windows server 2012 failover clustering improvements
DESCRIPTION
New features and improvements in Windows clustering 2012TRANSCRIPT
Failover Clustering ImprovementsWindows Server 2012
Susantha SilvaSenior ConsultantRedynamics Asia
Agenda
Introduction to failover clustering1What’s new in Windows Server 2012 ?2
Continuous Availability3Q & A4
Introduction to failover clustering
A trip down memory lane
Failover Clustering
What?
Multiple individual computers working together to increase the availability (and scalability) of a clustered service.
Why?
Support business needs by avoiding downtime (increasing availability)
Result
+ Complexity+ Management+ Cost
Welcome to the future!
Failover Clustering features and improvements in Windows Server 2012
Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012Infrastructure for the Private Cloud
Hyper-V
Management of the private cloud
Infrastructure of the private cloud
Platform of the private cloud
Scalability Build larger clusters
Up to 64 nodes Up to 8000 VMs !
Improvements to storage-model
Support for Hyper-V Replica
Failover Policies
Automated management
Cluster aware updating (CAU)
. . .
Scale Up
Scale Out
8,000 VM’s in a single cluster
64 nodes in a cluster
Manageability
81 Commands!
Get-Command –Module FailoverClusters
Automated Management
All Roles: Priority Settings Automated Node Draining
Hyper-V Specific Preemption of Virtual Machines Memory-Aware VM Placement Live Migration Queuing Anti-Affinity Rules
Automated Node Draining
One-click action to drain all roles off a node
Simplifies maintenance / patching
Scriptable (PowerShell)
‘Intelligent’ Supports all clustered roles Takes appropriate actions, based on workload
E.g. VM’s will be live-migrated; File Server resources will be moved
Cluster Configuration
Cluster validation improvements New tests Validation runs faster Targeted validation: only run tests you need
Upgrade / Migration: Import / Export Virtual Machines Migrate configuration information from clusters running:
Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012
Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV)
Allows multiple nodes to have simultaneous access to the same file system
Runs ‘on top of’ NTFS
No unmount/mount operation required at failover
Shared StorageVHD VHD VHD
Metadata
CSV Improvements
Simplified setup! Support Scale-Out File Servers Increased Security (Bitlocker) Ready for other Windows Server 2012 Storage &
Network technologies like: Storage Spaces Thin Provisioning SMB 3.0 features …
And many, many more…
Hyper-V
Features
Deeper integration into Failover Clustering Manager E.g. Live Migration Queuing
Hyper-V enables Guest Clustering using FC (formerly only possible through iSCSI)
VM Mobility
VHD
Concurrent Live Migrations:
Multiple simultaneous LM’s for a given source or
target
Live Migration Queuing:In-box tools queue &
manage large numbers of VMs
Storage Live Migration:Moves VHD’s from one disk to
anotherHyper-V Replica:
Point-in-time replication of VHD’s for disaster recovery
VHD
VM Monitoring Application Health detection inside virtual machine
Clustering in the host identifies app failures and takes recovery action Failover Clustering Reboots VM Failover Clustering Fails over VM to another node
Generic health monitoring for any application Monitor services through Service Control Manager Generation of specific Event ID’s
VM Monitoring vs Guest Clustering
does not replace guest clustering Is a quick, simple and light-weight solution to monitor apps
running in VMs e.g Print Server Role
VM Monitoring Guest Clustering
Application Health Monitoring
Application Mobility
Simplified Configuration
Event Monitoring
Monitoring “Print Spooler”
Clustered Print Servers
Print Spooler service is no longer a clustered resource
In Windows Server 2012 it’s a VM running on a node in a Hyper-V cluster: No more fooling around with drivers! Reduced complexity
Live-Migration of VM to other node in cluster
Cluster-Aware Updating
Cluster Maintenance
Prior to Windows Server 2012 -> Lots of manual work
1. Take offline / move resources2. Patch3. (Restart)4. Put back online5. Fail over resources ….
Take offline
Patch
RestartPut online
Failover Resources
Cluster-Aware Updating
Automated updating of all nodes in a cluster without affecting service (availability)
Combined with Continuous Available workloads = zero-impact
Works with existing technologies (Windows Update, WSUS, …)
Windows Update
Update Cluster(Orchestrator)
Node Drained
Admin
Initiates Check & Update
Cluster
Continuous Availability
The marriage between Failover Clustering & SMB 3.0 ?
