Changes:

• • Shows the disk capacity of the VM and asks how many disks to add.
  • Prompts for the size of every disk
  • Checks for empty Luns to add the disks

# 1. You need to login to the Azure Rm Account

Login-AzAccount

# 2. The script will query the Subscriptions that the login account has access and will promt the user to select the target Subscription from the drop down list
 
$subscription = Get-AzSubscription | Out-GridView -Title "Select a Subscription" -PassThru
Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $subscription.Id

# 3. The script will query the available VMs and promt to select the target VM from the VM list
 
$vm = Get-AzVM | Out-GridView -Title "Select the Virtual Machine to add Data Disks to" -PassThru

# 4. I set the storage type based on the OS disk. If you want to spesify somehting else you can cahnge this to: $storageType = StandardLRS or PremiumLRS etc.

$storageType = $VM.StorageProfile.OsDisk.ManagedDisk.StorageAccountType

# 5. Enter how many data disks you need to create

$VMdiskCapacity = ($VM.StorageProfile.DataDisks).Capacity
 
$diskquantity = Read-Host "How many disks you need to create? Max Capacity" $VMdiskCapacity "."

# 6. The script will promt for disk size, in GB

$diskSizeList = @()
for($i = 1; $i -le $diskquantity; $i++)
{
    $disk = (Read-Host "Disk " $i " Size")
    $diskSizeList += $disk
}
$diskSizeList

# 7. check for exisiting disks

$existinglun = @()
for($i = 0; $i -lt $VMdiskCapacity; $i++) {
    $existinglun += ($VM.StorageProfile.DataDisks)[$i].Lun
}

# 8. disks creation

for($i = 0; $i -lt $diskquantity; $i++)
{
$diskName = $vm.Name + "-DataDisk-" + $i.ToString()
$diskConfig = New-AzDiskConfig -AccountType $storageType -Location $vm.Location -CreateOption Empty -DiskSizeGB $diskSizeList[$i]
$DataDisk = New-AzDisk -DiskName $diskName -Disk $diskConfig -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName
for ($j = 0; $j -lt $VMdiskCapacity; $j++) {
    if ( $null -eq $existinglun[$j] ) {
        $nextLunIndex
        for ($k = 0; $k -lt $VMdiskCapacity; $k++ ) {
            $nextLunIndex = $k
            for ( $m = 0; $m -lt $VMdiskCapacity; $m++ ) {
                if ( $k -eq $existinglun[$m] ) {
                    $nextLunIndex = -1 
                    break 
                }
            }
            if ($nextLunIndex -ne -1 ) {
                break
            }
        }
        Add-AzVMDataDisk -VM $vm -Name $DiskName -CreateOption Attach -ManagedDiskId $DataDisk.Id -Lun $nextLunIndex
        $existinglun[$j] = $nextLunIndex
        break
    } 
}
}
Update-AzVM -VM $vm -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName

You can download the script from: https://github.com/proximagr/automation/blob/master/Add-DataDisks-DIffSize_v3.ps1

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure VM | Add Multiple Data Disks v2 appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Private Link is a new service, currently in Preview, that provides private connectivity from a virtual network or an on-premises network with Site-2-Site VPN to Azure platform as a service (PaaS) Microsoft services. Azure Private Link makes the networking a lot more simple improving the security and eliminating the need for public access.

image from: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/private-link/

Azure Private Link is a Service mapped to Azure Virtual Networks through a private endpoint. This means that all traffic is routed internally, using private IPs and connectivity, eliminating the exposure to threats. Using Private Link helps an organization to meed the compliance standards.

Azure Private Link is a Global service. It does not have regional restrictions. You can connect privately services from all the Azure Regions around the globe.

Lets Lab It!

Let’s see in practice how we can connect from an Azure VM and from our on-premises computer using VPN to an Azure SQL Database using private IPs. For the Lab I already have a Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2019 and an Azure SQL Database. The SQL Database is not connected to any networks.

Open the Azure Portal, press New and search for “Private Link”, select it and press “Create”

A nice “Getting started page” will open. Click the “Build a private connection to a service”

The “Create a private endpoint” wizard will open. Select a name for the Private Link and a Region and press Next to go to the second step.

