E2E Deployment and Operations Guide - Cluster Creation Using Windows Admin Center (WAC)

• 1

  About using this guide

• 1

  Introduction
• 2

  Document overview
• 3

  Audience and scope
• 4

  Known issues

• 1

  Solution Overview
• 2

  Solution introduction
• 3

  Azure Stack HCI deployment models
• 4

  Solution integration and network configurations

• 1

  Solution deployment
• 2

  Introduction
• 3

  Deployment prerequisites
• 4

  Registry settings
• 5

  Predeployment configuration
  • Installing Windows Admin Center and OMIMSWAC
  • Azure subscription
  • Configuring network switches
  • Deploying the Azure Stack HCI operating system
  • Enabling the firewall rule
  • Enabling CredSSP
• 6

  Deploying and configuring a host cluster using Windows Admin Center
  • Cluster Creation wizard
• 7

  Postdeployment configuration

• 1

  References
• 2

  Dell Technologies documentation
• 3

  Microsoft documentation

• 1

  Day 1 operations
• 2

  Register Azure Stack HCI cluster to Azure
• 3

  Registering a Partner Admin Link (PAL) for Azure related solutions
  • Add a PAL through the Azure portal by using Azure PowerShell
  • Add a PAL through the Azure portal using the subscription user ID
  • Dell Technologies Partner IDs for Partner Admin Link
• 4

  Creating virtual disks

• 1

  Managing and monitoring clusters with Windows Admin Center
• 2

  Overview
• 3

  Access the HCI cluster
• 4

  View server details
• 5

  View drive details
• 6

  Managing and monitoring volumes
  • Creating volumes in Storage Spaces Direct
  • Managing volumes
• 7

  Enabling data deduplication on Storage Spaces Direct
• 8

  Monitoring and managing VMs
• 9

  Managing virtual switches

• 1

  Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center
• 2

  Overview
• 3

  Prerequisites for managing AX nodes
• 4

  Installing the OMIMSWAC license
• 5

  Managing Microsoft HCI-based clusters
  • Overview
  • Prerequisite checks
  • Health status
  • Inventory
  • Locating physical disks and viewing their status
  • Viewing update compliance and updating the cluster
• 6

  Full Stack Cluster-Aware Offline Updating
• 7

  Full Stack Cluster-Aware Updating for Azure Stack HCI clusters
• 8

  Updating a standalone node before adding it to the cluster
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  Enabling hardware alerts for HCI cluster
• 10

  Secure cluster with Secured-core
• 11

  Enabling operating system features
• 12

  Protect your infrastructure with infrastructure lock
  • Enable or disable infrastructure lock
• 13

  Manage CPU cores in Azure Stack HCI clusters
• 14

  Validate and remediate Azure Stack HCI clusters
  • View HCP compliance summary
• 15

  Onboard Dell policies to Azure Arc from Windows Admin Center
• 16

  View recommendations for storage expansion
  • View node level storage configuration details
• 17

  Known issues

• 1

  Updates and maintenance
• 2

  Firmware and driver updates using the manual method
  • Preparing for maintenance operations
  • Placing an AX node in maintenance mode
  • Obtaining the firmware catalog for AX nodes or Ready Nodes
  • Updating the AX node by using iDRAC out of band
  • Updating the out-of-box drivers
  • Exiting the AX node from maintenance mode
• 3

  Restarting a cluster node or taking a cluster node offline
• 4

  Expanding the Azure Stack HCI cluster
  • Azure Stack HCI node expansion
  • Storage Spaces Direct storage expansion
• 5

  Extending volumes
• 6

  Performing AX node recovery
  • Configuring RAID for operating system drives
• 7

  Operating system recovery
  • Manual operating system recovery
  • Factory operating system recovery
  • iDRAC Service Module (iSM) for AX nodes and Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes
  • FullPowerCycle

• 1

  References
• 2

  Dell Technologies documentation
• 3

  Microsoft documentation