Before you start, go to your vendor’s (in this case HP) support site to check for latest downloads), namely firmware, drivers, and system management software.

For my development box, the cheap and cherful HP ProLiant ML110 (not really a ProLiant as in 3xx series upwards that take SmartStart) this means going to:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3577715&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3577708&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4064
(at last R2 drivers! , but also suppliemented by Windows Server 2008 x64 drivers at:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3577715&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3577708&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4024

1. H/W config – unplug all but onboard NIC
2. Boot from Hyper-V Server R2 installation media
3. Language selection
4. Regional Settings (Language, Time & Currency, Keyboard)
5. Accept license terms
6. Chose Custom installation
7. Where do you want to install Windows?
   Select Load Driver to load h/w specific raid/disk drivers
   (For ML110 G5 PoC this is ‘G5 SATA RAID Driver 1.5.17’ from a USB key)
8. Where do you want to install Windows?
   Delete any existing partitions so the target disk is all ‘Unallocated Space’
   Drive options (advance), New, Size is 32768 + 100 (32868 MB)
   (WS2008 R2 will create a partition called ‘System Reserved of 100MB), the remainder will become your target/intended size partition (32GB)
   Create a partition in the unallocated space and format it so the disk drives are contiguous
   Select the 32GB partition and select Next to start installation (Copying Windows files, etc.)
9. The system will restart during installation (approximately 20mins from copying), and after c.30 mins the console screen will report ‘preparing the system for first time use’ before prompting ‘The user’s password must be changed before logging on the first time.’
10. Install vendor specific hardware drivers
    1. Video drivers (ML110 G5 – Matrox G200e v.5.96.006)
    2. Network drivers (HP NC-Series Broadcom 1Gb Driver for Windows Server 2008 x64 Editions v12.2.2.1, HP NC-Series Intel E1E Driver for Windows Server 2008 R2)
11. Hyper-V Configuration (sconfig.exe, formerly hvconfig.exe)
    1. Domain/Workgroup
       Workgroup: leave as WORKGROUP as domain join later
    2. Computer Name: HVNODEnn
       (DO NOT restart, resume Initial Configuration tasks)
    3. Add Local Administrator
       (add any local service accounts, etc.)
    4. Add Features
       Use script (sc-enableSNMP.cmd, sc-enableBackup.cmd) to add:
       SNMP Services (pre-req for most vendor systems management  tools)
       Windows Server Backup Features
    5. Configure Networking:
       Use script (sc-renameNICs.cmd) to rename adapters per:
       Local Area Connection – Onboard
       Local Area Connection – DualPort #1
       Local Area Connection – DualPort #2Assign static addresses per local site IP addressing allocation / standards
       Plug in any additional NICs e.g. iSCSI SAN, additional switches, etc.
    6. Configure Remote Management
       Enable all features (MMC RM, PS)
       (DO NOT restart, resume Initial Configuration tasks – Network Settings)
    7. Remote Desktop
       (E)nable with option 2) Allow clients running any version of Remote Desktop
       (needs review in production)
    8. Windows Update Settings (leave as manual)
    9. Download and install updates
       Search for (A)ll updates, select (A)ll updates
       (DO NOT restart, resume Configuration tasks – domain join)
    10. Change Domain/Workgroup membership
        Join (D)omain – yourdomain.local
        (domain\administrative account)
        RESTART THE COMPUTER
    11. Logon as domain administrator and resume configuration
    12. Complete ‘Configure Remote Management’ (enable SM RM)
    13. Failover Clustering Feature – Enable
    14. Configure Microsoft iSCSI (start iscsicpl.exe)
        Agree to starting iSCSI services automatically
        Quick Connect (IP address of iSCSI Target)
        Connect the Quorum volume first, then configure Volumes and Devices (auto-configure)
        Configure as drive letter Q: in Disk Management then make offline
        Connect other Shared Storage volumes
12. Server Manager (Connect to another computer…)  – configuration task
    1. SNMP Service Configuration (Configuration, Services, SNMP Service)
       Agent Contact: IT sysadmin – sysadmin@fqdn.com
       Agent Location: Test Lab, Rack, Site, Country
       Agent Service: enable all services
       Security: Add community names
         READ ONLY: snmp_read
         READ WRITE:  snmp_read_write
       Restart the service
    2. Disk Management
       Change CD-ROM 0 to drive letter F
       Create ‘New Simple Volume’ for D: Data, 64K Allocation unit size
       (Convert to Dynamic Disk..?)
13. Hyper-V Configuration
    1. Hyper-V Server Settings (set paths to D:\Hyper-V\)
    2. Hyper-V Network Manager – add External ‘Virtual Network – External’

 As part of my day job, and as co-founder of IT consulting firm “The Full Circle” www.thefullcirle.com – a Microsoft Gold Partner that likes to keep ahead of the game (or at least stay in it!) by being an early adopter, we are always working with new software and that means building and rebuilding boxes.  Clearly virtualisation can make huge savings, especially in time but not always, especially when working with beta & pre-release software…

Our current journey of discovery is clustering with Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) which is currently in late stages of development (went RC about month ago), and we are delighted to be a UK Early Adopter Program partner!

We have been working with a couple of different builds, the beta build 7000, and recenly the Release Candidate build 7100.  Our own infrastructure was built using the beta, as is our customer EAP project, and following a number of cluster issues we performed an in-place upgrade to the RC code…

However, last week I learnt that in-place upgrades to clusters are not supported across beta/pre-releases to RC, and eventually to RTM - this is often the case as would never be a mass adopter / real-world scenario.

What this means is that from Beta->RC and from RC->RTM, you will have to do the following:

1. Move workloads onto fewest nodes (1 in my case)

2. Using ‘Failover Cluster Manager’ drill-down on Nodes, and right-click on the non-primary node, chose More Actions…, Evict – you’ll get a message warning that evicting a node can cause problems if a clustered application requires that node.. obviously! – click ‘Evict node NODENAME’

3. When it comes to the last remaining node in the cluster, due to Quorum requirements, you will need to destroy the cluster.  Select the cluster, goto More Actions… select Destroy the Cluster

4. Remove the ‘Failover cluster virtual network name account’ from AD Users & Computers

5. Being slightly paranoid, I also disabled the Failover Clustering service from with Hyper-V Configuration and removed the machine from the domain (back to a workgroup)

3. Wipe/Reload with new version of Hyper-V.

4. Create new 1 Node Cluster, join to SAN etc

5. Move VMs, offline, to new Hyper-V host.

a. Upgrade VM’s IC’s

6. Wipe/Reload remaining host

7. Join it to the cluster

8. Smile, before you do the same for RTM…

Hardware platform: