Deploy a highly available VMM library

Important

This version of Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) has reached the end of support. We recommend you to upgrade to VMM 2022.

This article describes the steps for deploying a highly available System Center - Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) library. You set up a Windows failover cluster running the File Server role. Then you create file shares on the cluster, and assign them as VMM library shares.

Before you start

Read the planning steps for a highly available VMM deployment.

Set up the failover cluster

This procedure presumes you're setting up a single failover cluster with two or more file servers.

  1. Select Server Manager > Manage > Add Roles and Features.
  2. In Select installation type, select Role-based or feature-based installation.
  3. In Select destination server, select the server you want to configure for failover clustering. On Select features, select Failover Clustering. Select Add Feature to install the failover cluster management tools.
  4. In Confirm installation selections, select Install. A server restart isn't needed.
  5. Repeat for each server you want to add as a node in the file server cluster.
  6. After you've at least two nodes in the cluster, you can run cluster validation tests (you'll need at least two nodes in the cluster). Open Failover Cluster Manager and under Management, select Validate Configuration.
  7. In Select Servers or a Cluster, specify the NetBIOS or FQDN of a node you're adding and select Add. In Testing Options, select Run all tests (recommended).
  8. In Summary, if the tests completed correctly, select Create the cluster now using the validated nodes. Select View Report to troubleshoot any issues.
  9. In Access Point for Administering the Cluster, specify the cluster name. For example, VMMLibrary. When the cluster is created, this name will be registered as the cluster computer object (CNO) in Active Directory. If you specify a NetBIOS name for the cluster, the CNO is created in the same location where the computer objects for the cluster node reside (either the default Computers container or an OU). You can specify a different location by adding the distinguished OU name. For example, CN=ClusterName, OU=Clusters, DC=Contoso.
  10. If the server isn't configured to use DHCP, specify a static IP address for the cluster. Select each network you want to use for cluster management, and in Address select the IP address. This is the IP address that will be associated with the cluster in DNS.
  11. In Confirmation, review the settings. Clear Add all eligible storage to the cluster if you want to configure the storage later. Select Next to create the cluster.
  12. In Summary, confirm that the cluster was created and that the cluster name is listed in Failover Cluster Manager.

If you want to build a guest cluster to deploy the file server, read Rudolf Vesely's useful blog post.

Set up the file server role

  1. On each computer you'll set up as a file server node, in Failover Cluster Manager, select Configure Role.
  2. In the High Availability Wizard > Select Role, select File Server.
  3. In File Server Type, select File Server for general use.
  4. In Client Access Point, enter the cluster name (in our procedure this was VMMLibrary) and the cluster IP address.
  5. In Select storage, specify the shared storage you want to use.
  6. Confirm the settings and finish the wizard.

Create a file share

  1. In Failover Cluster Management > cluster name > Roles. Select the file server and select Add File Share.
  2. In New Share Wizard > Select Profile, select SMB Share - Quick.
  3. In Share Location, select the file server.
  4. In Share Name, specify the share name and description.
  5. In Other Settings, leave the default settings.
  6. In Permissions, grant full access to the SYSTEM and Administrators accounts and to the VMM admin account. In Confirmation, review the settings and select Create.

Add the share as a VMM library

  1. Open the VMM console > Library > Add Library Server.
  2. In Add Library Server Wizard > Enter Credentials, specify a domain account with permissions for the file cluster.
  3. In the Select Library Servers page, enter the domain in which the file cluster is located and in Computer name, specify the name you assigned to file server cluster or select Search to find it. Select Add > Next.
  4. On the Add Library Servers page, select the library shares you want to add. If you want to add the default library resources to the share, select Add Default Resources. In addition to default resources, this adds the ApplicationFrameworks folder to the share.
  5. On the Summary page, review settings and select Add Library Servers. In Library > Library Servers, verify the library server and share are listed.
  6. After the share is created, you can copy resources to the library share.

Next steps

Set up TLS for VMM.