This guide provides how to set up HAUC (Highly Available Unified Communications). The guide assumes its readers to have Linux system administration knowledge and skills with experience in installation and configuration of Storages, and Networks.

The general procedure to deploy HAUC on two ESXi server machines (Primary and Standby) consists of the following major steps:

1. Perform system planning to determine requirements and specify specific configuration settings.
2. Set up Primary and Standby ESXi.
3. Deploy iSCSI Target Cluster
4. Connect ESXi hosts to the iSCSI Target.
5. Deploy UC VMs
6. Deploy and configure vMA Cluster.

• vSphere ESXi 6.7
• Strawberry Perl 5.30.0.1 (64bit) (http://strawberryperl.com/)

[1] for iSCSI Initiator

• Download and extract the Docs-Master.zip
• Install Strawberry Perl
• Download putty, plink, pscp to the Docs-Master subfolder CF

Install vSphere ESXi.

• Set up hostname and IP address.

  	Primary	Secondary
  Hostname	esxi1	esxi2
  Management IP	172.31.255.2	172.31.255.3

Start ssh service and configure it to start automatically.

• Open vSphere Host Client
  • [Manage] in [Navigator] pane > [Services] tab
    • [TSM-SSH] > [Actions] > [Start]
    • [TSM-SSH] > [Actions] > [Polilcy] > [Start and stop with host]

Configure ESXi network : vSwitch, Physical NICs, Port groups, VMkernel NIC for iSCSI Initiator

• Connect to esxi1 by putty then run the below shell script.

  #!/bin/sh
  esxcfg-vswitch -a Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -a iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -a uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic3 uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A Mirror_portgroup Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI_portgroup iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI_Initiator iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A uc_vm_portgroup uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 172.31.254.2 -n 255.255.255.0 iSCSI_Initiator
  /etc/init.d/hostd restart
  

• Connect to esxi2 by putty then run the below shell script.

  #!/bin/sh
  esxcfg-vswitch -a Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -a iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -a uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic3 uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A Mirror_portgroup Mirror_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI_portgroup iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A iSCSI_Initiator iSCSI_vswitch
  esxcfg-vswitch -A uc_vm_portgroup uc_vm_vswitch
  esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 172.31.254.3 -n 255.255.255.0 iSCSI_Initiator
  /etc/init.d/hostd restart
  

• Re-open vSphere Host Client
• Deploy iSCSI Cluster on both ESXi and boot them.

• Connect to ESXi-A by putty then run the below shell script.

  #!/bin/sh
  
  IQN='iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:1'
  ADDR='172.31.254.10:3260'
  
  # Enabling iSCSI Initiator
  esxcli iscsi software set --enabled=true
  VMHBA=`esxcli iscsi adapter list | grep 'iSCSI Software Adapter' | sed -r 's/\s.*iSCSI Software Adapter$//'`
  esxcli iscsi adapter set -n ${IQN} -A ${VMHBA}
  esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget add --address=${ADDR} --adapter=${VMHBA}
  esxcli storage core adapter rescan --all
  
  # Create then format the partition
  i=1
  for DEVICE in `esxcli storage core device list | grep "Display Name: LIO-ORG" | sed -r 's/^.*\((.*)\)/\1/' | xargs`; do
  	END_SECTOR=$(eval expr $(partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/${DEVICE} | tail -1 | awk '{print $1 " \\* " $2 " \\* " $3}') - 1)
  	partedUtil setptbl "/vmfs/devices/disks/${DEVICE}" "gpt" "1 2048 ${END_SECTOR} AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 0"
  	/sbin/vmkfstools -C vmfs5 -b 1m -S iSCSI${i}  /vmfs/devices/disks/${DEVICE}:1
  	i=$(($i + 1))
  done
  

• Connect to ESXi-B by ssh client then run the below shell script.

  #!/bin/sh
  
  IQN='iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:2'
  ADDR='172.31.254.10:3260'
  
  # Enabling iSCSI Initiator
  esxcli iscsi software set --enabled=true
  VMHBA=`esxcli iscsi adapter list | grep 'iSCSI Software Adapter' | sed -r 's/\s.*iSCSI Software Adapter$//'`
  esxcli iscsi adapter set -n ${IQN} -A ${VMHBA}
  esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget add --address=${ADDR} --adapter=${VMHBA}
  esxcli storage core adapter rescan --all
  

• Deploy UC VMs (to be protected by ECX) on esxi1 or esxi2. These VMs should be deployed on the iSCSI datastore.

• Deploy vMA OVA on both ESXi and boot them.

On the client

• Run cf.pl in cf folder.

1. Issue cluster shutdown for the vMA Cluster. Then all the UC VMs and vMA VMs are shutted down.
2. Issue cluster shutdown for the iSCSI Cluster. Then both iSCSI Target VMs are shutted down.
3. Issue shutdown for both the ESXi.

• When intentionally shutdown the vMA VM or iSCSI VM, "suspend" the genw-remote-node before it. genw-remote-node in the Cluster periodically executes "power on" for another VM.
• When intentionally stop the cluster service, "suspend" the genw-remote-node before it. genw-remote-node in the cluster periodically executes "starting cluster service" for another VM.

• re-run the cf.pl

For any further information, please visit the EXPRESSCLUSTER web-site at

http://www.nec.com/expresscluster

The following guides are available for instant support:

• Getting Started Guide - This guide explains general cluster concepts and overview of EXPRESSCLUSTER functionality.

• Installation Guide - This guide explains EXPRESSCLUSTER installation and configuration procedures in detail.

• Reference Guide - This is a reference of commands that can be put in EXPRESSCLUSTER scripts and maintenance commands that can be executed from the server command prompt.

The guides stated in above can be found at:

http://www.nec.com/global/prod/expresscluster/en/support/manuals.html

NEC Corporation assumes no responsibility for technical or editorial mistakes in or omissions from this document. To obtain the benefits of the product, it is the customer’s responsibility to install and use the product in accordance with this document. The copyright for the contents of this document belongs to NEC Corporation.

• 2017.08.28 Miyamoto Kazuyuki 1st issue
• 2018.10.22 Miyamoto Kazuyuki 2nd issue
• 2019.06.27 Miyamoto Kazuyuki 3rd issue