Get started
About this task
Complete the following categories under the Get started page:
Steps
1. Check the prerequisites—Lists the prerequisites on the Windows Admin Center system, servers, and network. If you
comply with them all, click Next.
2. Add servers—Enter the username and password for your administrator account, then enter the computer name, IPv4
address, or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of each server and click Add. Click Next once the servers are shown to have
been successfully added.
Ensure that either your servers have an FQDN or that you have set the firewall rule to allow inbound traffic to the servers.
3. Join a domain—Specify the active directory domain name, domain username, and password to join the nodes. Enter the
New name field to change the server name after it joins the domain and click Apply changes. Click Next to move to the
next category.
NOTE: If you want to change the node name, ensure that you enter the new node name before performing a
consolidated restart in the subsequent steps.
4. Install features—This step installs features like Hyper-V, failover clustering, data-center-bridging, data-deduplication,
BitLocker drive encryption, and the Active Directory and Hyper-V modules for Windows PowerShell. Click Install features
and click Next once the installation is complete.
5. Install updates—This optional step installs the latest security and quality updates for the operating system. Click Install
updates to install the updates shown, then click Next once the updates are completed.
6. Install hardware updates—Uses OMIMSWAC to update the target nodes with validated firmware, BIOS, and drivers. This
step is recommended to achieve the required performance and support. Click Get updates to start the process.
The Integrated Cluster Deploy and Update (IDU) feature in OMIMSWAC allows you to perform hardware symmetry checks
and update target nodes while creating the cluster. Since this feature is integrated with the Windows cluster creation
workflow, this will help the nodes to reboot only once if necessary, after both Windows and hardware updates are
completed.
NOTE: This feature is only supported on the Azure Stack HCI operating system.
NOTE: Completing the Install hardware updates step is mandatory for enabling RDMA in the later steps.
To complete the hardware updates, perform the following steps:
a. Prerequisites—Review these to ensure that all nodes are ready to perform hardware symmetry checks and updates.
When finished, click HCI configuration profile.
NOTE: If any node is not a valid model or the node does not contain a valid Dell EMC OpenManage Premium License,
you cannot proceed further with hardware symmetry checks. For more information about hardware symmetry, see
Support for Dell EMC OpenManage Integration with Microsoft Windows Admin Center.
b. HCI configuration profile—Review the hardware configuration listed under each category to ensure configuration
across the nodes is the same and that they are supported for an Azure Stack HCI cluster. For more information, see the
Hardware symmetry configurations examples. When finished, click Next: Update Source.
c. Update Source—Generate the compliance report on firmware and drivers by selecting online or offline catalog from
the dropdown list. The Online - Dell EMC Azure Stack HCI Solution Catalog is selected by default. Click Next:
Compliance Report to generate the compliance report. For more information about selecting the offline catalog
and configuring DSU and IC tools in the settings tab, see the "Viewing update compliance and updating the cluster"
section in the Operations Guide (Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies: Managing and Monitoring the Solution
Infrastructure Life Cycle Operations Guide).
d. Compliance Report—By default, all the noncompliant upgradable components are selected for an update. Click Next:
Summary.
e. Summary—Review the component selections and click Next: Update. A message prompts you to enable Credential
Security Service Provider (CredSSP).
f. Update—Select Update to start upgrading BIOS, firmware, and driver components.
7. Restart servers—This action is combined for all the updates and features installations that require a restart to be applied.
Ensure you have made the changes that you want to apply and then click Restart servers. When the process is complete,
click Next: Networking.
10 Solution deployment