Dell PowerVault NX1950 Guide

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Dell™ PowerVault™ NX1950
Cluster Systems
Installation and Troubleshooting
Guide

Notes, Notices, and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data
and tells you how to avoid the problem.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury,
or death.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, OpenManage, PowerEdge,and PowerVault are
trademarks of Dell Inc.; Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, and Windows Server are either trademarks or
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming
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trade names other than its own.
November 2007 Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Overview of MSCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cluster Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Resource Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Quorum Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Shared Versus Private Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Firewall Port Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Configuration Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Supported Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Cluster Administration and Management . . . . . . . . 11
Cluster Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Cluster.exe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Other Documents You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Setting Up Your Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Configuring Your Cluster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Prerequisites for Cabling Your Cluster . . . . . . . . . 15
Cabling Your Integrated Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4Contents
Cabling Your Gateway Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration
Tasks Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Creating the Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 Managing Your Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Creating a Highly Available File Server Instance . . . . 25
Creating a Highly Available iSCSI Target
Using Microsoft iSCSI Target 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . 26
Creating a Highly Available iSCSI Server
Instance Using Microsoft iSCSI Target 3.1 . . . . . 27
Creating a Shared Storage Disk . . . . . . . . . . 29
Adding a Node Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Removing Nodes From the Cluster. . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Removing a Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Removing the Last Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Replacing a Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Removing the Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
A Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
B Important Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Deleting LUNs With Storage Manager for SANs . . . . 39
Dell Storage Initialization Wizard and
Array Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Contents 5
If a Node is Configured With iSCSI LUNs
Before Joining the Cluster, the iSCSI Target MMC
Snap-in Crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Connection to the iSCSI LUN is Lost When a
Cluster Failover Occurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Limitations While Creating a Shared LUN . . . . . . . . 41
Dell Storage Initialization Wizard Does Not Register
the Cluster Node to the PowerVault MD3000
Storage Array if a Dummy Host is Registered . . . . . . 42
Assigning LUNs/Volumes to a Cluster via
Storage Manager for SANs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

6Contents

Introduction 7
1
Introduction
This document provides you with information required for configuring the
Dell™ PowerVault™ NX1950 storage system as a cluster solution and offers
troubleshooting tips. The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution enables two
PowerVault NX1950 nodes to provide highly-available system and data.
Dell supports the following configuration of the PowerVault NX1950 cluster
solution:
• Integrated solution—This solution consists of two PowerVault NX1950
storage systems configured with a Dell PowerVault MD3000 storage array.
• Gateway solution—This solution consists of up to eight PowerVault NX1950
storage systems configured with Dell|EMC storage arrays.
NOTE: Throughout this document, PowerVault NX1950 storage system refers to
the individual cluster node. PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution refers to the
configuration of two or more PowerVault NX1950 storage systems running
Microsoft®Cluster Services (MSCS) attached to either PowerVault MD3000 storage
array or a Dell|EMC storage array.
Overview of MSCS
A cluster is a collection of servers that work together to provide highly- available
resources. Examples of resources include services, IP addresses, network
names, and disk drives. The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution uses MSCS
and the Dell Storage Initialization Wizard to configure the solution for
clustering. The Dell customized components help the user to integrate the
solution with the services provided by the operating system in a seamless
way to configure the system.
Microsoft Windows®Unified Data Storage Server 2003 provides two
technologies for cluster solutions through MSCS—Server Cluster and
Network Load Balancing (NLB). The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution
does not support NLB. This guide focuses on the Server Cluster technology
provided by the operating system.

8Introduction
The following list includes basic features of MSCS:
• Highly-available and server consolidation
• Deployable on a single network
• Multiple-node cluster support
NOTE: The multiple-node cluster is supported on PowerVault NX1950 cluster
solution with Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64
Edition operating system only.
For more information about MSCS features and functionality, see the
Microsoft Support website at support.microsoft.com.
Nodes
Nodes or cluster nodes refer to the PowerVault NX1950 storage systems that
are members of the cluster. The PowerVault NX1950 storage solution supports
a multiple-node cluster.
Cluster Resources
The cluster resources are physical or logical entities with the following
characteristics:
• Can be brought online/offline
• Can be managed within a cluster
• Can be hosted by one node within the cluster
Examples of resources are Network Name, IP addresses, services, applications,
and disk storage. During cluster failover, only the cluster resources failover to
another node.
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution supports cluster resources and you
can use the cluster administration tools to configure them. For more
information about cluster administration tools, see "Cluster Administration
and Management" on page 12.
Resource Group
A resource group is a group of resources (IP addresses, disk storage) that can
failover as a unit. An example of a resource group is a Highly-Available Server
Instance.

