Forum Discussion
Guidance on Network Configurations for Azure Stack HCI Cluster
Hi HasanHasib,
I would recommend reaching out to a partner that can help you setup the cluster. If you bought a new solution the vendor can definitely help you. Also Windows Admin Center helps out when new to Azure Stack HCI and configures the right settings for you such as SET switch.(1) How to assign the IP addresses? since it's my first time with the black screen.
You can assign IP adresses using the 'sconfig' screen. When you login, you will end up on that screen automatically and then you type '8' to go to the networking config screen.(2) How to configure SET for the NICs to be used for virtualization/compute step-by-step?
You can specify creating a SET switch when executing the 'New-VMSwitch' cmdlet, see New-VMSwitch (Hyper-V) | Microsoft Learn(3) I know that I don't need to configure SET (Switch Embedded Teaming) for the Storage NICs, but what should I do for the Mgmt NICs? Should I configure SET for them OR should 1 NIC be enough for the Mgmt?
Based on your requirements (bandwidth etc) you can go either way. For production I prefer to use two.(4) How to configure SET step-by-step?
Same answer as (2).(5) What is the recommendation for the IP address scheming for all the NICs? Let's say I'm assigning 10.4.8.x to the Mgmt NICs, should I use the same IP address scheme for Storage and Compute NICs as well, or should I assign some different IP schemes like 172.x.x.x
You can set it up as you wish depending on your network architecture. Can you stay in the same 'scheme' so that everything is in 10.4.x.x range. So for example:
Management: 10.4.8.x
Storage1: 10.4.9.x
Storage2: 10.4.10.x
Or you can use smaller subnets to save IP addresses.(6) There are 2 NICs for Storage and we are not configuring SET for them... So, just to confirm, will I need to assign 2 IP addresses for Storage on each server?
Yes.(7) How to enable the iWARP RDMA for the Storage NICs? I'm thinking to use iWARP RDMA as I read MSFT engineers recommend/prefer iWARP over RoCE. Please confirm my understanding.
This is a setting you enable on the physical network card. Depending on the brand you can set it using Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty(8) For the Mgmt NIC, first I will configure the SET then I will assign the IP address to the SET NIC, just like we used to with the conventional NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012 R2.
Correct.--
Darryl van der Peijl
Splitbrain
Hi HasanHasib,
I would recommend reaching out to a partner that can help you setup the cluster. If you bought a new solution the vendor can definitely help you. Also Windows Admin Center helps out when new to Azure Stack HCI and configures the right settings for you such as SET switch.
(1) How to assign the IP addresses? since it's my first time with the black screen.
You can assign IP adresses using the 'sconfig' screen. When you login, you will end up on that screen automatically and then you type '8' to go to the networking config screen.
(2) How to configure SET for the NICs to be used for virtualization/compute step-by-step?
You can specify creating a SET switch when executing the 'New-VMSwitch' cmdlet, see New-VMSwitch (Hyper-V) | Microsoft Learn
(3) I know that I don't need to configure SET (Switch Embedded Teaming) for the Storage NICs, but what should I do for the Mgmt NICs? Should I configure SET for them OR should 1 NIC be enough for the Mgmt?
Based on your requirements (bandwidth etc) you can go either way. For production I prefer to use two.
(4) How to configure SET step-by-step?
Same answer as (2).
(5) What is the recommendation for the IP address scheming for all the NICs? Let's say I'm assigning 10.4.8.x to the Mgmt NICs, should I use the same IP address scheme for Storage and Compute NICs as well, or should I assign some different IP schemes like 172.x.x.x
You can set it up as you wish depending on your network architecture. Can you stay in the same 'scheme' so that everything is in 10.4.x.x range. So for example:
Management: 10.4.8.x
Storage1: 10.4.9.x
Storage2: 10.4.10.x
Or you can use smaller subnets to save IP addresses.
(6) There are 2 NICs for Storage and we are not configuring SET for them... So, just to confirm, will I need to assign 2 IP addresses for Storage on each server?
Yes.
(7) How to enable the iWARP RDMA for the Storage NICs? I'm thinking to use iWARP RDMA as I read MSFT engineers recommend/prefer iWARP over RoCE. Please confirm my understanding.
This is a setting you enable on the physical network card. Depending on the brand you can set it using Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty
(8) For the Mgmt NIC, first I will configure the SET then I will assign the IP address to the SET NIC, just like we used to with the conventional NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012 R2.
Correct.
--
Darryl van der Peijl
Splitbrain
Thank you very much for to the point answers!
Just 1 more question... Do I need to assign an IP address to the Virtualization NIC as well? In the Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Failover Cluster, we used to create 2 Teamed NICs. 1 for Mgmt, 2nd for Hyper-V Switch. We just used to assign an IP address to the Mgmt NIC. For the Hyper-V NIC, we wouldn't assign an IP address at the NIC level. It was used for creating the vSwitch and then we used to tag the VLAN ID for the specific VMs.
I am confused here...
Could you please share the best practice?
Hi HasanHasib,
In the current operating systems we use "Switch embedded teaming". With this technology the teaming and vSwitch functionality is combined. You can choose per vSwitch if you want to create a virtual adapter that will present itself in the OS. If you create 2 vSwitches it could be that it automatically will create 2 virtual adapters as well, in that case you can remove the one that you don't need.--
Darryl van der Peijl
Splitbrain