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HCI Deployment Guide—Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies
Notes, cautions, and warnings Copyright Introduction Solution Overview Solution Deployment
Solution Deployment
Solution deployment introduction
Deployment prerequisites
Predeployment configuration
Operating system deployment
Install roles and features
Verifying firmware and software compliance with the support matrix
Update out-of-box drivers
Change the hostname
Configuring host networking
Registry settings
Joining cluster nodes to an Active Directory domain
Deploying and configuring a host cluster
Best practices and recommendations
Recommended next steps
Deployment services
References GPU Integration Persistent Memory for Windows Server HCI

Operating system deployment

Operating system deployment

  • These instructions are for manual deployment of the Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, or Azure Stack HCI operating system version 20H2 or 21H2 on AX nodes from Dell Technologies. Unless otherwise specified, perform the steps on each physical node in the infrastructure that will be a part of Azure Stack HCI.

    Note: The steps in the subsequent sections are applicable to either the full operating system or Server Core.

    Note: The command output that is shown in the subsequent sections might show only Mellanox ConnectX-4 LX adapters as physical adapters. The output is shown only as an example.

    Manual operating system deployment

    Dell Lifecycle Controller and iDRAC provide operating system deployment options. Options include manual installation or unattended installation by using virtual media and the operating system deployment feature in Lifecycle Controller for Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, and Azure Stack HCI operating system version 20H2 and 21H2.

    A step-by-step procedure for deploying the operating system is not within the scope of this guide.

    The remainder of this guide assumes that:
    • Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, or Azure Stack HCI operating system version 20H2 or 21H2 installation on the physical server is complete.
    • You have access to the iDRAC virtual console of the physical server.
    Note: For information about installing the operating system using the iDRAC virtual media feature, see the "Using the Virtual Media function on iDRAC 6, 7, 8 and 9" Knowledge Base article.

    Note: The Azure Stack HCI operating system is based on Server Core and does not have the full user interface. For more information about using the Server Configuration tool (Sconfig), see Deploy the Azure Stack HCI operating system.

    Factory-installed operating system deployment

    If the cluster nodes are shipped from Dell Technologies with a preinstalled operating system, complete the out-of-box experience (OOBE):

    • Select language and locale settings.
    • Accept the Microsoft and OEM EULAs.
    • Set up a password for the local administrator account.
    • Update the operating system partition size, and shrink it as needed.
      Note: Partition size adjustment is not available with the factory-installed Azure Stack HCI operating system.

    The OEM operating system is preactivated and the Hyper-V role is predeployed for Windows Server 2019/2022. After completing the OOBE steps, perform the steps in Install roles and features to complete the cluster deployment and Storage Spaces Direct configuration. For the Azure Stack HCI operating system, roles and features are preinstalled.

    The Azure Stack HCI operating system factory image has multilingual support for these languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Polish, and Italian. To change language:

    • Run the following PowerShell commands. <LANGUAGE> can be en-US, fr-FR, ja-JP, ko-KR, de-DE, pl-PL, it-IT, or es-ES.

      • Set-WinUserLanguageList <LANGUAGE>
      • Set-WinSystemLocale -systemlocale <LANGUAGE>
    • Reboot after running the commands.
    Note: For all of the languages except Polish, the main screen changes to the appropriate font. For Polish, the English font is used.

    If you purchased a license for a secondary operation system to run your virtual machines, the VHD file is located in the C:\Dell_OEM\VM folder. Copy this VHD file to a virtual disk in your Azure Stack HCI cluster and create virtual machines using this VHD.

    Note: Do not run your virtual machine with the VHD file residing on the BOSS device (for example, c:\ ). It should always be on c:\clusterstorage\<VD1>

    Upgrade using sConfig (Stand-alone systems)

    Using a sconfig menu (Server Configuration from command prompt), you can update the servers one at a time. Customers who receive HCI OS 20H2 may update to 21H2 using this method so that a cluster can be created on 21H2 without having to upgrade after cluster creation.

    1. On the sconfig menu, select option 6 and update all quality updates (at least to October 19, 2021 CU (KB5006741). This step is to ensure that you are at a supported KB for 21H2 update.
    2. Once all quality updates are completed, go to Feature Updates on the sconfig menu and perform an OS upgrade from 20H2 to 21H2. After completing the OS upgrade, perform step 1 to install all the quality updates for 21H2. You may have to run this multiple times to get to the latest cumulative update.
    3. Use Windows Admin Center to update each node to the latest hardware support matrix. See Deployment Guide-Creating an Azure Stack HCI cluster using Windows Admin Center.
    4. Once the operating system on all nodes is updated to the latest CU of 21H2, you may go to creating the cluster using PowerShell or Windows Admin Center.