Create an FCI with Storage Spaces Direct (SQL Server on Azure VMs)

06/18/2020

8 minutes to read





In this article

APPLIES TO: SQL Server on Azure VM

This article explains how to create a failover cluster instance (FCI) by using Storage Spaces Direct with SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). Storage Spaces Direct acts as a software-based virtual storage area network (VSAN) that synchronizes the storage (data disks) between the nodes (Azure VMs) in a Windows cluster.

To learn more, see an overview of FCI with SQL Server on Azure VMs and cluster best practices.

Overview

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) supports two types of architectures: converged and hyperconverged. A hyperconverged infrastructure places the storage on the same servers that host the clustered application, so that storage is on each SQL Server FCI node.

The following diagram shows the complete solution, which uses hyperconverged Storage Spaces Direct with SQL Server on Azure VMs:

The preceding diagram shows the following resources in the same resource group:

Two virtual machines in a Windows Server failover cluster. When a virtual machine is in a failover cluster, it's also called a cluster node or node.

Each virtual machine has two or more data disks.

Storage Spaces Direct synchronizes the data on the data disks and presents the synchronized storage as a storage pool.

The storage pool presents a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) to the failover cluster.

The SQL Server FCI cluster role uses the CSV for the data drives.

An Azure load balancer to hold the IP address for the SQL Server FCI.

An Azure availability set holds all the resources. Note You can create this entire solution in Azure from a template. An example of a template is available on the GitHub Azure quickstart templates page. This example isn't designed or tested for any specific workload. You can run the template to create a SQL Server FCI with Storage Spaces Direct storage connected to your domain. You can evaluate the template and modify it for your purposes.

Prerequisites

Before you complete the instructions in this article, you should already have:

An Azure subscription. Get started for free.

Two or more prepared Windows Azure virtual machines in an availability set.

An account that has permissions to create objects on both Azure virtual machines and in Active Directory.

The latest version of PowerShell.

Add the Windows cluster feature

Connect to the first virtual machine by using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) with a domain account that's a member of the local administrators and that has permission to create objects in Active Directory. Use this account for the rest of the configuration. Add failover clustering to each virtual machine. To install failover clustering from the UI, do the following on both virtual machines: In Server Manager, select Manage, and then select Add Roles and Features. In the Add Roles and Features wizard, select Next until you get to Select Features. In Select Features, select Failover Clustering. Include all required features and the management tools. Select Add Features. Select Next, and then select Finish to install the features. To install failover clustering by using PowerShell, run the following script from an administrator PowerShell session on one of the virtual machines: $nodes = ("<node1>","<node2>") Invoke-Command $nodes {Install-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools}

For more information about the next steps, see the instructions in the "Step 3: Configure Storage Spaces Direct" section of Hyperconverged solution using Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016.

Validate the cluster in the UI or by using PowerShell.

To validate the cluster by using the UI, do the following on one of the virtual machines:

Under Server Manager, select Tools, and then select Failover Cluster Manager. Under Failover Cluster Manager, select Action, and then select Validate Configuration. Select Next. Under Select Servers or a Cluster, enter the names of both virtual machines. Under Testing options, select Run only tests I select. Select Next. Under Test Selection, select all tests except for Storage, as shown here: Select Next. Under Confirmation, select Next. The Validate a Configuration wizard runs the validation tests.

To validate the cluster by using PowerShell, run the following script from an administrator PowerShell session on one of the virtual machines:

Test-Cluster –Node ("<node1>","<node2>") –Include "Storage Spaces Direct", "Inventory", "Network", "System Configuration"

After you validate the cluster, create the failover cluster.

Create failover cluster

To create the failover cluster, you need:

The names of the virtual machines that will become the cluster nodes.

A name for the failover cluster.

An IP address for the failover cluster. You can use an IP address that's not used on the same Azure virtual network and subnet as the cluster nodes.

Windows Server 2012 - 2016

Windows Server 2019 The following PowerShell script creates a failover cluster for Windows Server 2012 through Windows Server 2016. Update the script with the names of the nodes (the virtual machine names) and an available IP address from the Azure virtual network. New-Cluster -Name <FailoverCluster-Name> -Node ("<node1>","<node2>") –StaticAddress <n.n.n.n> -NoStorage The following PowerShell script creates a failover cluster for Windows Server 2019. Update the script with the names of the nodes (the virtual machine names) and an available IP address from the Azure virtual network. New-Cluster -Name <FailoverCluster-Name> -Node ("<node1>","<node2>") –StaticAddress <n.n.n.n> -NoStorage -ManagementPointNetworkType Singleton For more information, see Failover cluster: Cluster Network Object.