At the second step, select to connect to the azure resource in my directory, and select the subscription where the Azure SQL Database resides. Then select the SQL Server.

At the third step, select the VIrtual Network that the Private Link will be created. I selected the network where my Virtual Machine resides. If you don’t have your own DNS server select Yes to create an Azure private DNS zone.

At the final step, review the settings and create the Private Link

After the resource creation, you can check the DNS for the Azure SQL Server Private IP Address!

And at the SQL Server, at the “Private endpoint connections” section you will see the new Private Link.

Open a Remote Desktop Connection to the Azure VM, and run a nslookup for the SQL Server name. In my case the command is:

PS C:\> nslookup plsqlsrv.database.windows.net
Server: UnKnown
Address: 168.63.129.16

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: plsqlsrv.privatelink.database.windows.net
Address: 10.0.2.5
Aliases: plsqlsrv.database.windows.net

And it returned the Private IP address of the SQL Server.

From my computer, i tried to connect to the Azure SQL Server, using the name plsqlsrv.database.windows.net and the connection failed since my Public IP Address is not allowed to access the server.

From the Azure VM I managed to connect successfully and of course internally!

After that, I added a Virtual Network Gateway to the Network and created a Point to Site VPN connection from my local computer to Azure. You can check my guide on how to do this: https://www.e-apostolidis.gr/microsoft/azure/azure-start-point-point-to-site-vpn/

In order to connect to the Azure SQL you need to either use a local DNS server to map the SQl Server name to the Azure SQL IP or add an entry to the local host file for testing.

Conclusion

Azure Private Link is in Preview and currently supports Azure SQL Database and Storage accounts. Additional services coming in preview in next 3-6 months:

• · Cosmos DB
• · App Service Vnet Integration + App Service Environment
• · Azure Kubernetes Service
• · Azure Key Vault
• · PostgreSQL
• · MySQL
• · Maria DB

Source:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/private-link/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/blog/announcing-azure-private-link/

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Private Link | Private connection to Azure PaaS appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Storage Advanced Threat Protection is a new security feature, currently in Preview. It monitors the Azure Blob Storage accounts. It detects anomalies and uncommon access to the Storage Account and notifies the admins through email.

All the Azure Storage Advanced Threat Protection monitoring and logs are integrated to the Azure Security Center, including the well known ASC recommendations.

It’s so easy to enable, just go to the Azure Portal, navigate to your storage account’s Advanced Threat Protection setting and switch it ON!

After that you can view the alerts at the Security Center, under Threat Protection’s Security Alerts.

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Storage Advanced Thread Protection appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Το Microsoft Azure ανακοίνωσε την δυνατότητα να φιλοξενεί στατικές ιστοσελίδες απευθείας στο Blob Storage, με το κόστος του Blob Storage! Τι σημαίνει αυτό? Για 1 GB χώρο και 100000 views το κόστος είναι περίπου 0,05 ευρώ το μήνα!

Στις στατικές ιστοσελίδες μπορούμε επίσης εκτός από στατικό περιεχόμενο να έχουμε και CLient Side Scripting οπως JavaScript αλλά όχι Server Side Scripting. Επίσης μπορούμε να δώσουμε και μια Custom σελίδα που θα γυρίζει αντί για 404.

Μπορείτε να υπολογίσετε το κόστος με το Azure Prising Calculator Στο link https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Τι χρειαζόμαστε? απλά ένα Storage Account V2.

Μόλις δημιουργηθεί το Storage Account, πρώτα ενεργοποιούμε το Static website από τα Settings του Storage Account. Μόλις πατήσουμε Save θα δημιουργηθεί ένα Virtual Directory με το όνομα $web. Το πατάμε για να μπούμε μέσα στο Blob για να ανεβάσουμε το περιεχόμενο μας. Επίσης σημειώνουμε το Primary endpoint γιατί είναι και το URL του Site μας.

