools to monitor, find performance bottleneck and to troubleshoot VMware vSAN issue. All the information that I’ll introduce you in this topic are built-in to vCenter. Unfortunately, all vSAN configuration, metrics and alerts are not available yet from HTML5 board. So the screenshots were taken from ...
Read More »Use Honolulu to manage your Microsoft hyperconverged cluster
Few months ago, I have written a topic about the next gen Microsoft management tool called Honolulu project. Honolulu provides management for standalone Windows Server, failover clustering and hyperconverged. Currently hyperconverged management works only on Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) versions (I cross finger for Honolulu support on Windows Server LTSC). I have upgraded my lab to latest technical preview ...
Read More »Deploy a Software-Defined Storage solution with StarWind Virtual SAN
StarWind Virtual SAN is a Software-Defined Storage solution which enables to replicate data across several nodes to ensure availability. The data are mirrored between two or more nodes. Hypervisor can be installed in the StarWind Virtual SAN nodes (hyperconverged) or separated from hypervisor (converged). StarWind Virtual SAN is easy to use and provide high performance. Moreover, StarWind provides pro active ...
Read More »The cluster resource could not be deleted since it is a core resource
The last month, I wanted to change the Witness of a cluster from a Cloud Witness to a File Share Witness. The cluster is a 2-node S2D cluster and as discussed with Microsoft, Cloud Witness should not be used with a 2-node cluster. If the Cloud Witness fails (for example when subscription has expired), the cluster can crashes. I’ve experienced ...
Read More »Step-by-Step: Update Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 to Update 3
Today Veeam has released for everyone the Update 3 of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 In this (small) topic, I share with you how I update Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 to update 3. This is a step-by-step guide. Requirements To follow this guide, you need an up and running Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 infrastructure. To write this guide, ...
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