There are two main scenarios for Storage Replica in the Windows Server Technical Preview:
- Using Storage Replica to create Server to Server replication using Windows PowerShell
- Using Storage Replica to create a Hyper-V Stretch Cluster using Failover Cluster Manager
Please find below the details for each scenario.
- Ned Pyle, MSFT (PM for Storage Replica)
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Using Storage Replica to create Server to Server replication using Windows PowerShell
1. Prerequisites for the Server to Server scenario
1a. Windows Server Active Directory domain (does not need to run Windows Server Technical Preview).
1b. Two servers (one for each site) with Windows Server Technical Preview installed.
1c. Two disks on each server using local storage (DAS), Fibre Channel SAN, or iSCSI SAN.
1d. At least one 10GbE network connection on each server.
1e. A network between the two sets of servers with at least 8Gbps throughput and average of ≤5ms round trip latency when sending non-fragmented 1472-byte ICMP packets for at least 5 minutes.
Note 1: Sample command to measure latency
ping node-c.contoso.com -4 -f -l 1472 -n 300
Ping statistics for 10.10.0.4:
Packets: Sent = 300, Received = 300, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 9ms, Average = 2ms
2. Requirements for the data and log disks
2a. Four disks are required: a source data disk, a source log disk, a destination data disk and a destination log disk.
2b. The data disks must be formatted as GPT, not MBR.
2c. The data disks must be of identical size.
2d. The log disks should be of identical size.
2e. The log disk should use SSD storage using mirrored Storage Spaces, RAID 1, RAID 10 or similar resiliency.
2f. The data disks can be on HDD, SSD or tiered, using mirror Storage Spaces, parity Storage Spaces, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 50 or equivalent configurations.
2g. The data disks should be no larger than 10TB. We recommend testing with than 1TB to reduce initial replication time.
2h. The log volumes must be at least 10% of the size of the data volumes or at least 2GB, whichever is larger.
3. Pre-Installation steps (to be performed on both servers)
3a. Install the following features and reboot: File Server and Windows Volume Replication
3b. Enable the inbound firewall rule: File and Printer Sharing
3c. Provision the storage as described on item 2.
4. Configuration Steps
4a. Use the New-SRPartnership cmdlet to create replication between the nodes on the source node. For instance:
New-SRPartnership -SourceComputerName sr-srv05 -SourceRGName rg01 -SourceVolumeName d: -SourceLogVolumeName e: -DestinationComputerName sr-srv06 -DestinationRGName rg02 -DestinationVolumeName
d: -DestinationLogVolumeName e: -LogSizeInBytes 8gb
Note 2: You can verify that the replication is complete by checking events in the WVR Admin event log.
On the source server, check for events 5002, 2200, and 5015.
On the destination server, check for events 5015, 5001, and 5009.
4b. You can reverse source and destination by using the Set-SRPartnership cmdlet on the current destination server in order to make it the new source server. For instance:
Set-SRPartnership -NewSourceComputerName sr-srv06 -SourceRGName rg02 -DestinationComputerName sr-srv05 -DestinationRGName rg01
Note 3: Remoting of SR cmdlets in the Windows Server Technical Preview only works for New-SRPartnership. You must run all other SR cmdlets on the server you are configuring.
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Using Storage Replica to create a Hyper-V Stretch Cluster using Failover Cluster Manager
1. Prerequisites for the Hyper-V Stretch Cluster scenario
1a. Windows Server Active Directory domain (does not need to run Windows Server Technical Preview).
1b. Four servers (two for each site) with Windows Server Technical Preview installed. Each server should be capable of running Hyper-V, have at least 4 cores, and have at least 8GB of RAM. You will need more memory for more virtual machines.
1c. Two sets of asymmetric shared storage (2 nodes see one set, 2 nodes see the other set), using Shared SAS JBODs, Fibre Channel SAN, or iSCSI SAN.
1d. At least one 10GbE network connection on each server.
1e. A network between the two sets of servers with at least 8Gbps throughput and average of ≤5ms round trip latency when sending non-fragmented 1472-byte ICMP packets for at least 5 minutes.
Note 1: Sample command to measure latency:
ping node-c.contoso.com -4 -f -l 1472 -n 300
Ping statistics for 10.10.0.4:
Packets: Sent = 300, Received = 300, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 9ms, Average = 2ms
2. Requirements for the data and log disks
2a. Four disks are required: a source data disk, a source log disk, a destination data disk and a destination log disk.
2b. The data disks must be formatted as GPT, not MBR.
2c. The data disks must be of identical size.
2d. The log disks should be of identical size.
2e. The log disk should use SSD storage using mirrored Storage Spaces, RAID 1, RAID 10 or similar resiliency.
2f. The data disks can be on HDD, SSD or tiered, using mirror Storage Spaces, parity Storage Spaces, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 50 or equivalent configurations.
2g. The data disks should be no larger than 10TB. We recommend testing with than 1TB to reduce initial replication time.
2h. The log volumes must be at least 10% of the size of the data volumes or at least 2GB, whichever is larger.
2i. Add a Volume Label to each volume that identifies its site and purpose, such as “Data 1 Redmond”, to make it easy to identify the disks when they become CSVs.
3. Pre-Installation steps (to be performed on all nodes)
3a. Install the following features and reboot: Failover Clustering, Multipath IO, Hyper-V, and Windows Volume Replication
3b. Enable the inbound firewall rule: File and Printer Sharing
3c. Provision the storage as described on item 2 for each of the two asymmetric storage sets.
4. Installation Steps (to be performed on only one of the nodes)
4a. Using Failover Cluster Manager (FCM), configure a cluster of the four nodes.
4b. Configure the cluster quorum to use a file share witness or Azure cloud witness (do not use disk witness)
4c. In the Disks pane, make source data disk CSV or a member of a role (it cannot be in Available Storage).
4d. Ensure all storage is owned by the node where you are running FCM.
4e. Right click the source disk and click Replication, Enable. Follow the wizard to select the source log disk, destination data disk, and destination log disk. Choose unseeded disk.
4f. At the end of the wizard, replication is configured and replication starts.
4g. You can change the source of replication by moving the storage using FCM to a node in the other site.
Note 2: You can verify that the replication is complete by checking events in the WVR Admin event log.
On the source server, check for events 5002, 2200, and 5015.
On the destination server, check for events 5015, 5001, and 5009.
Note 3: Removal of replication via FCM does not work in the Technical Preview. Use the following Windows PowerShell commands instead.
On the node that is the current source of replication run:
Get-SRPartnership | Remove-SRPartnership
Get-SRGroup | % { Remove-SRGroup -Name $_.name }
On the node that is the current destination of replication run:
Get-SRGroup | % { Remove-SRGroup -Name $_.name }
Ned Pyle [MSFT] | Sr. Program Manager | Windows Server
Getting started with Windows Volume Replication?
