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Server 2019, 2 storage servers, iSCSI targets in failover cluster.

Thomas Giboney 6 Reputation points
2021-04-01T14:11:31.31+00:00

I'm so close I can taste it! I have 4 servers, a 2-node Hyper-V failover cluster, and a 2-node storage cluster. Server 2019 is on all 4.

What I want but can't seem to find information about is: How do I configure the 2 storage servers to act like one? Meaning, the 2 identical RAID10 arrays on each (V: and D:), how do I create an iSCSI (cluster) target so when something is written to the storage it's wrote to both? Allowing full failover if one storage server dies and high availability when both are running fine.

I plan to have the V: arrays provide the virtual machine storage and the D: arrays provide shared storage to all VMs as the D: drive. How can I accomplish this? I really don't want to purchase more hardware.

More details: there are 2x 2 port 10GbE cards on every server, and all of those are fed into a 16port GbE switch (Netgear XS716T). They are in a 4 port LACP team on each server. Eventually, another identical switch will be bought so teams of 2 ports on the servers between the two switches will provide failover/HA.

I sure hope someone can shed some light on this as I've been fighting with this for many months now. Thanks in advance!

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | Storage high availability | Virtualization and Hyper-V
Windows for business | Windows Server | Storage high availability | Clustering and high availability
Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other
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  1. Xiaowei He 9,936 Reputation points
    2021-04-02T09:47:08.347+00:00

    Hi,
    Based on my understanding, what you’re trying to do is to realize high availability for the storage cluster in your environment, is that correct?

    Normally to accomplish that, I’d suggest that you try the ISCSI target cluster:

    Enable the ISCSI feature on both of your storage nodes as follows:

    84022-f.png

    Then add the ISCSI target server role to the cluster as follows:

    83968-f2.png

    After all the settings:

    83969-f3.png

    Also, you could try the SOFS cluster, check if it meets your requirements.

    Here’re some references about SOFS cluster:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/sofs-overview

    Apart from these windows solutions, as far as I know, some third-party Storage solutions have a good user experience on high availability as Alex suggested above.

    Thanks for your time!
    Best Regards,
    Anne

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  2. Alex Bykovskyi 2,241 Reputation points
    2021-04-01T19:31:22.54+00:00

    Hey,

    You can use StarWind VSAN (either free or paid) to create a replicated shared storage pool on your Storage servers utilizing underlying RAID10. StarWind will serve iSCSI storage to your compute nodes. The following guide will walk you through the configuration process:
    https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-for-hyper-v-2-node-compute-and-storage-separated-scenario-with-windows-server-2016/

    Cheers,

    Alex Bykovskyi

    StarWind Software

    Note: Posts are provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

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