Going Virtual (Hyper-V) at a primary school - Advice needed.

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

Probably not bother with teaming. Just create two virual swiches and balance the guests between them

[edutech4schools]

Probably not bother with teaming. Just create two virual swiches and balance the guests between them

 

Am I OK to assign both NICS to be used by 2 virtual switches or does one need to be kept separate for the host?

 

EDIT: Just noticed MS recommend keeping one for the host for remote access etc.

Edited March 5, 2015 by edutech4schools

[edutech4schools]

The Hyper-V role installer is asking for some default locations.

 

Obviously I am choosing the D drive (1TB) for the Virtual Hard Disks but what about the virtual machine configuration files which are currently C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V.

 

Should I leave it as the default or choose the D drive?

[mikkydoos]

Id mirror the os over two disks and place the vms on separate disks (possibly raided also). If yiu have enough drives id put sims on its iwn also (and mirror that one if possible)

 

I'd mirror a couple of TB or RAID 10 them if can afford the disks, with hot spares. Then buy Veeam to back it all up with. Its cheaper than disks

[mikkydoos]

The Hyper-V role installer is asking for some default locations.

 

Obviously I am choosing the D drive (1TB) for the Virtual Hard Disks but what about the virtual machine configuration files which are currently C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V.

 

Should I leave it as the default or choose the D drive?

 

It doesn't matter. If one of your arrays fails you're stuffed anyway. I would have left the whole lot sitting on one array personally then partition it... and back it up hard!

[edutech4schools]

I'd mirror a couple of TB or RAID 10 them if can afford the disks, with hot spares. Then buy Veeam to back it all up with. Its cheaper than disks http://awscdn.cdngeek.net/images/smilies/wink.png

 

It doesn't matter. If one of your arrays fails you're stuffed anyway. I would have left the whole lot sitting on one array personally then partition it... and back it up hard!

 

Right I have 5x 600 15K SAS drives in this server with one being the hot spare. What are you both saying I should have done?

[edutech4schools]

^ They are in RAID 10 btw

[mikkydoos]

This is just my opinion now.....

 

What I would do would be to create 1 big '10 array with at least the minimum number of hot spares raid 10 requires.

 

If u think its necessary, partition the array into 2.

 

Hyper-V on one, VM's and config backup on the other.

 

I have never seen a raid array fail badly ... not to say that they can or do... the file system is probably more likely to fail/error in some way over time.

Disks fail... thats where your hot spare(s) come in obviously.

 

Long and short is... backup your VM's every day or at least snapshot them and back them up at the end of the week on a NAS or whatever.

With 2 partitions, if Hyper-V goes t*ts up, reinstall it on its partition and reinstate the config, if your VMs fail, you can restore them on another machine if you want.

If your array fails or even the raid controller you've got your disk images, backups etc on a NAS somewhere.

 

Its all about covering your ar*e and getting it back up reliably and quickly. I'd be more concerned about redundant PSU, physical NIC, UPS etc

 

I run my whole VM infrastructure on VMWare on 2 1TB mirrored disks with a hot spare and backup all my VM's daily with Veeam.

 

Most of my problems occur with my virtual OS's fouling up... thats where my snapshots and backups come into it.

 

 

EDIT: also... if you really want redundancy, run 2 VM hosts. Buy a cheapo Fujitsu tower and run the whole lot on RAID1.

Edited March 5, 2015 by mikkydoos

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

The above sounds good to me with only 5 drives. Dont worry about management nic. Ms recommnedation for a server like yours seems wasteful to me.

[edutech4schools]

Dont worry about management nic. Ms recommnedation for a server like yours seems wasteful to me.

 

Are you saying I can assign both NICS to Hyper-V and all will be OK? Would I still be able to remote access the HOST if needed?

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

Yes, two virtual switches. one for each nic then specify a switch per vm to balance the load. If you had more then yes keep one for management but otherwise it may as well be used for the vms. You will need two ip addresses though, one for each nic

[edutech4schools]

You will need two ip addresses though, one for each nic

 

Take it I would add the IP to the virtual NICs after they have been created

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

You create virtual switch and assign it a physical nic. The nic may already have an ip via dhcp othetwise you set a static one (recommended) on the physical nic the same way you would on any windows machine. You the specify the ip of the guest vms within the live vm (or leave it to pick up one from dhcp)

[edutech4schools]

You create virtual switch and assign it a physical nic. The nic may already have an ip via dhcp othetwise you set a static one (recommended) on the physical nic the same way you would on any windows machine. You the specify the ip of the guest vms within the live vm (or leave it to pick up one from dhcp)]

 

It was my understanding (not much I know) but when a physical switch gets assigned to a virtual switch all the tick boxes like IP4 IP6 etc all get un-ticked for the physical, the settings all get wiped and a new item is created (VM switch) which does get ticked.