Για να ανεβάσουμε content στο $web Blob μπορούμε να χρησιμοποιήσουμε τον Storage Explorer

και είμαστε έτοιμοι. Κάνουμε Browse στο URL του Static website, στο παρδειγμά μου είναι το https://proximagr.z6.web.core.windows.net/

Φυσικά μπορούμε να βάλουμε το δικό μας Domain. Πρώτα φτιάχνουμε ένα CNAME που θα κάνει Point στο Endpoint και μετά πηγαίνουμε στο Custom Domain όπου δίνουμε το CNAME μας.

και το αποτέλεσμα:

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Storage | Static Web Site appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Remember all that red alerts when comes to deleting blobs? Ah, forget them! Microsoft Azure brought the Windows Recycle Bin to Azure and named it Soft delete.

The soft delete feature basically is similar to the Windows recycle bin. Deleting a file from the Windows explorer, the Operating System instead of actually removing the file it moves it to the recycle bin. The file stays there and it can be undeleted at any time. The soft delete feature in Microsoft Azure does the same thing for blob storage. When data is deleted or overwritten, the data is not actually gone. Instead, the data is soft deleted, thereby making it recoverable if necessary.

It’s not enabled by default, but it’s very easy to enable it. Go to the Storage Account, scroll down to the Blob Service and select “Soft delete”. Select the Retention policy and Save, that’s all!

Let’s delete and test. Browse a container and click the “Show delete blobs”. The current blob will show as active.

deleting the blob it will change the status to “deleted”

Click the three little dots and you can undelete, the blob, in Azure!!!

Active again!

Be careful, if you delete the whole container, the storage account or the Azure Subscription there is no return. The Soft delete feature is at blob level inside a container.

For more deltails visit the docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-soft-delete

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Blob Storage… Recycle Bin!!!!!!! appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

In this post I have created a PowerShell script to help add multiple managed disks to an Azure RM Virtual Machine.

The script to add multiple managed disks will prompt you to login to an Azure RM account, then it will query the subscriptions and ask you to select the desired. After that it will query the available VMs and promt to select the target VM from the VM list.

At this point I am checking the OS disk and define the storage type of the data disk. If we need to change the storage type we can check the comments at step 4. e.g. If the OS disk is Premium and you want Standard data disks.

The next step is to ask for disk size. You can check the sizes and billing here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/managed-disks-overview#pricing-and-billing

Finally it will ask for the number of the disk we need to create. After this input the script will create the disks, attach them to the VM and update it.

The Script:

# 1. You need to login to the Azure Rm Account

Login-AzureRmAccount

# 2. The script will query the Subscriptions that the login account has access and will promt the user to select the target Subscription from the drop down list
 
$subscription = Get-AzureRmSubscription | Out-GridView -Title "Select a Subscription" -PassThru
Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionId $subscription.Id

# 3. The script will query the available VMs and promt to select the target VM from the VM list
 
$vm = Get-AzureRmVM | Out-GridView -Title "Select the Virtual Machine to add Data Disks to" -PassThru

# 4. I set the storage type based on the OS disk. If you want to spesify somehting else you can cahnge this to: $storageType = StandardLRS or PremiumLRS etc.

$storageType = $VM.StorageProfile.OsDisk.ManagedDisk.StorageAccountType

# 5. The script will promt for disk size, in GB

$diskSizeinGB = Read-Host "Enter Size for each Data Disk in GB"

$diskConfig = New-AzureRmDiskConfig -AccountType $storageType -Location $vm.Location -CreateOption Empty -DiskSizeGB $diskSizeinGB

# 6. Enter how many data disks you need to create
 
$diskquantity = Read-Host "How many disks you need to create?"

for($i = 1; $i -le $diskquantity; $i++)
{
$diskName = $vm.Name + "-DataDisk-" + $i.ToString()
$DataDisk = New-AzureRmDisk -DiskName $diskName -Disk $diskConfig -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName
$lun = $i - 1
Add-AzureRmVMDataDisk -VM $vm -Name $DiskName -CreateOption Attach -ManagedDiskId $DataDisk.Id -Lun $lun
}

Update-AzureRmVM -VM $vm -ResourceGroupName $vm.ResourceGroupName

You can download the script from here: AddManagedDisks

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Add multiple managed disks to Azure RM VM appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Azure Managed Disks is almost five months old, start using it, its simple, easy to scale, high available and secure. As Microsoft says, “Let Azure take care of your disks”.

