Cannot RDP or Console into Hyper V cluster - File Server role server

Posted by MindErection@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 4 comments

Hi everyone, I recently have been tasked with working on a server that is part of a hyper-v cluster. The only problem is I cannot remote into it or interact with it directly. I have no experience with hyper V clusters so this is throwing me throw a loop. Apparently the "role" is file server and not "virtual machine". The rest of my VMs I can access fine, but this one I cannot.

We have drives mapped using the hostname and the IP pings back to the cluster's IP. I tried searching the internet but nothing I have found really explains whats going on. The only documentation is in how to setup the file server node itself, but nothing more.

Can anyone with experience explain to me what exactly IS a file server role/node? Is it kind of a "fake" headless server that is managed by the hyper V host itself and not an actual VM? I'm guessing that's the case, but it seems crazy to me our entire file server is managed by a small window for permissions. Is there no way to get in there and actually mess with the server? Sorry for my ignorance, thank you.

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demonjrules@reddit

If I'm understanding your post correctly, try this https://jackhanington.com/blog/2014/12/09/enable-remote-desktop-on-a-remote-windows-server/

Prado_1925@reddit

I suppose this must be a highly available file server role hosted in the Hyper-V Failover Cluster. Basically it is not a VM, but just a SMB file share owned by one of the nodes in the failover cluster and it uses the cluster disk as the storage volume.

You can't RDP into the file server itself as it is just a share, instead you can logon to any of the nodes in the cluster and use the Failover Cluster Manager to manage the file server/share permissions, etc. Alternatively, you can also connect the file server through MMC snap-in to manage the share permissions.

So I don't really understand what is your concern about not being able to logon to the file server.

OpacusVenatori@reddit

Possibly just a Clustered File Server; either as a (a) Scale Out File Server, or (b) File Server for General Use.

You can deploy and configure a clustered file server by using either of the following methods:

Scale-Out File Server for application data This clustered file server feature was introduced in Windows Server 2012, and it lets you store server application data, such as Hyper-V virtual machine files, on file shares, and obtain a similar level of reliability, availability, manageability, and high performance that you would expect from a storage area network. All file shares are simultaneously online on all nodes. File shares associated with this type of clustered file server are called scale-out file shares. This is sometimes referred to as active-active. This is the recommended file server type when deploying either Hyper-V over Server Message Block (SMB) or Microsoft SQL Server over SMB.
File Server for general use This is the continuation of the clustered file server that has been supported in Windows Server since the introduction of Failover Clustering. This type of clustered file server, and therefore all the shares associated with the clustered file server, is online on one node at a time. This is sometimes referred to as active-passive or dual-active. File shares associated with this type of clustered file server are called clustered file shares. This is the recommended file server type when deploying information worker scenarios.

BlackV@reddit

well you actually need to workout what you're actually doing and whet you're actually working with first,

stop RDPing to everything by default

open cluster manager, go look at the roles there first, does it list a file share there? (sounds like it does based on your post) but confirm

It should have properties that tell you what/where it is being hosted and how its configured(where the disk is, where the shares are and so on)

It is NOT a VM that you RDP in that case

basically the cluster service is running a SMB share that user/services/etc can access, there should be a disk that is storing the data for that share