Hello
This video is Part-1 of Cluster-to-cluster Storage Replica within the same region in Azure
In this part, we will setup clusters in Azure such that they are ready for Storage Replica
But first lets have a quick look at the different components required for the whole setup and how they come together
We have a Resource group which contains all our resources required for this setup
A Virtual Network
A Network security group
Availability set, one for each cluster.
This helps you to logically separate and manage the resources for two clusters
Storage account, one for each cluster
load balancer, one for each cluster
For this part we will setup two - 2 node cluster, so 4 nodes
And one node for Domain controller
All of the resources are in Azure and within the same region
To make sure the clusters can talk to each other seamlessly
we will use load balancers
And configure them, such that they allow all High availability ports
And in the part-2 we will configure Storage replica
to replicate data from one cluster to another
Now lets create and connect each resource one by one
1st create a resource group
Go to your azure portal
Under Resource groups. Add a new group
lets say SR-AZ2AZ I'll use West US 2 region
Create
Here is our newly created group
Now lets create availability sets
az2azAS1 and az2azAS2
Back to the portal
Create availability set
az2azAS1
Add it to the existing group sr-az2az, in the same region
As per your requirements choose the fault domains and update domains
And create
Similarly create another availability set az2azAS2
Now lets create Virtual network
az2az-Vnet
Add it to the existing group sr-az2az in the same region. And create
Now lets create Network Security group
az2az-NSG. Add it to the existing group. And create.
Now, lets add Inbound Security rule for RDP
Add
Basic
Select RDP
OK
Now lets create 4 nodes for two 2 node cluster
And a node for domain controller
Back to our azure portal
Our 1st node az2az1 add it to the existing resource group
OK
Select a machine size
Add this one to our 1st availability set az2azAS1
select our previously created virtual network
Create a standard Public IP address. This is required to create a standard Load balancer.
select our previously created Network Security Group
OK
Create
Similarly I went ahead and created all the other nodes
Remember to add az2az1 and az2az2 in 1st availability set
You can choose to create another availability set for your domain controller
For this demo am simply adding my domain controller in my 1st availability set
And az2az3 and az2az4 in second availability set
To enable storage spaces direct
We need to add disks to each of the cluster nodes
So in the 1st node. Go to Disks
Add data disk
Create disks
Give it a name and size
Create
I added two disks to each of the cluster nodes and made my host caching read/write
Now lets configure Domain controller
I RDP to my domain controller
Lets install the feature "Active Directory Domain Services"
And promote this server to a domain controller
I created a forest called contoso.com
And added a new administrator called contosoadmin
The IP address of my domain controller is 10.3.0.8
We have to update the virtual network DNS server with that IP address
In our virtual network. DNS server Add the IP address and save
I went ahead and joined all my nodes to the contoso.com domain
And added contosoadmin as administrator user in all the nodes
And then logged in as contosoadmin from all the nodes
Now lets prepare our nodes to create cluster and storage replica
Install Failover Clustering and Storage replica in all the cluster nodes
Now lets create the clusters
Lets name the 1st cluster as SRAZC1
with nodes az2az1 and az2az2
the static IP address 10.3.0.100 is one of the unused IP address from the virtual network subnet
Similarly create 2nd cluster as SRAZC2, with nodes az2az3,az2az4 and give it the static IP address 10.3.0.101
Now lets enable storage spaces direct on both clusters
This takes couple of minutes to finish
Lets do this for 2nd cluster
I created 2 virtual disks and volume for each cluster
one for data another for log for storage replica
For both clusters add dataDisks to "cluster shared volume"
I have renamed the shared clusterstorage as Datadisk1
And Datadisk2
Now lets create loadbalancers
Lets say azlbr1. Internal. Standard
Select our virtual network
Select subnet
Provide the static IP address of our 1st cluster- 10.3.0.100
Add it to our resource group
Create
Once it is created
lets add Backed pools
Select our virtual network. Add the virtual machines linked to this cluster
Now lets add Health probe to port 59999
OK
Now lets add Load Balancing rules
Allow HA Ports
Enable floating IP
OK
Similarly I created another load balanacer azlbr2 for cluster SRAZC2
Lets quickly review. And it Looks good.
On each cluster node, open port 59999 for Health Probe
I have done this on all the other nodes
Now we have to Instruct the cluster to listen for Health Probe messages on Port 59999
and respond from the node that currently owns this resource.
Run these command, and bring the cluster offline and online again
Similarly do this for other cluster as well
Now lets create cloud witness for our clusters
For this we need to create storage accounts
say az2azcw
add it to the existing group
create
Once it is created, open it
Access Keys
Copy Storage account name and keys
Now configure "cluster quorum settings"
Quorum witness
Cloud witness
Paste. Next....
Finish
Now we have a cloud witness
Similarly I went ahead and created the cloud witness for cluster SRAZC2
Make sure clusters can communicate or see each other
Now the clusters in Azure are ready for Storage Replica
For more information and commandlets used in this video go to these urls
See you in part two of this video
Thanks for watching