Nick on HCI

In this series of posts, I walk through my experience setting up and using a fully functional Azure Stack HCI 2-node (sometimes single-node) cluster in a virtualized, self-contained test lab, using Microsoft’s instructions and free (evaluation) software downloads.

Many of the steps depend on each other, the easiest way to get started is to read the first 2 or 3 posts in order. I’ve listed all the posts below in order, and each post contains a reference to dependencies at the top of the post.

Step 1	Provision an Azure Stack HCI test lab (using MSLabs)
Step 2	Create an Azure Stack HCI Cluster (create, register, and validate)
Step 3	Enable HCI guest VM Self-Service via the Azure portal (with Arc resource bridge)
Step 4	Light up Hotpatch, free ESUs, and more on HCI guest VMs (via Azure Benefits)
Step 5	Install and use SQL MI on Azure Stack HCI (with Azure Kubernetes Service)

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Step 1: Provision an Azure Stack HCI test lab (using MSLabs)

In this post, I walk through creating an Azure Stack HCI test lab (using MSLabs). Once the lab VMs are created, this environment can be used to test common Azure Stack HCI scenarios, including running guest VMs, setting up Kubernetes, using SQL MI, configuring Arc, and others.

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Step 2: Create an Azure Stack HCI cluster

In this post, I’ll continue setting up my Azure Stack HCI test lab by creating an Azure Stack HCI cluster. Previously, I created a lab environment using MSLabs, which includes a VM Domain Controller, management server, and two Azure Stack HCI nodes. Now I’ll use those to create an Azure Stack HCI cluster, register that cluster with Azure, and finally validate that everything was created correctly.