Simplifying implementation of Provisioning services. Elisabeth Teixeira, Principal Engineer WW Technical Readiness August PDF Free Download

Simplifying implementation of Provisioning services Elisabeth Teixeira, Principal Engineer WW Technical Readiness August 2009

Technical challenges before Provisioning services 5.1 vdisk support for more than 2 partitions Using a SAN for vdisk storage without shared file system Database connection reliance vdisk assignments to specific users Log detail

Agenda Multi-partitioning imaging Read-only vdisk storage Offline database support User assigned vdisks Enhanced logging

Multiple partition vdisks

Multiple partition vdisks XenConvert replaced Provisioning server image builder Image one or more volumes: From a physical machine to a Provisioning services virtual disk From Provisioning services virtual disk to a physical machine Volumes: Image up to 4 volumes NTFS only Not contained within an extended partition Partitions will be sized automatically on the destination disk

Creating vdisk image - XenConvert

Multiple partitions - resizing Source Volume Used Space (GB) Free Space (GB) C (Windows) 10 5 D (Data) 2 2 E (Data) 4 8 100% of C used space Destination Volume Used Space (GB) Free Space (GB) 20% of C Capacity free (GB) space 80% of C free space C (Windows) 10 10 20 D (Data) 2 1 3 E (Data) 4 4 8 Total: 31

Accessing a LUN without using a network share

Read-only vdisk storage Improves system performance by allowing VHDs to be deployed on read-only volumes, reducing disk I/O Simplifies deployment of standard image mode on SAN and NAS devices Enables vdisk to reside on a shared LUN allowing concurrent access by multiple servers

Read-only vdisk storage - prerequisites Microsoft iscsi initiator installed on all Provisioning servers accessing the SAN vdisk files placed on read-only shared LUN(s): Already been created Reside on a normal read-write storage location SAN has ability to set a LUN up for: Shared read-write access or Shared read-only access without requiring a shared file system front end

Implementation on the SAN Create a volume on the SAN interface front end Set access type for the volume to read/write Volume will be made read-only through NTFS attributes

Windows Provisioning Services installed iscsi service LUN seen as Disk LUN marked as R/O LUN

Read-only vdisk storage setup process Setup LUN Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers Create Store Install MS iscsi Initiator on PVS Servers Re-login to readonly volume Add vdisks through PVS Console Add Initiator to iscsi Make volume read-only Login to SAN from 1 PVS Server only Format volume and copy vdisks

Setup LUN Implementation on the SAN

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Install MS iscsi Initiator on PVS Servers

Add Initiator to iscsi Implementation on the SAN

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Login to SAN from 1 PVS Server only

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Format volume and copy vdisks Make disk Online Initialize Format

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Format volume and copy vdisks Copy all VHD and associated PVP files to volume No need to copy Lock files

Read-only vdisk storage setup process Setup LUN Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers Create the Store Install MS iscsi Initiator on PVS Servers Re-login to readonly volume Add vdisks through PVS Console Add Initiator to iscsi Make volume read-only Login to the SAN from 1 PVS Server only Format volume and copy vdisks

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Make volume read-only

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Re-login to readonly volume

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers Make partition active on Provisioning servers Change drive letter to match other servers in the farm

Read-only vdisk storage setup process Setup LUN Re-login to readonly volume Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers Install MS iscsi Initiator on PVS Servers Make volume read-only Create the Store Add Initiator to iscsi Copy vdisks to volume Add vdisks through PVS Console Login to the SAN from 1 PVS Server only Format volume using Disk Manager

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Create the Store Difference Disk: needs separate shared read/write store for the write cache

Read-only vdisk storage setup process Setup LUN Re-login to readonly volume Mount iscsi volume on all PVS Servers Install MS iscsi Initiator on PVS Servers Make volume read-only Create the Store Add Initiator to iscsi Copy vdisks to volume Add vdisks to the Console Login to the SAN from 1 PVS Server only Format volume using Disk Manager

Implementation on the Provisioning servers Add vdisks to the Console

Implementation on the Provisioning servers It may be necessary to make Provisioning services stream service on all servers dependent on the iscsi service

Read-only vdisk storage updating vdisk (1/2) 1. Shutdown all target devices using VHD on the store 2. Log off all sessions from target PVS Serves, except one 3. Use diskpart.exe to set volume to read-write by using "attributes volume clear readonly" 4. Logoff/login the volume on the single server

Read-only vdisk storage updating vdisk (2/2) 5. Copy updated vdisk (.vhd and.pvp files) to volume 6. Set volume back to read-only using diskpart.exe 7. Log off the session from the one Provisioning server 8. Re-login all Provisioning servers to volume again

Read-only vdisk storage considerations Private image boot from read-only storage is not allowed If cache on server disk, a separate shared storage location that has read-write access is needed for write cache files Modifying vdisk properties not allowed Mounting vdisk on the server not allowed

Read-only vdisk storage supported instances Boot Mode Write Cache Limitations Restrictions Standard Image: Cache on server disk or Cache encrypted on server disk Standard Image: Cache in device RAM Standard Image: Cache on device HD Cache encrypted on device HD Difference Disk Image Separate shared read/write write cache location is required for store No limitation Fall back to cache on server disk does not function if device HD not found or fails Separate shared read/write write cache location is required for store vdisk properties cannot be modified while LUN is read-only; vdisk cannot be mapped on server

Offline database support

Offline database support - benefits Predefined devices are able to: Login Run Reconnect Failover (high availability) Logout SQL

Offline database support

Unavailable if database goes down Active Directory password changes AutoAdd target devices AutoUpdate or Incremental vdisk updates Stream Process startup User Groups (user assigned vdisks) vdisk creation

Offline database support

User assigned virtual disks

User assigned virtual disks- authentication

User assigned virtual disks- considerations Port Blocker and personality settings will be supported on a per-device basis If device not a member of a collection with user groups enabled, target device boots using vdisk assigned to it Each target device maintains its own difference disk, which does not follow the user from machine to machine Domain\username not used for authentication, just vdisk assignment

User assigned virtual disks

Enhanced logging

Enhanced logging log files

Summary Multi-partitioning imaging Read-only vdisk storage Offline database support User assigned vdisks

Simplifying implementation of Provisioning services. Elisabeth Teixeira, Principal Engineer WW Technical Readiness August 2009