The idea is simple, choose the performance tier and the size you want. After that you are free to change your mind! You can change the performance tier (yes, switch between SSD & HDD) and the size just with click.

Lets get it started. First of all we need to enable the managed disks at the VM creation. Specifically at the third step select “Yes” at the “Use managed disks” setting. After that you don’t have to wary about storage account, Azure takes care of this.

Once the VM is deployed, go to the VM’s blade and click “Disks” and “+ Add data disk”

After that, the “Create managed disk” blade opens and there are some interesting settings to choose. Lets have a closer look.

First choose a name for the Data Disk, choose a Resource Group and Account type. This is the performance tier, SSD or HDD.

Next, at the Source type drop down menu, we can choose to create an empty disk, by selecting the None. Also, we can select to use a Snapshot that we have already created or a Storage blob to select a disk.

After that it is the size. The Managed Disks have specific price, IOPS and price. Type the Size in Gigabytes and see the estimated performance instantly.

You can find the details here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/

Standard Managed Disks:

All standard managed disks have 500 IOPS and 60MB/sec throughput

Premium Managed Disks:

And what happens with the existing VMs that have “classic” unmanaged disk? No worries, just a bit of PowerShell and you can convert that to managed disks.

How to do it? First Stop the VM, not just show down, we need to Stop (Deallocate it). Then run just this line of PowerShell code:

ConvertTo-AzureRmVMManagedDisk -ResourceGroupName rgname -VMName vmname

Now some magic. SSD to HDD to SSD to HDD and go on!

Lets say you have created a Standard disk, HDD, but now you need performance. Just go to the VM blade, first Stop the VM and then select the “Disks” find the disk and change the “Account type”

Just save, and voila! you have SSD, from 500 IOPS to 5000 IOPS! Any time, you can Stop the VM and change the disk back to Standard (HDD)

Export

Some more magic? Click “Export” at the disk properties, set an expiration time and Generate URL. You need to Stop the VM first.

A PUBLIC URL is generated. You can use it to download the VHD without having to login to the Portal.

Create snapshot

At the disk properties click “Crete snapshot”

Enter a Name, select Resource group and Account type

Now, under the Resources of the Resource Group you will find the Snapshot

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Azure Managed Disks | Easy Scale, High Available, Secure appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Αυτό είναι το δεύτερο Post της τριλογίας SQL Failover Cluster with AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Είναι η ώρα της SQL.

1. Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Cluster with FreeNAS 9.3
2. Microsoft SQL 2012 on Failover Cluster
3. Add AlwaysOn AG to SQL Failover Cluster Instance

Microsoft SQL 2012 on Failover Cluster

Για το lab θα χρησιμοποιήσω τον Domain Administrator, αλλά δεν ενδείκνυται για παραγωγικό περιβάλλον!!!

Βάζουμε το ISO της SQL 2012 SP2 και ξεκινάμε με “new SQL server failover cluster installation”

Αφού περάσει τα checks δίνουμε key, για το lab φυσικά επέλεξα evaluation,  και φτιάχνουμε στο install για να ξεκινήσουμε την εγκατάσταση.

Αγνοούμε επιδεικτικά το MSDTC error (ήδη από τον 2008) και αν δεν έχουμε errors προχωράμε. Επιλέγουμε το SQL Feature installation και μετά επιλέγουμε μόνο Database Engine Services με τις υποκατηγορίες και το management tools

Δίνουμε network name για το SQL Cluster και προχωράμε

Δίνουμε όνομα για το cluster resource group ή αφήνουμε το default (όπως έκανα κι εγώ για το lab)

Στο επόμενο βήμα μας ενημερώνει ότι δεν υπάρχει διαθέσιμος δίσκος για το SQL Cluster Disk, μιας και ο υπάρχον έγινε Cluster Quorum, οπότε πάμε να δώσουμε έναν ακόμη δίσκο στα Cluster Resources.

Προσθέτουμε έναν ακόμα δίσκο στο FreeNAS μιας και ένας θα χρειαστεί για το Cluster Quorum και ο άλλος για SQL Cluster Disk. Αφού το δώσουμε στο VM πηγαίνουμε στο web interface του FreeNAS και πάμε στο Storage/Volume manager, διαλέγουμε τον δίσκο δίνουμε όνομα, έδωσα sql, και πατάμε add volume

Μετά πάμε στο view volumes, επιλέγουμε το sql και πατάμε το create zvol κουμπί, όπως φαίνεται και στην εικόνα

Δίνουμε όνομα και size και πατάμε Add zvol

Μετά πάμε στο Sharing/ISCSI/extents και πατάμε add extent, δίνουμε όνομα, επιλέγουμε device το zvol που φτιάξαμε, διαλέγουμε Logical Block Size, για SQL DBs ενδείκνυται το 512, και πατάμε ok

Τέλος πάμε στο associated targets, πατάμε add target/extent και προσθέτουμε τον extent που φτιάξαμε.
Τώρα αν πάμε στους servers στο disk management και κάνουμε refresh τους δίσκους βλέπουμε τον νέο δίσκο και τον κάνουμε online, initiate και format, μόνο προσοχή να δώσετε allocation unit 512 για να συμβαδίζει με του FreeNAS αλλιώς η SQL θα γκρινιάξει.

Ανοίγουμε το Failover Cluster Manager/Storage/Disks και πατάμε add Disk και προσθέτουμε τον νέο δίσκο.

Και έχουμε έναν διαθέσιμο δίσκο στο Cluster μας

Πίσω τώρα στο SQL Setup, κάνουμε refresh και αυτόματα επιλέγει τον νέο δίσκο

Στη συνέχεια δίνουμε στατική IP στο SQL Cluster Network, φυσικά από το Domain subnet

Δίνουμε service accounts, για το Lab όπως είπα χρησιμοποιώ τον Domain Admin, αλλά ποτέ σε production.

Στο Server Configuration δίνουμε ποιοι θα έχουν admin rights στην SQL

Και στο Data Directories tab βλέπουμε ότι ήδη έχει επιλέξει το SQL Cluster Disk. Σε παραγωγικό περιβάλλον φυσικά θα έχουμε περισσότερους δίσκους για κάθε βάση/log.

Μετά φτάνομε στο ready to install και πατάμε install. Περιμένουμε να γίνει η εγκατάσταση αργά και βασανιστικά μέχρι να δούμε το υπέροχο Completed successful.

Και αν πάμε στο Failover Cluster Manager στους ρόλους θα δούμε το SQL Server

Εδώ τελειώνει η εγκατάσταση του πρώτου Node. Κάνουμε Mount το ISO της SQL στο δεύτερο node και ξεκινάμε το Setup. Επιλέγουμε Add node to a SQL Server failover cluster

Για το lab επιλέγω πάλι Evaluation, κάνω accept policies κλπ και πάμε για το installation.
Στο Cluster Node Configuration ελέγχουμε ότι έχει βρει το SQL cluster που δημιουργήσαμε και πατάμε Next

Στο Cluster Network Configuration ελέγχουμε ότι έχει βρει την IP του SQL Cluster και πατάμε next

Στο Service Accounts δίνουμε το password του Account Που έχουμε ήδη δηλώσει για SQL Engine & Agent

Περνάμε τους ελέγχους και πατάμε install για να προσθέσει το Node στο Cluster και περιμένουμε μέχρι να να δούμε το Completed successful μήνυμα.

Πάμε τώρα να δοκιμάσουμε ότι το SQL Role Μπορεί να κάνει failover και στα δύο Nodes.
Ανοίγουμε το Failover Cluster Manager πηγαίνουμε στο Roles, επιλέγουμε το “SQL Server …”, δεξί click / Move και πατάμε “Select Node…”

Διαλέγουμε το δεύτερο Node και πατάμε OK

Περιμένουμε στο Status να γίνει Pending και μετά Running. Πλέον στο “Owner Node” πρέπει να αναφέρει στο δεύτερο Node, στο Lab, Win2012R202

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Microsoft SQL 2012 on Failover Cluster appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Η ιδέα είναι να έχουμε ένα SQL Flailover Cluster στο Primary Site και στο υπάρχον Cluster να προσθέσουμε ένα AlwaysOn Availability group για το DR. Λόγο του μεγέθους της υλοποίησης θα γίνει τρία Posts. Ένα το Failover Cluster, ένα η εγκατάσταση της SQL σε Failover Clster και ένα η υλοποίηση του AlwaysON Availability Groups.

1. Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Cluster with FreeNAS 9.3
2. Microsoft SQL 2012 on Failover Cluster
3. Add AlwaysOn AG to SQL Failover Cluster Instance

Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Cluster with FreeNAS 9.3

Ξεκίνησα φτιάχνοντας ένα VM FreeNAS για να μπορέσω να έχω με όσα λιγότερα resources ένα ISCSI Storage. Το FreeNAS θέλει 2GB Ram για την εγκατάσταση και το initial setup αλλά μετά το κατεβάζω σε 512MB Ram, έτσι κι αλλιώς οι απαιτήσεις μου θα είναι ελάχιστες. Δεν θα μείνω σε λεπτομέρειες για την εγκατάσταση του FreeNAS, κατεβάζουμε το ISO από το http://www.freenas.org/download/ και φτιάχνουμε ένα VM. Κάνουμε boot από το ISO και ακολουθούμε τον Wizard όπου διαλέγουμε δίσκο εγκατάστασης και δίνουμε root password. Τέλος αφού ανοίξει έχουμε 14 επιλογές, διαλέγουμε την 1 και ρυθμίζουμε το δίκτυο. Για το lab έδωσα 192.168.193.152/24
Αφού ρυθμίσουμε το δίκτυο επιστρέφουμε στις επιλογές μόνο που πλέον μας ενημερώνει για την διεύθυνση του web interface, όπως στην εικόνα:

Πριν κάνω login στο web interface έχω ήδη φτιάξει 2 δίσκους στο FreeNAS VM ώστε να αναλάβει ο wizard να φτιάξει volumes κλπ, αν και είναι πολύ απλό να τα κάνεις και manual στο FreNAS.
Κάνω login στο FreeNAS web interface και ακολουθώ τον wizard. Δίνω pool name

Δίνω share name και διαλέγω iSCSI

Και αφού τελειώσει ο wizard έχουμε έτοιμο το iscsi target.

Στη συνέχεια χρειαζόμαστε ένα Domain Controller. Μιας που μιλάμε για low resources lab, έφτιαξα ένα VM με 512 MB Ram και 1 CPU και έβαλα Windows Server 2012 r2 Core. Με sconfig.cmd ανοίγουμε τις επιλογές και δίνουμε computer name, IP κλπ

Και στη συνέχεια με powershell τον κάνουμε Domain Controller. Πρώτα βάζουμε domain services και management tools και στη συνέχεια τον προμοτάρουμε σε domain controller και DNS.

Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services –IncludeManagementTools
Install-ADDSForest -DomainName "sqllab.int " -DomainNetbiosName "SQLLAB" -DomainMode Win2012R2 -ForestMode Win2012R2 -InstallDns –Force

Έτοιμος και ο Domain Contoller. Πάμε για τα Cluster Nodes. Έχω φτιάξει ένα VM με 2GB Ram, 2 CPUs, 2 NICs & Windows Server 2012 R2. Sysprep και multiply και μπαμ έχουμε 3 όμορφα VMs.
Μια λεπτομέρεια, επειδή θα χρειαστούμε σε όλα τα VMs Failover Cluster και επίσης η SQL 2012 θέλει .NetFramework 3.5, στο template VM βάζουμε και αυτά.