Introduction 9
Quorum Resource
MSCS uses quorum resource to maintain state and configuration information of
the individual nodes and to enforce cluster unity. The quorum-device resource
stores critical information about the cluster nodes and the resources in the
cluster to ensure and manage consistency across both nodes. There are two types
of quorum resources namely: quorum-device and majority-of-nodes cluster.
The quorum-device resource requires a storage class device that is accessible
by the other node in the cluster. The quorum-device resource is typically a
physical disk. The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution uses a quorum-device
that is located on the storage array.
For information about how to create or select a quorum resource, see
"Assigning the Quorum Disk to the Cluster" on page 31.
Shared Versus Private Storage
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution supports two types of storage—
Shared and Private. When you use Shared storage, each node within the
cluster has access to all storage resources. When you use Private storage, only
the individual node has access to the assigned storage resource. To enable the
PowerVault NX1950 configuration as a cluster, the quorum disk must be
deployed on a shared storage disk. The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution is
deployed as a Shared storage solution by default to ensure that the quorum
disk can be created and mapped to both the nodes in the cluster.
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution supports both Private and Shared storage
for the logical unit numbers (LUNs) created after the quorum disk is created.
NOTICE: In the Integrated solution, you can use the Provision Storage Wizard to
configure Shared storage only. For more information, see "Limitations While
Creating a Shared LUN" on page 41.
Firewall Port Exceptions
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution is pre-configured from Dell with
Windows Firewall enabled. The port and application exceptions are
configured for deployment, management, and use of the cluster solution.
No user intervention is required to enable exceptions for clustering support.
NOTE: A Windows Firewall Exception is a Microsoft term used to denote ports or
applications that are allowed access through the firewall.

10 Introduction
If the Windows Firewall settings are restored to the default values either due
to user action or because of a system restore, you must reset the firewall port
exceptions for the cluster setup to be successful. Dell provides a batch file
that sets the required port exceptions to deploy, manage, and use the
PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution. For instructions to download and execute
the batch file, see the Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Deployment Guide.
NOTICE: Ensure that you perform the procedure described in the
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Deployment Guide to avoid system failure.
Configuration Tools
The following tools assist in the configuration of the storage array and the
Dell PowerVault NX1950 storage systems and enable them to operate as a
cluster.
•The Dell Storage Initialization Wizard communicates with the storage
array and ensures that set up is complete.
• The Microsoft Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64
Edition provides the following:
–The
PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks wizard — This
wizard helps you to configure the PowerVault NX1950 storage system
to be a part of the cluster.
– For cluster administration and troubleshooting, the operating system
provides a graphical user interface (GUI) tool —
Cluster
Administrator (also referred to as Cluadmin.exe)
and a command
line interface (CLI) tool — cluster.exe. For more information about
these tools, see "Cluster Administration and Management" on
page 11.
– Microsoft Cluster Setup tools — The Windows Unified Data Storage
Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition provides cluster configuration and
management tools for advanced users. The features of these tools are
beyond the scope of this document. For more information about these
features and functionality, see the Microsoft Support website at
support.microsoft.com .

Introduction 11
Supported Operating System
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution supports the Windows Unified Data
Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition operating system.
NOTE: The Microsoft Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Standard x64
Edition is supported on the PowerVault NX1950 storage system as a stand-alone
solution only. You can purchase an upgrade kit from Dell to upgrade to the Windows
Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition.
For more information about the upgrade procedure, see the
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Upgrading Your Operating System document
located on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Cluster Administration and Management
The Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
provides cluster administration through Cluster Administrator (also referred
to as Cluadmin.exe)—a GUI tool and cluster.exe—a CLI tool.
Cluster Administrator
Cluster Administrator allows administrators to manage cluster objects,
establish groups, initiate failover, handle maintenance, and monitor cluster
activity through a convenient graphical interface.
Follow one of these procedures to access the Cluster Administrator:
•Goto Start → Administrative Tools → Cluster Administrator .
•Type
cluadmin at the MS-DOS
®
prompt.
• Access the tool from the
PowerVault NX1950 Management Console.
For more information about Cluster Administrator, see the Microsoft Support
website at support.microsoft.com.
Cluster.exe
The CLI tool for cluster administration is called cluster.exe and can be
accessed from the MS-DOS prompt. For more information on the CLI
commands for this tool, type cluster /? at the MS-DOS prompt or see
the Microsoft Support website at support.microsoft.com.

