Server 2008 Core and Hyper-V Cluster lessons learned

Part 1 Install and Networking

Server 2008 Core and Hyper-V clustering is the way to go. I will not say it is the easy way, but once you get everything running it works very smooth.

Plan out your environment! Hyper-V does not allow you to over-allocate memory so you must plan to ensure that your Hyper-V cluster can sustain a loss of one of the hosts. Best plan is to plan your cluster for a full load minus one host. This way you can ensure that a loss of a host due to hardware failure or planned maintenance you VMs will still function properly.
Shared storage is also very important, without it you don't have clustering or failover. The most recent deployment I worked on we utilized a NetApp filer and accessed the storage using iSCSI.

First off, Networking, here is a good guide for installing and configuring Server 2008 core, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753802.aspx, This covers the basic setup and configuration.
Next thing to learn and love is the NETSH command line tool for configuring network adapters in Server 2008 Core, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q242468&ID=KB;EN-US;Q242468. This is an overall doc, but I have found the "help netsh cmd" to be very helpful.
So now you have the interfaces configured, you need to use hardware teaming to ensure you have fault-tolerance for the interfaces. Hyper-V does not provide fault-tolerance naively, you must use the vendor teaming software to create a team and then added the teamed interface to the Virtual Switch. Intel NIC teaming was pretty easy, once you install the teaming software it also installs numerous VBScripts for configuring the team(s). Broadcom was a bit more difficult, you must use a command line tool using the MAC addresses for the team members to configure the team(s). The way I learned these processes was to first build a Server 2008 full version and use these scripts and command line tools to configure the teams and the verify the settings useing the GUI.
For Storage access you cannot utilize teaming, you must use MultiPath. I found the Microsoft MultiPath to work very well and was easy to setup.

I cannot stress this enough, ensure you designate a interface for management and do not add this interface to a virtual switch. This will ensure you have proper access to the server as well as the server having proper access to the network and domain services.
Also naming/labeling the interfaces greatly assists with the configuration and troubleshooting. Make sure you rename the interfaces from the default "Local Area Connection XX" to a more descriptive name to identify them days, weeks and months down the road.

In the next part I will cover Hyper-V install and cluster setup.....stay tuned.

Big Week for Micrsoft OS

This past week Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP2 was confirmed RTM, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335036.aspx

Also Windows 7 RC was released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers (general availability on May 5th)
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/apr09/04-30Windows7RCPR.mspx

I am getting ready to install SP2 my dual boot laptop, Vista x64 is my primary workstation and I also have Server 2008 as a second boot for Hyper-V and a couple test workstations. Yes, soon after I will be installing the Windows 7 RC on Hyper-V.

I also want to get Server 2008 R2 installed, debating whether to upgrade my Server 2008 install on my laptop or go with a Hyper-V VM instead.