Ξεκινάμε το Failover Cluster για να βάλουμε SQL.
Ανοίγουμε το πρώτο VM, rename, στο lab το ονόμασα Win2012R201 (πρωτότυπο ε?) και κάνουμε join στο domain.
Δίνουμε στην μια NIC μια IP που θα βλέπει το Domain και το FreeNAS και στην άλλη NIC ένα διαφορετικό subnet που θα βλέπει μόνο το άλλο Node. Για ευκολία έχω κάνει rename την μια κάρτα Domain με IP 192.168.193.153 και την άλλη Heartbeat με IP 172.16.5.1

Στη συνέχεια ενεργοποιούμε το iscsi initiator από administrator tools και προσθέτουμε το iscsi target δίνοντας την IP του FreeNAS και πατώντας quick connect και μετά Connect και διαλέγουμε και το Multi path. Μετά στο Volumes and Devices tab πατάμε Auto Configure. Τέλος στο Device manager κάνουμε initialize τον δίσκο, format και του δίνουμε ένα γράμμα. Για test φτιάχνουμε ένα text αρχείο στο δίσκο.

Το ίδιο κάνουμε και στο δεύτερο VM. Για να σιγουρευτούμε ότι και οι δύο μπορούν να γράψουν στον ίδιο δίσκο δημιουργούμε και εδώ ένα αρχείο. Σαν αποτέλεσμα πρέπει να έχουμε και τα 2 αρχεία.

Ανοίγουμε το Failover Cluster Manager από τα Administrative Tools και πρώτα τρέχουμε το Validate Configuration, διαλέγουμε και τους 2 member servers που ετοιμάσαμε με το iscsi και τρέχουμε το test.

Μόλις τελειώσει το validation κοιτάμε να μην έχει errors ή warnings και αν έχει τα διορθώνουμε και τον ξανατρέχουμε. Τέλος όταν έχει ολοκληρωθεί επιτυχώς, όπως στην εικόνα, το “create the cluster now using the validated nodes” είναι επιλεγμένο και πατώντας finish ανοίγει ο Create Cluster Wizard.
Δίνουμε Cluster Name και IP

Το αφήνουμε να προσθέσει όλο το διαθέσιμο storage και πατάμε next για να δημιουργηθεί το cluster

Αν ο cluster validator είχε τελειώσει επιτυχώς τότε και το cluster θα δημιουργηθεί επιτυχώς

Και voila έχουμε ένα όμορφο cluster

Μπορείτε να δείτε ότι το cluster network 1 είναι cluster only και έχει το subnet που δώσαμε για heartbeat και το cluster network 2 που είναι cluster and client έχει το domain subnet

Συνέχεια στο επόμενο post Microsoft SQL 2012 on Failover Cluster

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post SQL Failover Cluster with AlwaysOn Availability Groups appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.

Here is a PowerShell command that creates a VHD at a specified Storage Account, creates a Disk and attaches it to a VM:

Get-AzureVM "servicename -Name "vmname" | Add-AzureDataDisk -CreateNew -DiskSizeInGB XXX -DiskLabel "diskname" -MediaLocation "https://storageaccountname.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/vhdname.vhd" -LUN X | Update-AzureVM

Some more info:

First of all you need to connect to your Azure Subscription, you can follow this Post on how to do it.
Then create a Storage Account using the GUI or PowerShell, here is the Microsoft’s link http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-create-storage-account/
Then you need to list the disks that are already connected to your VM in order to view the LUN number that you will use. The OS disk is not listed on this command. The first data disk consumes the LUN 0, the second the LUN 1 and so on.  The command is:

 Get-AzureVM -ServiceName "servicename" -Name "vmname" | Get-AzureDataDisk

Pantelis Apostolidis

Pantelis Apostolidis is a Sr. Specialist, Azure at Microsoft and a former Microsoft Azure MVP. For the last 20 years, Pantelis has been involved to major cloud projects in Greece and abroad, helping companies to adopt and deploy cloud technologies, driving business value. He is entitled to a lot of Microsoft Expert Certifications, demonstrating his proven experience in delivering high quality solutions. He is an author, blogger and he is acting as a spokesperson for conferences, workshops and webinars. He is also an active member of several communities as a moderator in azureheads.gr and autoexec.gr. Follow him on Twitter @papostolidis.

www.cloudcorner.gr

The post Create a Disk in specific Storage Account and Attach it to a VM in Azure appeared first on Apostolidis Cloud Corner.