Clustering Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Hosts - Part 1/4: iSCSI Setup

This step-by-step walkthrough runs through configuring Hyper-V R2 hosts with iSCSI shared storage and using Failover Cluster Manager with CSVs (Clustered Shared Volumes.)

Here we are using Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise hosts, with HP LeftHand/P4000 iSCSI Storage.

The guide is split into 4 parts:

Part 1: iSCSI Setup

Part 2: Failover Clustering Setup

Part 3: Cluster Shared Volume

Part 4: Installing Microsoft Hyper-V

Part 1: iSCSI Setup

Configuration on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts

Find iSCSI Initiator in Control Panel:

Accept Yes to the prompt below if it appears:

From iSCSI Initiator Properties > Configuration tab, copy the Initiator Name:

And obtain this information for all hosts.

Configuration in SAN Management Software (Here using the HP P4000 CMC)

I have used the iSCSI Initiator Name information obtained above to create a cluster object for the hosts in the HP P4000 CMC.

I then created two volumes - one for Quorum, one for VMs - and assigned the hosts the read/write permission.

Configuration on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V hosts (Continued)

Add in the iSCSI Target Portal from iSCSI Initiator Properties > Discovery tab

Targets tab > click on Connect for each Discovered target, and accept ‘Add this connection to the list of Favourtie Targets’

Finally, on the Volumes and Devices tab > click Auto Configure

Do this above for all hosts.

Formatting the Quorum and Virtual Machines Volumes as NTFS

Initially, these new HP LeftHand volumes are unformatted:

On one of the hosts - in Disk Management, set the disks Online, Initialize the disks, then format the disks as NTFS:

Then set to Offline again (Failover Cluster Manager will manage the Online/Offline status.)