Configure quorum

Configure the quorum solution that best suits your business needs. You can configure a Disk Witness, a Cloud Witness, or a File Share Witness. For more information, see Quorum with SQL Server VMs.

Add storage

The disks for Storage Spaces Direct need to be empty. They can't contain partitions or other data. To clean the disks, follow the instructions in Deploy Storage Spaces Direct.

Enable Storage Spaces Direct. The following PowerShell script enables Storage Spaces Direct: Enable-ClusterS2D In Failover Cluster Manager, you can now see the storage pool. Create a volume. Storage Spaces Direct automatically creates a storage pool when you enable it. You're now ready to create a volume. The PowerShell cmdlet New-Volume automates the volume creation process. This process includes formatting, adding the volume to the cluster, and creating a CSV. This example creates an 800-gigabyte (GB) CSV: New-Volume -StoragePoolFriendlyName S2D* -FriendlyName VDisk01 -FileSystem CSVFS_REFS -Size 800GB After you've run the preceding command, an 800-GB volume is mounted as a cluster resource. The volume is at C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\ . This screenshot shows a CSV with Storage Spaces Direct:

Test cluster failover

Test the failover of your cluster. In Failover Cluster Manager, right-click your cluster, select More Actions > Move Core Cluster Resource > Select node, and then select the other node of the cluster. Move the core cluster resource to every node of the cluster, and then move it back to the primary node. If you can successfully move the cluster to each node, you're ready to install SQL Server.

Create SQL Server FCI

After you've configured the failover cluster and all cluster components, including storage, you can create the SQL Server FCI.

Connect to the first virtual machine by using RDP. In Failover Cluster Manager, make sure all core cluster resources are on the first virtual machine. If necessary, move all resources to that virtual machine. Locate the installation media. If the virtual machine uses one of the Azure Marketplace images, the media is located at C:\SQLServer_<version number>_Full . Select Setup. In SQL Server Installation Center, select Installation. Select New SQL Server failover cluster installation. Follow the instructions in the wizard to install the SQL Server FCI. The FCI data directories need to be on clustered storage. With Storage Spaces Direct, it's not a shared disk but a mount point to a volume on each server. Storage Spaces Direct synchronizes the volume between both nodes. The volume is presented to the cluster as a CSV. Use the CSV mount point for the data directories. After you complete the instructions in the wizard, Setup installs a SQL Server FCI on the first node. After Setup installs the FCI on the first node, connect to the second node by using RDP. Open the SQL Server Installation Center. Select Installation. Select Add node to a SQL Server failover cluster. Follow the instructions in the wizard to install SQL Server and add the server to the FCI. Note If you used an Azure Marketplace gallery image that contains SQL Server, SQL Server tools were included with the image. If you didn't use one of those images, install the SQL Server tools separately. For more information, see Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Register with the SQL VM RP

To manage your SQL Server VM from the portal, register it with the SQL VM resource provider (RP) in lightweight management mode, currently the only mode that's supported with FCI and SQL Server on Azure VMs.

Register a SQL Server VM in lightweight mode with PowerShell:

# Get the existing compute VM $vm = Get-AzVM -Name <vm_name> -ResourceGroupName <resource_group_name> # Register SQL VM with 'Lightweight' SQL IaaS agent New-AzSqlVM -Name $vm.Name -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName -Location $vm.Location ` -LicenseType PAYG -SqlManagementType LightWeight

Configure connectivity

To route traffic appropriately to the current primary node, configure the connectivity option that's suitable for your environment. You can create an Azure load balancer or, if you're using SQL Server 2019 and Windows Server 2016 (or later), you can preview the distributed network name feature instead.

Limitations

Azure virtual machines support Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) on Windows Server 2019 with storage on CSVs and a standard load balancer.

Disks that have been attached as NTFS-formatted disks can be used with Storage Spaces Direct only if the disk eligibility option is unchecked, or cleared, when storage is being added to the cluster.

Only registering with the SQL VM resource provider in lightweight management mode is supported.

Next steps

If you haven't already done so, configure connectivity to your FCI with a virtual network name and an Azure load balancer or distributed network name (DNN).

If Storage Spaces Direct isn't the appropriate FCI storage solution for you, consider creating your FCI by using Azure shared disks or Premium File Shares instead.

To learn more, see an overview of FCI with SQL Server on Azure VMs and cluster configuration best practices.

For additional information, see: