Monthly Archives: November 2016

Hyper-V Amigos Showcast Episode 12–ReFS v3.1 and Backup

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In this Episode Carsten and I look at a single host deployment with Storage Spaces on Windows Server 2016. We create a “Hybrid” disk just like in Storage Spaces Direct by combining SSD & HDD in a storage Tier. We were very happy to discover that ReFSv3.1 does real time tiering.

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We’re very excited about this because we want to leverage the benefits if Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 brings by leveraging ReFSv3.1 (Block Cloning) in regards to backup transformation actions and Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) spaces savings. To do so we’re looking at our options to get these benefits and capabilities leveraging affordable yet performant storage for our backup targets. S2D is one such option but might be cost prohibitive or overkill in certain environments.

ReFS v3.1 on non-clustered Windows Server 2016 hosts bring us integrity streaming, file corruption repair with instant recovery as protection against bit rot, the performance of tiered storage and SMB3 as a backup target at a great price point.

We encourage you to watch the video and see for yourself. As always, we had fun and hope your can learn something together with us, the Hyper-V Amigos Smile

Easily migrating non-AD integrated DNS servers while preserving server names and IP addresses

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Introduction

I’ll show you the quickest way to move an existing public advertising DNS deployment on Windows Server 2012R2, generation 1 virtual machines (1 primary DNS server and 1 or more secondary DNS Servers) to Windows 2016 RTM generation 2 VMs. On top of this we will preserve the sever names and the IP addresses. This makes the migration easier and it doesn’t burden anyone with updating IP addresses or FQDN of services pointing to the existing public advertising DNS service. Basically the result is the best possible for everyone involved.

Step by Step

We start by preparing a sysprepped VHDX of Windows 2016 with all the updates installed and any tools that are sysprep compatible and that you want or need on your VMs. This will allow us to make the move fast. As we want our new DNS VMs to be generation 2 VMS, make sure you use a generation 2 VM to create the syprepped OS VHDX.

The process we describe below is the same for each of the involved DNS servers. You start with the secondary VMs and end with the primary VM. This is just a form risk reduction, it’s smart to start with the secondary as it’s less critical than the primary where you make the changes.

Log on to the old, source VM and do the following

  1. Create a Folder to store the migration data and Info, i.e. C:\DNSMigrateServer01
  2. Open an elevated command prompt
  3. Run Ipconfig /all > C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Server01TCPIPinfo.txt this gives you the IP info you need for future reference.
  4. Run reg export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Dns-Service.REG
  5. Run reg export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DNS Server” C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Dns-Software.REG
  6. In some cases, rarely for most deployments, you’ll need to also copy all files under each custom database directory on the old DNS server by manually reading from the registry at the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters\DatabaseDirectory If you have these also copy the directory to C:\DNSMigrateServer01. Normally when you have custom DNS database locations this is not by accident and should be well documented.
  7. Run xcopy %windir%\system32\dns C:\DNSMigrateServer01 /s This copies the content of your DNS folder (normally C:\Windows\System32\dns) to your migration folder. Note that you don’t need to copy the samples sub folder. Even the backup folder is not really needed. Just create a new backup when needed on the news DNS servers.
  8. Copy the C:\DNSMigrateServer01 from your old DNS Server to your desktop or some file share for safe keeping. You’ll need to copy this into the new DNS Server later. Note it contains your IP information, your registry exports and your DNS files.

You now have everything you need form the old DNS Server. So now we’ll decommission it, but before we do so we’ll make sure we have the options to recover it if needed.

  1. Make sure you have a backup or have made on recently (you do trust your ability to restore, right?)
  2. Shut down the VM and for good measure and fast recovery you might want to export the VM for quick import.
  3. Remove the VM from Failover Clustering if it’s clustered.
  4. Now remove the VM from Hyper-V Manager. Note this doesn’t delete the virtual disk files.
  5. Remove the old VHDX (you have an export and a backup) and replace it with your sysprepped W2K16RTM VHDX that has all the updates already. Rename that VHDX to something sensible like server01disk01.vhdx.
  6. Create a new generation 2 VM with the same name as the old one, select the required memory settings, choose to use an existing VHDX and point it to your sysprepped VHDX.
  7. Start the VM
  8. Go through the mini wizard and log in to it.
  9. Configure the NIC with the same setting as your old DNS Server
  10. Rename the VM to the old DNS VM name and join the domain.
  11. Restart the VM
  12. Login to the new DNS VM
  13. Install DNS
  14. Copy the C:\DNSMigrateServer01 you saved from your old DNS Server into the new one
  15. Open an elevated command prompt and run
    • Stop the DNS Server service by running net stop “DNS Server”
    • Double click the Dns-Service.REG and merge them into the registry

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    • Double click the Dns-Software.REG files and merge them into the registry.

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    • Copy all the files under C:\DNSMigrateServer01 to %windir%\System32\DNS
    • Start the DNS Server service by running net start “DNS Server”

Congratulations, you now have a new generation 2 VM running DNS on Windows Server 2016 with the same name and IP configuration as the old one. You now want to validate it’s working. To do so on the primary DNS server update the serial number in the start of authority (SOA) tab of the zone properties. I normally use YearMonthDayXX.

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This will allow you to check whether the zone transfers to your migrated DNS server work. Normally all is just fine. In case things went horribly wrong you can import the VMs you exported or restore the backups. If your VMs are domain members and as you have reused the VM name, you’ll need to reestablish its domain member ship but that’s easily done.

Now repeat the above process for all the reaming secondary DNS Server and finally for the primary DNS server. Until you’ve done them all.

Conclusion

You do this process for every DNS Server and finally for your primary DNS server. That’s it. You’re in business and you have achieved 2 goals. You’re DNS VMs have been move to generation 2 and are running on a clean install of Windows Server 2016. All this without having to reconfigure DNS zone and transfers and while maintaining your DNS server names and IP addresses. Life is good.

Full or Thick Provisioned Volume on Compellent

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Introduction

There are pundits out there that claim that you cannot create a fully provisioned LUN on a Compellent SAN.  Now that what I call unsubstantiated rumors, better know as bull shit.

Sure the magic sauce of many modern storage array lies in thin provisioning. Let there be no mistake about that. But there are scenarios where you might want to leverage a fully provisioned volume. This is also know a s thick provisioned LUN. You can read about one such a scenario where they make perfect sense in this blog post Mind the UNMAP Impact On Performance In Certain Scenarios

Create a  Full or Thick Provisioned Volume on Compellent

First of all you create brand new volume in the Storage Center System Explorer. That’s a standard as it gets.

You then map this volume to a server

At that moment, before you even mount that volume on your server let alone do anything else such a bringing it on line or formatting it you’ll “Preallocate Storage” for that volume in Storage Center.

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You’ll get a warning as this is not a default action and you should only do so when the conditions of the IO warrant this.

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When you continue you’ll get some feedback. This can take quite some time depending on the size of the volume.

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When it’s done peek at the statistics of that full or this provisioned volume on the Compellent.This is what it looks like when you look at the statistics for that volume after is was done. So before we even formatted the volume on a server and wrote data to it. It’s using all the space on the SAN for the start.

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Due to data protection it’s even more. It’s clear form the image above that a 500GB disk in RAID 10 fully provisioned is using 1TB of space as its all still in RAID 10 (no tiering down has occurred yet). Raid 10 has an overhead factor 2. The volume is for a large part in Tier 2 because my Tier 1 is full, so writing spilled over into Tier 2.

Now compare this to a thinly provisioned volume that we just created and again we haven’t even touched it in any other way.

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Yup, until we actually write data to the volume it’s highly space efficient, there is absolutely no spaces use and we’ll see only a little when we mount, initialize the disk in Windows, create a simple volume and format it.image

This is completely in Tier 2 and my tier 1 is full. I accept donations of SANs and SSD’s for my lab it this bothers you Winking smile. When we write data to it you’ll see this rise and over time you’ll see it tier down and up as well.

Post MVP Summit – Back to reality

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Coming home after the MVP Global Summit is a moment of reflection, or better the trip home is. The Summit is a time of intense interaction with peers who are very varied bunch of experienced technologists. Next to their hands on Microsoft stack expertise they also bring their experience with other technologies and companies. This gives us the opportunity to talk to each other and exchange knowledge and views. Poor in the feedback and the discussions with the Microsoft Program Managers and their management. This goes on from sun rise to sunset. It pays to come early and stay an extra day. It opens time for more meetings and discussions in and around Redmond.

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The end result is a truck load of information and impressions we need to parse. That can take some time. And we need to filter our conclusions for our management. The content of the MVP Summit and all talks around it are strictly NDA. The insight and ideas we harvest from that we can leverage, but we cannot expose the information.

On Microsoft’s side they get a reality check, open and honest feedback, they get our opinions and ideas. They learn about our successes and challenges in the real world. If that was not helpful to them they wouldn’t want us to show up on their campus disrupting their work week.

To me it’s also a reality check. What am I doing. How am I doing that and why? Even more importantly where am I doing this things and is what I use the best choice. It show my own strengths and weaknesses. That’s valuable as well.

Well the good news is that judged by some requests and opinions of my peers I’m an valued expert and architect. I do have some weaknesses but I’m on track to address those. The balancing act here is that we have to avoid wasting time on dying opportunities that are sill needed but are heading down hill fast. Not as much due to the technology being obsolete or no longer needed but mostly due to politics and a bad understanding on how to deliver IT cost effective and efficiently. The amount of self inflicted wounds and pain can be shockingly high. The trick is to avoid those projects as that’s wasted time, time that should be spent on moving forward. Sometimes this looks like the nineteen nineties all over out there.

One thing is very clear. Those that seek a single solution, a one size fits all approach, just for the sake of simplicity or perceived economies of scale will fail. A bipolar approach without a place for the vast amount of “stuff” in between, let alone a realistic and sound technical plan to integrate it all are going to fail. Ask any plumber Winking smile. Learn how to think independently and don’t grow too dependent on industry analysts. Do what’s right for your needs.