Redundant Windows based file server on Hyper-V

  • 4 November 2014
  • 2 replies
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Hey there

We have a Windows Azure Pack environment deployed on a Nutanix Hyper-V based infrastructure. The infrastructure is build with high availability in mind:

  • Redundant Virtual Machine Manager configuration
  • Redundant SQL Server configuration (using SQL Server AlwaysOn)
But we are currently facing an issue setting up a redundant VMM Library Share. Microsoft does not allow using a redundant VMM installation as the Library Server. Instead they recommend to setup a Scale-Out File Server infrastructure as the Library Server and then add your Library Share to it.

However, to my current understanding, it is not possible to setup a Cluster Shared Volume on Nutanix Hyper-V - which is a requirement for a Scale-Out File Server.

What are the design recommendations from Nutanix in this matter?

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2 replies

Userlevel 2
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Hi Tom --

I'd recommend configuring an Nutanix SMB container as a SCVMM unmanaged library share. This will also get you the benefit of using ODX when deploying template from WAP.

Here's a good post on how to configure the Library share from a Nutanix container: http://davyneirynck.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/leveraging-odx-to-deploy-a-vm-from-a-template-on-nutanix/

Hope that helps, cheers!
Badge +5
Hey

I have seen the blog post before and it is indeed describing it nicely. However we want a fully redundant configuration for production use and the Library Server in VMM is causing us troubles.

When we try to add the Library Server role to the VMM cluster it is causing an error message:



The reason seems to be that VMM is doing some checking and wants to deploy a clustered file server role. However this seems not possible on Nutanix?

So for now we use a single server as Library Server. But whenever this one goes down, our tenants will not be able to provision new vitual machines through Azure Pack and that is not acceptable.

So the question remains, how can I provide a redundant Library Server for VMM on top of Nutanix running Hyper-V?