 

Also, I just tried to assign iP, Sub, Gateway, DNS to both physical NICS and it complained about having multiple gateways on the same server.

 

Thanks for putting up with me so far.

Edited March 5, 2015 by edutech4schools

[edutech4schools]

Just found this on experts exchange.

You should not be configuring ANYTHING on the NIC for the virtual switch. In fact, when you create an "external" virtual network and bind it to a NIC, IPv4 is disabled which means if you are setting any IPv4 settings, you are forcibly re-enabling something that should not be enabled.

 

A virtual switch is very much like a physical layer-2 switch. It doesn't have an IP address or default gateway of its own. You assign those to any VM you "attach" to the switch. And since that'll be in the VM, you won't have the multiple default gateway issue.

 

I seem to be getting a bit confused.

[Marshall_IT]

Should Veeam (Free version) be installed on the host that has the VM's or can it get installed on another server?

 

It should be installed on another server. If your host goes your Veeam goes.

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

Sorry. I want clear. When you cteate the switch it creates a new network adaptor that represents the physical nic. The orginal physical nic gets its details wiped. On the nic it creates, that is where you put your ip settings. Normally called vEthernet

[mikkydoos]

It was my understanding (not much I know) but when a physical switch gets assigned to a virtual switch all the tick boxes like IP4 IP6 etc all get un-ticked for the physical, the settings all get wiped and a new item is created (VM switch) which does get ticked.

 

Also, I just tried to assign iP, Sub, Gateway, DNS to both physical NICS and it complained about having multiple gateways on the same server.

 

Team them, then assign the IP to the team. Otherwise they'll clash. You should only need to assign IP's to the virtual servers anyway, not the virtual switches. Assign a static to the host

Edited March 5, 2015 by mikkydoos

[edutech4schools]

OK. I have decided to keep NIC1 for HOST management for a few reasons. 1. This is a very small primary and the server will not be doing a great deal 2. I have read lots of other forums and they all say to keep a NIC aside even in a small 2 NIC server setup.

 

On the nic it creates, that is where you put your ip settings. Normally called vEthernet

when I try to assign a static IP to the vEthernet NIC I get the following warning:

 

Warning- Multiple default gateways are intended to provide redundancy to a single network(such as an intranet or the internet).

They will not function properly when the gateways are on two separate, disjoint networks (such as one on your intranet and one on the internet).

Do you want to save this configuration?

 

This was the same warning I original got when trying to assign a static IP to both physical NICs. (NIC1 & NIC2)

 

I have just setup a test server (HP Microserver) with 2 NICS.

Set static IP, SUB, Gateway, DNS on NIC1 - all OK

Set static IP, SUB, Gateway, DNS on NIC2 - Not OK - Gives the same warning.

 

So I am getting the warning on NIC2 or if I assign a V switch I get this warning on vEthernet

 

Hope I have manged to explain things.

 

EDITED

Edited March 5, 2015 by edutech4schools

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

Just click yes. Its a warning. Your nic gateways are both the same so are in the same network.

 

The only thing you should need the gateway for is occasional Internet access on the host for updates. Remember your virtual switches are layer 2 so are not interested in it. You vms are only concerned about their own default gareway.

Edited March 5, 2015 by ITGuyWestMidlands

[36Degrees]

Quick question (sorry to highjack!):

 

I have enough 15K SAS HDDs to build a RAID 10 but I can also fit 2 internal SAS or SSDs (Dell PowerEdge R515). Am I better putting everything on the RAID10 or putting OS with Hyper-V on internal drives in RAID 1, everything else on RAID 10?

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

I would say to raid 1 your os drives and keep the vms separate on the raid10

[mikkydoos]

Quick question (sorry to highjack!):

 

I have enough 15K SAS HDDs to build a RAID 10 but I can also fit 2 internal SAS or SSDs (Dell PowerEdge R515). Am I better putting everything on the RAID10 or putting OS with Hyper-V on internal drives in RAID 1, everything else on RAID 10?

 

Makes sense to me. If you can afford losing the disk space without the extra 2 drives