Windows Server 2012 Continuous Availability Enables evolution from “High Availability” to
“Continuous Availability” for critical workloads.
At the same time: Keep costs under control Work with “what you know” Keep it simple
“Smart solutions” (e.g. DHCP Availability)
Achieving continuous availability…
… is not done by a single component!
Node 2Node N
Node 2Node N
Hyper-V
VSwitch
VM
VM
VM
Mgmt OS
External
Storage
Arrays
Shared JBOD
Node 1
HBA
HBA
Platform
Storage
Clustering
NIC
NIC
NIC
NIC
File Server & NetworkingStack
VMBus
Data Manageme
nt
VM
Node 1
Scal
e-Out
Scal
e-Out
Contributing improvements
Better AD DS integration Removed dependency on startup Support for delegated administration
Multi-Site Support Dynamic Quorum Specify node vote
The marriage between SMB 3.0 & Failover Clustering
SMB 3.0 Improvements
SMB Direct Offloading tasks from CPU to NIC > better performance
SMB Multichannel Aggregation of available paths
Fault tolerance Higher Bandwidth
SMB Transparent Failover
SMB Scale Out
Scale-Out File Servers Active/Active
Simultaneous access to a single share through all cluster nodes
Multiple shares still useful to isolate traffic
Targeted for Server Applications Server applications with few
metadata operations - Hyper-V and SQL Server
Bandwidth intensive applications – Increase available bandwidth by adding cluster nodes
Simplified and easy management Single logical file server Single file system namespaces No cluster disk resources to
manage
Single File System Namespace
Cluster Shared Volumes
Single Logical File Server (\\FS\Share)
Hyper-V Cluster
(Up to 63 nodes)
File Server Cluster(Up to 4 nodes)
Data Center Network
Scale-Out File Server Benefits
Active / Active File Shares Increased Bandwidth
Bandwidth = Bandwidth x Nodes CHKDSK with zero-downtime
Self-repairing “on the fly checking”
CSV Cache Easier management
No need for separate clusters with separate resources
Failover pre-Windows 2012
Historically not really transparent
Works great for traditional workloads
Storage expected to be continuously available
Some downsides: file handles lost during *over
leading to disconnects / timeouts File Server Cluster
File Server Node A
File Server Node B
\\fs1\share
1
2\\fs1\share
3
SQL Server
Failover share and connections and handles lost
2
Normal operation1
Administrator intervention needed to recover
3
Transparent failover in Windows 2012
Failover transparent to server application Only small IO delay during failover
Supports planned and unplanned failovers
Resilient for both file and directory operations
File Server Cluster
SQL Server
Failover share - connections and handles lost,temporary stall of IO
2
2
Normal operation1
Connections and handles auto-recoveredApplication IO continues with no errors
3
1 3
File Server Node A
File Server Node B
\\fs1\share \\fs1\share
SMB Transparent Failover: the details
SMB 3.0 Server
SMB 3.0 Client SMB 3.0 Server
User
Kernel
User
Kernel
WitnessService
WitnessClient
Witness Protocol(new)
SMB2 Redirector
File System
Resume Key Filter
SMB3 Server
SMB 3.0Operation
replayState
persistence
User
Kernel
• Persistent end-user experience
• Witness protocol to overcome traditional ‘issues’ (i.e. time-outs)
• Requires both client & server to run SMB 3.0