12 Introduction
Other Documents You May Need
You can refer to the following documents located on the Dell Support website
at support.dell.com. See the:
• Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual for physical,
firmware, software interface features, and troubleshooting for your
PowerVault NX1950 storage system.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Getting Started Guide for system
features, installation, and configuration of your PowerVault NX1950
storage system.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Deployment Guide for configuration
procedures on your system and a general overview of the Windows Unified
Data Storage Server 2003 operating systems.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Installation Guide for deployment,
cabling, configuring, and localizing your PowerVault NX1950 storage
solution.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Important Information for known issues.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Upgrading Your Operating System for
instructions to upgrade your operating system.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems Support Matrix for supported hardware,
software, and configurations.
•
Dell PowerVault NX1950 Systems End-to-End Deployment Guide for iSCSI .

Setting Up Your Cluster 13
2
Setting Up Your Cluster
This section provides information about the prerequisites and the procedure
to set up your Dell™ PowerVault™ NX1950 cluster solution.
NOTE: For known issues and fixes regarding configuring and managing your
cluster, see "Important Information" on page 39.
Configuring Your Cluster
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution provides the following wizards to
ensure that the solution is configured appropriately:
•The Dell Storage Initialization Wizard — automates all storage
communication required for the PowerVault NX1950 Initial
Configuration Tasks wizard to communicate with the array.
•The PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks wizard — walks
you through the steps necessary to perform configuration tasks like
deploying the PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution.
•The Microsoft Management Console for Storage — is a utility for all
storage-related activities.
NOTE: Throughout this document and in the GUI, Microsoft®Management
Console for Storage and PowerVault NX1950 Management Console are
synonymous.
It is recommended that you follow the sequence of steps in Table 2-1 to
successfully create a cluster.

14 Setting Up Your Cluster
* While the DSIW is running, be sure to select the Clustered option on both servers when prompted.
NOTICE: Before setting up the cluster, ensure that all the cluster nodes complete
step 3. If you do not perform step 3 on all the cluster nodes, one of them may not be
added to the cluster.
Table 2-1. Steps to Create the Cluster Solution
Step/Phase Recommended Sequence
Node 1 Node 2-8 Storage Array/
Network
1 Cable the solution 12 3
2 Tu r n o n 56 4
NOTE: This
step may take a
few minutes to
complete.
3 Initial setup
• Setup and Verify Domain Controller Server
• Setup and Verify Domain Name Server
• Setup and Verify Network Connectivity
• Setup and Verify Node Passwords
• Change Region Information
• Adjust Time & Date
• Run the
Dell Storage Initialization
Wizard (DSIW)*
78
4 Use the PowerVault NX1950 Initial
Configuration Tasks wizard to create a
cluster
9
5 Add the remaining node(s) 10
6 Join cluster 11
7 Configure Highly-Available Server Instance
(optional)
12

Setting Up Your Cluster 15
Before setting up a cluster, you must complete several initial tasks of
connecting to the array, naming the array, and setting up the preliminary
items. For more information regarding the initial tasks to perform, see
"Prerequisites for Cabling Your Cluster" on page 15.
Prerequisites for Cabling Your Cluster
You must set up at least two LAN connections to enable your storage solution as a
cluster. The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution uses one or more
connections for client access (public) IP addresses and a dedicated
connection for heartbeat (private) network. Ensure that the heartbeat
connection is configured on a separate subnet.
Figure 2-1. PowerVault NX1950 Management Console
NOTE: You must set up two static IP addresses on two different subnets for the
cluster—one for the private (heartbeat) network and one for the client access
(public) network.

