Applying Windows Patches

Applying Windows Patch Updates

Windows Service Pack updates should be completed on one Hyper-V Server at a time to prevent the HyperFlex cluster from experiencing an outage. Multiple Hyper-V hosts booting at the same will cause their associated controller VMs to be offline and a HyperFlex cluster with 5 or more nodes can only tolerate 2 controller VMs being offline at the same time.


Note

Clusters comprised of 3 or 4 nodes can only tolerate one node to be down at a time.

Perform the following procedure for updating Windows Service Pack that includes cluster health checks.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to a controller VM to verify that the cluster is healthy. Check for The Resiliency Health and “# of node failures tolerable” lines. Make a note of how many node failures are tolerable by your HX cluster.

Step 2

Run the hxcli cluster info command. 

Sample Output:
Cluster Name : SUP61-SMB
Cluster UUID : 3789536550516014784:5974749742096294602
Cluster State : ONLINE
Cluster Access Policy : Lenient
Space Status : NORMAL
Raw Capacity : 92.4 TB
Total Capacity : 30.8 TB
Used Capacity : 269.8 GB
Free Capacity : 30.5 TB
Compression Savings : 82.61%
Deduplication Savings : 0.00%
Total Savings : 82.61%
# of Nodes Configured : 4
# of Nodes Online : 4
Data IP Address : SUP61-CIP.hx.local
Resiliency Health : HEALTHY
Policy Compliance : COMPLIANT
Data Replication Factor : 2 Copies
# of node failures tolerable : 1
# of persistent device failures tolerable : 2
# of cache device failures tolerable : 2
Zone Type : Unknown
All Flash : No
Step 3

Select a Hyper-V host to be updated.
Step 4

Log in to HX Connect with the HyperFlex Admin Service account.

Step 5

Navigate to System Information > Nodes.

Step 6

Click on the Hyper-V host to be updated. The host entry is highlighted in a light blue color.
Step 7

In the Nodes tab, Click Enter HX Maintenance Mode.

Step 8

An HX Maintenance Mode screen displays with an alert for maintenance mode operations.
Step 9

In Failover Cluster Manager, verify in the Roles screen that all VMs have been evacuated from the selected Hyper-V Host with the exception of the Controller VM (StCtlVM). The controller VM cannot be reallocated.

Step 10

Perform the Window Update on the selected Hyper-V host.
Step 11

After all the reboots and software updates have been completed in the HX Connect UI, System Information > Nodes, select the updated Hyper-V host and click Exit HX Maintenance Mode.

Step 12

Log in to a controller VM and use the hxcli cluster info check command to verify that the cluster is healthy and can tolerate the same number of node failures in Step 1.

Note 

This operation may take a few minutes before the cluster returns to a healthy state.
Step 13

Once the cluster is healthy and can tolerate the same number of node failures in Step 1 then repeat Steps 2 – 12 until all Hyper-V hosts have been updated.