Network ATC – Overview

Introduction

Network ATC is an intent-based approach to network configuration that was introduced with Azure Stack HCI OS (21H2) and is the preferred network configuration method to use when deploying your Azure Stack HCI cluster.

Network ATC assists with the following:

Whether you are wanting to deploy a Non-Converged, Fully Converged, or Switchless network topology for your Azure Stack HCI cluster, Network ATC can be leveraged.

The following sections will help guide you through an Azure Stack HCI network deployment leveraging Network ATC while covering some of the parameters and configuration overrides you may need depending on your environment.

Live Migration Issue

Environment Details
OS: Azure Stack HCI (22H2)
Network Configuration: NetworkATC
Network Topology: Non-Converged

Recently encountered the following error while attempting to perform live migration of VMs in my cluster:

Live migration of 'Virtual Machine vm-base-A0640R33C02N01-001' failed.

Failed to get the network address for the destination node 'A0640R33C02N02': A cluster network is not available for this operation. (0x000013AB).

For some reason, valid cluster networks were excluded for migration. I was able to validate this running the following command:

$clusterResourceType = Get-ClusterResourceType -Name 'Virtual Machine'
Get-ClusterParameter -InputObject $clusterResourceType

This returned the following which explained why the VMs were unable to live migrate:

Object          Name                          Value
------          ----                          -----
Virtual Machine MigrationExcludeNetworks      b7afa7a2-ff32-4f8c-9a33-a5660c632e2b;00C578DA-B7C3-422F-9C58-CDE3757DE984;CBD466D2-3E53-4793-B3F0-460964E7B56A
Virtual Machine MigrationNetworkOrder         
Virtual Machine MoveTypeThreshold             1000
Virtual Machine ReportNetworkFailure          1
Virtual Machine MaxClusterShutdownTimeout     4294967295
Virtual Machine SkipMigrationDestinationCheck 0

I removed the valid networks from the migration exclusion and then set my migration network order accordingly:

Object          Name                          Value
------          ----                          -----
Virtual Machine MigrationExcludeNetworks      b7afa7a2-ff32-4f8c-9a33-a5660c632e2b
Virtual Machine MigrationNetworkOrder         00C578DA-B7C3-422F-9C58-CDE3757DE984;CBD466D2-3E53-4793-B3F0-460964E7B56A
Virtual Machine MoveTypeThreshold             1000
Virtual Machine ReportNetworkFailure          1
Virtual Machine MaxClusterShutdownTimeout     4294967295
Virtual Machine SkipMigrationDestinationCheck 0

Azure Stack – Updating Microsoft Extensions via PowerShell

I recently came across an extremely useful PowerShell script to manage images and extensions within the Azure Stack marketplace thanks to this post by Kris Turner: https://kristopherjturner.com/2018/12/14/azure-stack-marketplace-management-powershell-script/

This script will download all current Microsoft virtual machine extensions from the marketplace. It also downloads Ubuntu Server and Windows Server images as well. Once all have been downloaded, it will compare versions and prompt you to remove older versions if desired.

Deploying a Secured Service Fabric Cluster in Azure Stack

The goal of this post to help fill in the gaps from the Microsoft Azure Stack User Documentation on deploying a secured service fabric cluster using the Azure Stack Developer Kit (ASDK). The same steps could easily be used on the Azure Stack integrated system.

Azure Stack – Identifying and Deleting False Alerts in 1.1807.0.76

Issue: When updating from 1.1805.7.57 (1805 hotfix) you may encounter an issue with Alerts displayed that are not actually true. The alerts, upon further investigation, appear to be false, but they cannot be closed from the portal.
Version Impacted: 1.1807.0.76 (only seems to be present when upgrading from 1.1805.7.57)
Microsoft Response: Being unable to clear the alerts after updating to 1807 is currently a known issue and fixes are under investigation. There is no resolution at this time.

The two alerts I received specifically were the following:

  • Azure Stack update stopped with errors – Critical – Capacity
  • Activation Required – Warning – Azure Bridge