Optimizing and Troubleshooting: Hyper-V Storage

Optimizing and Troubleshooting: Hyper-V Storage

by Mitch Tulloch
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): Microsoft Press
ISBN: 9780735679092

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Book description

This scenario-focused title provides concise technical guidance and insights for troubleshooting and optimizing storage with Hyper-V. Written by experienced virtualization professionals, this little book packs a lot of value into a few pages, offering a lean read with lots of real-world insights and best practices for Hyper-V storage optimization.

  • Focused guide extends your knowledge and capabilities with Hyper-V storage in Windows Server 2012

  • Shares hands-on insights from a team of Microsoft virtualization experts

  • Provides pragmatic troubleshooting and optimization guidance from the field

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    Table of contents

    1. Introduction
      1. About the contributors
      2. About the companion content
      3. Acknowledgments
      4. Errata & book support
      5. We want to hear from you
      6. Stay in touch
    2. 1. Hyper-V storage fundamentals
      1. Virtual storage controllers
        1. Virtual disk file formats
        2. Storage improvements in Windows Server 2012
      2. Additional resources
    3. 2. Storage sizing
      1. Using MAP
      2. Additional resources
    4. 3. Pass-through disks
      1. Storage options for Hyper-V
        1. Pass-through disk quick review
        2. Scenario 1: Adding a pass-through disk to an already highly available virtual machine
        3. Scenario 2: Adding a pass-through disk to a virtual machine before making it highly available
        4. Scenario 3: Adding a pass-through disk to a virtual machine that is already running
      2. Additional resources
    5. 4. Virtual machine snapshots
      1. Understanding snapshots
        1. Example: Broken snapshot tree
      2. Additional resources
    6. 5. File system alignment
      1. Identifying file system misalignment
      2. Additional resources
    7. 6. Virtual disk fragmentation
      1. Large file size records, dynamic disks, differencing disks, and problems managing highly fragmented files
        1. What is a sparse file?
        2. What is the MFT?
        3. Why should I care?
    8. 7. Migrating VHD to VHDX
      1. I migrated my virtual machines. Now what?
        1. Comparing VHDX and VHD performance
        2. Migrating from VHD to VHDX
        3. Optimizing block and cluster sector sizes
      2. Additional resources
    9. 8. Monitoring storage performance
      1. Using Performance Monitor
      2. Storage performance counters
        1. Hard disk counters
        2. SMB Client counters
        3. SMB Server counters
        4. Example: Troubleshooting a storage problem using Performance Monitor
      3. Additional resources
    10. 9. Cluster Shared Volumes
      1. CSV Redirected Access mode
        1. Example: Network for redirected I/O
        2. Example: Lost direct storage link
        3. Example: Failed backup
        4. Example: Incompatible filter driver
        5. Using CSV performance counters
      2. Exploring Cluster Shared Volume data flow
        1. Metadata operations
        2. Direct I/O operations
        3. File System level redirection
        4. Block level redirection
        5. Cluster Shared Volume Cache performance tuning
      3. Additional resources
    11. 10. Live Migration
      1. Why Constrained Delegation?
        1. Some background info
        2. The Hyper-V connection
        3. Setting up Constrained Delegation
      2. Additional resources
    12. 11. Virtual Fibre Channel
      1. Fibre Channel on the guest
        1. Prerequisites
        2. Virtual machine not starting
        3. Additional configuration steps
      2. Additional resources
    13. 12. Event logs
      1. Hyper-V storage event logs
        1. Example: Missing virtual hard disk
        2. Example: Unsupported Fibre Channel adapter
      2. Additional resources
    14. 13. SMB storage
      1. SMB share permissions
        1. Example: Wrong share permissions
      2. Additional resources
    15. 14. SMB Multichannel
      1. Troubleshooting SMB Multichannel
        1. Verifying Receive-Side-Scaling
        2. Verifying SMB Multichannel
        3. Excluding a network card
        4. Example: Link down
      2. Additional resources
    16. 15. Online backup
      1. Hyper-V backups and VSS
        1. Example: Online backup issue
      2. Additional resources
    17. 16. Antivirus exclusions
      1. Configuring antivirus exclusions
      2. Additional resources
    18. 17. Windows PowerShell tips
      1. Storage-related tasks and Windows PowerShell
      2. Additional resources
    19. 18. Best Practices Analyzer
      1. Troubleshooting with Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer
        1. Hyper-V BPA
        2. PowerShell and automation
        3. Failover clustering
        4. Summary
      2. Additional resources
    20. 19. Storage Spaces
      1. What is Storage Spaces?
        1. Concepts and terms
        2. Deployment modes
      2. Benefits of Storage Spaces to enterprises
        1. Cost effective platform for business critical storage
        2. Flexibility and elasticity
        3. Resiliency and data integrity
        4. Multi-tenancy
        5. Ease of management
      3. Before we start
      4. Deploying your first storage space
      5. A little bit of theory
      6. Planning your storage space
        1. Resiliency and performance tuning
        2. Thin provisioning
      7. Maintaining storage spaces
        1. Extending a virtual disk
        2. Removing a disk from a pool
        3. Rebuilding a server that hosts storage spaces
      8. Troubleshooting storage spaces
        1. Creating a storage space fails
        2. Deleting a storage space fails
        3. Expanding a storage space fails
      9. Additional resources
    21. 20. Building a demo environment
      1. Hyper-V over SMB: Step-by-step installation using Windows PowerShell
        1. Overview
        2. Environment details
        3. Script #1: Configuring FST2-DC1 (DNS, Domain Controller, iSCSI Target)
        4. Script #2: Configuring FST2-FS1 (File Server 1)
        5. Script #3: Configuring FST2-FS2 (File Server 2)
        6. Script #4: Configuring FST2-HV1 (Hyper-V host 1)
        7. Script #5: Configuring FST2-HV2 (Hyper-V host 2)
        8. Script #6: Configuring the Cluster FST2-FSC (run from FST2-FS1)
        9. Script #7: Configuring the Classic File Server Cluster FST2-FS (run from FST2-FS1)
        10. Script #8: Configuring the Scale-Out File Server Cluster FST2-SO (run from FST2-FS1)
        11. Script #9: Configuring the virtual machines in FST2-HV1
        12. Script #10: Configuring the virtual machines in FST2-HV2
        13. Script #11: Creating a Hyper-V Cluster using file share storage
        14. Script #12: Optional steps to create a nonclustered file share on FST2-FS1
        15. Conclusion
      2. Additional resources
    22. About the Author
    23. Copyright

    Product information

    • Title: Optimizing and Troubleshooting: Hyper-V Storage
    • Author(s): Mitch Tulloch
    • Release date: July 2013
    • Publisher(s): Microsoft Press
    • ISBN: 9780735679092