Windows Server Clustering & PCNews

How-To: Configure Network Load Balancing (NLB) with Two Network Adapters

1. Assign appropriate IP addresses to each NIC, placing the NICs in separate
subnets. Rename the first NIC “Public“ and the second to “Admin“, do this for each machine.

* Node1 -

o "Public" NIC
* IP address: 10.10.10.11
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Gateway: 10.10.10.1
* DNS: as appropriate

o "Admin" NIC
* IP address: 192.168.1.1
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Gateway: N/A
* DNS: N/A


* Node2 -

o "Public" NIC
* IP address: 10.10.10.12
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Gateway: 10.10.10.1
* DNS: as appropriate

o "Admin" NIC
* IP address: 192.168.1.2
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Gateway: N/A
* DNS: N/A

2. On the "Public" NICs, click "Advanced" and add an additional IP address
as the Virtual IP Address which clients will connect to from the Public
network (i.e. - 10.10.10.169)

3. Install "Network Load Balancing" as an additional service from the
"Public" adapter properties.
* Click "Install.." and then select "Service" in the upper-window and
click "Add."
* Select "Network Load Balancing" in the upper-window and click "OK"
* Answer any prompts and provide the correct path to installation media (Windows 2000 installs only).

4. Once NLB is installed, return to the Properties page for the "Public"
NIC and select the check-box next to "Network Load Balancing."  This
enables the service globally.

5. Next, select the item "Network Load Balancing" and click "Properties"

6. Configure the NLB Cluster properties according to your parameters,
using the following example steps as a guide.

* Node1 -

o "Public" NLB Cluster Parameters tab
* Primary IP address: 10.10.10.169
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Full Internet Name mail.clusterhelp.com

o "Public" NLB Host Parameters tab
* Priority: 1
* Dedicated IP address: 10.10.10.11
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0


* Node2 -

o "Public" NLB Cluster Parameters tab
* Primary IP address: 10.10.10.169
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0
* Full Internet Name mail.clusterhelp.com

o "Public" NLB Host Parameters tab
* Priority: 2
* Dedicated IP address: 10.10.10.12
* Subnet: 255.255.255.0

7. MultiCast support can be optional in this configuration, though I would not recommend it.

8. You can also now take time to create a static Host record (A record) in
your scenario's DNS infrastructure to provide appropriate name resolution
to the NLB cluster name (i.e. - mail.clusterhelp.com or just mail).

9. Your NLB cluster should be up and running after the nodes converge.

10. An external client should now be able to ping the IP address of the
NLB cluster (i.e. - 10.10.10.169) as well as each of the individual node
addresses (i.e. - 10.10.10.11 & 10.10.10.12).

11. Many good diagnostic commands can be found by typing "wlbs /?" in a
command window.  For example, "wlbs query" shows the status and
convergence state of the cluster. If you are running Windows Server 2003 (any version expect SBS) you can use the graphical Network Load Balancing Manager - I love this tool.

12. IMPORTANT NOTE: In this configuration, each individual node is NOT
able to ping the other node's Public physical IP address (i.e - 10.10.10.11
cannot ping 10.10.10.12 and vice-versa).  I believe this is expected
behavior, as the NLB cluster is now responding to requests on the Virtual
Cluster address (i.e. - 10.10.10.169).

Written by Ryan Sokolowski (blogged with permission) - with minor changes and tweaks

GeoClustering - How You Can Achieve Greater Availability with Failover Clustering Across Multiple Sites

Just recorded -

TechNet Webcast: How You Can Achieve Greater Availability with Failover Clustering Across Multiple Sites (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032282061&CountryCode=US

This is yet another (http://msmvps.com/clustering/archive/2005/06/27/56143.aspx) excellent webcast from the master himself - Elden Christensen. This is a great free resource to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Geographically Dispersed Clusters.

The strange part is not that you learn a lot from Elden. Not that you get a glimpse of what LongHorn Server may have in store for us. Not the excellent presentation skills of Elden throughout this 68 minutes presentation. The strange part is that the slides and graphics are stunning, simply the best I have ever seen. Oh sure, you will learn something and enjoy the content, but it’s also visually entertaining.

Excellent job Elden, keep them coming buddy!

SQL 2000a? Does it really exist, or is it a misprint?

After the fun Microsoft had with Slammer a change was made:

SQL 2000a does exist and is the current version. SQL 2000a is basically the original disk of SQL 2000 with one DLL replaced to protect against getting the Slammer worm.  Windows Server 2003 actually has a check for this particular patch (hence the need for SQL SP3a or higher requirement) and disables network access for SQL until it is in place.  That is why we have to do the named pipe alias (see http://msmvps.com/clustering/archive/2005/10/19/71580.aspx) for clustered non-default instance installs on Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003 doesn't like installing the original version and prefers SQL 2000a.  The easy way to tell is that one or more of the folders in the root of the SQL 2000 CD are now show a date in 2003 instead of in 2000.

Any version downloaded today via MSDN or any of the licensing fulfillment 
programs will be SQL 2000a.  If you have an older version, contact 
whomever you purchased the license from to obtain a new media kit. This has been the case for a few years now, so don't panic.

Thanks to Geoff N. Hiten a true Microsoft SQL Server MVP for cluing in about all this!

Installing a new SQL instance into an existing cluster on a new Node

We added a node to one of our clusters. We confirmed that the hardware, firmware, bios, OS, and installed programs were exactly alike. The new machine joined the cluster like a champ, no issues.

When I went to install SQL and create a new instance, I was hit with this error:

The cluster resource failed to come online. If extended error information was reported by the clustering service it can be obtained from the event log.

It turns out this is a known issue. From http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815431 “To run SQL Server on Windows Server 2003, you must have SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) installed. Windows Server 2003 blocks TCP/IP functionality for named instances that are not running SQL Server 2000 SP3 or later. “

This will only happen when a named instance is added to a new cluster node.

The fix is really easy, follow the articles steps to install the client utilities and create a SQL Service Alias in the SQL Server Client Network Utility .

Should Clustered services be set to 'manual' or 'automatic'?

The question goes something like this:

My cluster is installed and running SQL/Exchange nicely but I noticed that all the services for SQL/Exchange are set to start manaully. Should I set the services to automatic instead?

Answer:

Cluster controlled services should always be set to manual, so that the
cluster can control the startup and shutdown. Remember with Microsoft
clustering only one server can control a resource at any given time. Leaving
the services set to manual will help the cluster service do it's job and
ensure an error free service :)

Small Business Server (SBS) Clustering

I get this question from time to time:

“Does Windows 2003 Small Business Server support clustering and if not would you suggest a 3rd party clustering solution.  The only catch I see is the SBS feature of not letting any other SBS servers in the same domain.”

Let me answer these questions with the facts:

1) You can add servers to an SBS domain. You can't not add another SBS Domain Controller (though a standard DC can be added), but a server running Exchange or SQL is allowed and works nicely.

2) You can't have another SBS server into the domain, only one SBS server is supported per domain/tree/forest. It must also own the FSMO roles for the forest.

3) SBS does not support Clustering. Never has and probably never will.

4) I do not know of any third party solutions that would work with SBS and be supported by the vendor or Microsoft.

Yes, oddly enough I am SBS certified (71-282 exam - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-282.asp). I was invited to take the beta exam and passed.

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