16 Setting Up Your Cluster
Cabling Your Integrated Solution
Figure 2-2 shows the supported cable configuration for the
PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution.
You must connect the SAS 5/E Adapters on both the PowerVault NX1950
storage systems to the PowerVault MD3000 storage array to enable the
storage systems as cluster nodes. For your Ethernet port connection, It
is recommended that you use the on-board connections for the public
network. These on-board NIC connections support TCP/IP Offload Engine
(TOE). If available, dedicate one optional NIC port for the MSCS heartbeat
connection; otherwise you must dedicate one on-board connection for the
MSCS heartbeat.
Figure 2-2. Example of Cabling a PowerVault NX1950 Integrated Cluster Solution
1
2
3
4
7
8
PowerVault NX1950 storage system 0
PowerVault MD3000 storage array
6
5
PowerVault NX1950 storage system 1
controller 1
controller 0

Setting Up Your Cluster 17
Cabling Your Gateway Solution
Figure 2-3 shows the PowerVault NX1950 Gateway cluster solution. You must
connect the Qlogic Adapters on both the PowerVault NX1950 storage systems
to the Dell|EMC storage arrays to enable the storage systems as cluster
nodes. For your Ethernet port connection, it is recommended that you use
the on-board connections for the public network. These on-board NIC
connections support TOE. If available, dedicate one optional NIC port for
the MSCS heartbeat connection; otherwise you must dedicate one on-board
connection for the MSCS heartbeat.
1 NIC port A to Gb Ethernet switch
(optional) for MSCS heartbeat
5 Port 1 on PowerVault NX1950 storage
system 1 SAS HBA to In-1 on controller 1
2 NIC port B to Gb Ethernet switch
(optional)
6 Port 0 on PowerVault NX1950 storage
system 1 SAS HBA to In-1 on controller 0
3 On-board Gb1 and Gb2 to Gb
Ethernet switch(es)
7 Port 0 on PowerVault NX1950 storage
system 0 SAS HBA to In-0 on controller 0
4 Port 1 on PowerVault NX1950
storage system 0 SAS HBA to
In-0 on controller 1
8 DRAC port to Ethernet switch for lights-out
management (optional)

18 Setting Up Your Cluster
Figure 2-3. Example of Cabling a PowerVault NX1950 Gateway Cluster Solution
PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration
Tasks Wizard
It is recommended that you use the PowerVault NX1950 Initial
Configuration Tasks wizard to configure the PowerVault NX1950 storage
system and to access MSCS. Figure 2-4 illustrates the wizard. The
PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks wizard helps you to perform
various tasks to configure the resources required by a cluster.
Before setting up the cluster, you must perform step 1 to step 4 in Table 2-1.
NOTE: The Customize this system section in the wizard is specific to cluster setup.
The PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution is supported only with the Microsoft®
Windows®Unified Data Storage Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition.
1 NIC port A to Gb Ethernet switch
(optional) for MSCS heartbeat
4 Port 2 on HBA to SAN
2 NIC port B to Gb Ethernet switch
(optional)
5 Port 1 on HBA to SAN
3 On-board Gb1 and Gb2 to Gigabit
Ethernet switch(es)
6 DRAC port to Ethernet switch for
lights-out management
12
63
54
PowerVault NX1950 storage system

Setting Up Your Cluster 19
Figure 2-4. PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks
NOTE: You can also access the PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks
wizard from the PowerVault NX1950 Management Console. To launch this wizard,
click Edit server configuration located in the right pane of the window as
highlighted in the Figure 2-1 below.
Creating the Cluster
The PowerVault NX1950 Initial Configuration Tasks wizard can be used to
create the cluster. Table 2-2 summarizes the steps for creating a cluster using
this wizard.
Table 2-2. Phases in Creating a Cluster
Step/Phase Node 1 Nodes 2-8
Start Cluster Configuration wizard ✓
Create the Quorum Disk ✓
Checking for Existing Cluster
Configuration
✓
Set the Cluster IP address ✓

20 Setting Up Your Cluster
NOTE: You can initiate the "Create or Join Cluster" from any node. The node that
you create the quorum resource in; is referred to as node 1.
Perform the following procedure to create a cluster:
1
Go to the PowerVault NX1950 Storage Tasks wizard.
2 In the Customize this System section, click Create or Join Cluster .
This launches the
Cluster Configuration wizard.
3 If a quorum resource is not configured already, the Cluster Configuration
wizard creates the quorum disk. If the quorum disk creation fails, see the
"Troubleshooting" on page 35 to correct the issue.
Figure 2-5. Quorum Creation
Supply Administrative Information ✓
Verify Configuration ✓
Start Creation Process ✓
Verify Completion ✓
Add remaining nodes ✓
Join Cluster ✓
Configure Highly-Available File Server
Instance (optional)
✓
✓
indicates that the step is applicable to the respective cluster component.
Table 2-2. Phases in Creating a Cluster (continued)
Step/Phase Node 1 Nodes 2-8