This template will create a Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Network File System (NFS) cluster using Windows Server 2016 in an existing VNET with existing DNS servers configured. This cluster will be deployed as a workgroup-mode cluster, and as such, an Active Directory domain is not required. The resulting cluster supports requests from NFS v4.1 clients.

This template creates the following resources by default:

• A Standard Storage Account for a Cloud Witness
• A Windows Server 2016 cluster for storage nodes, provisioned for Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and the NFS File Server role
• Managed Disk resources for each virtual disk attached to the VM cluster nodes
• One Availability Set for the cluster nodes

Click the button below to deploy from the portal:

• The default settings for storage are to deploy using premium storage, which is strongly recommended for S2D performance. When using Premium Storage, be sure to select a VM size (DS-series, GS-series) that supports Premium Storage.

• The default settings deploy 2 data disks per storage node, but can be increased to up to 32 data disks per node. When increasing # of data disks, be sure to select a VM size that can support the # of data disks you specify.

• The default settings for compute require that you have at least 16 cores of free quota to deploy.

• The images used to create this deployment are

  • Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition - Latest Image

• To successfully deploy this template it is important that you first prepare your environment as follows:

  • Be sure that the subnet to which the storage nodes are being deployed already exists on the specified Azure virtual network.

  • DNS servers should also be configured for the Azure VNET for resolving hostnames in the internal DNS domain in which this cluster is deployed.

  • Host (A) records should exist in the DNS zone for this internal DNS domain for each VM cluster node, the cluster network name AND the Azure Internal Load Balancer that supplies a floating IP address for the cluster. This can most easily be accomplished by enabling Dynamic DNS Updates for unauthenticated updates to the DNS zone for this internal DNS domain.

• After successfully deploying this solution, you can connect to the deployed NFS file server role via common command-line tools, such as "showmount", "mount" and "ssh". For example:

  • Show exported shared folders on NFS server - "showmount -e nfs01.contoso.com"

  • Mount exported shares folder from NFS server - "sudo mount -t nfs -o vers=4.1 nfs01.contoso.com:/data /mnt/data"

  • Open command prompt on NFS server for admin tasks - "ssh [email protected]"

  • For more details on managing the NFS server, see http://aka.ms/nfs

You can deploy these samples directly through the Azure Portal or by using the scripts supplied in the root of the repo.

To deploy the sammple using the Azure Portal, click the Deploy to Azure button found above.

To deploy the sample via the command line (using Azure PowerShell or the Azure CLI) you can use the scripts.

Simply execute the script and pass in the folder name of the sample you want to deploy. For example:

.\Deploy-AzureResourceGroup.ps1 -ResourceGroupLocation 'eastus' -ArtifactsStagingDirectory '[foldername]'

azure-group-deploy.sh -a [foldername] -l eastus -u

If the sample has artifacts that need to be "staged" for deployment (Configuration Scripts, Nested Templates, DSC Packages) then set the upload switch on the command. You can optionally specify a storage account to use, if so the storage account must already exist within the subscription. If you don't want to specify a storage account one will be created by the script or reused if it already exists (think of this as "temp" storage for AzureRM).

.\Deploy-AzureResourceGroup.ps1 -ResourceGroupLocation 'eastus' -ArtifactsStagingDirectory '301-storage-spaces-direct' -UploadArtifacts 

azure-group-deploy.sh -a '301-storage-spaces-direct' -l eastus -u

Tags: nfs, cluster, ha, storage spaces, storage spaces direct, S2D, windows server 2016, ws2016