Clustered SQL Server 2005/2008 Installation Using Mount Points

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Clustered SQL Server 2005/2008 Installation Using Mount Points

  • Nice article James :w00t:

    Good overview towards the remarks and caveats.

    We are using MPs for a while now (with sql2005) and didn't encouter any problems yet.

    Knock on wood:Whistling:

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • The only issue I've run into with using mount points is during replication setup (creating the replication database on my MP throws an error), but that's easy enough to work around. The benefits far outweigh that little drawback.

  • Can you guys share what benefits you get by having this type of installation?

  • does anyone know if this has been done on Server 2008?

  • Advantages ?

    Mainly you save drive letters

    and you can use more than 26 logical drives for a single instance of sqlserver

    BP say for performance you would need:

    - tempdb on a separate disk

    - reportservertempdb on a separate disk

    - separate data from catalog data (may require another/multiple disk(s) for performance)

    - separate index file from data file

    - separate backup volume (slower by nature than the other disks needed)

    This would come to at least 5 disks for an instance, meaning you could host max +/- 4 instances :hehe:

    Off corse these are just guidelines, but it you want top performance, you'd be better to follow them.

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • Excellent article.

    Last time I did this with SQL2K5 on a W2K3R2 cluster, I found it easier to install to a "lettered" drive for the system databases for my clustered instance. The SQL install was a lot happier with this and enabled me to get the SQL cluster up and running.

    I then added the data, log, backup and temp mounts to another drive letter on the cluster afterwards.

  • Well, I'm glad it's working out for you . . . not so much for me.

    I'm running (or trying to run) SQL2K8 on W2K3 SP2. I know SQL2005 works with Mount Points on W2K3 because I've got it in a three way active/active/active cluster.

    But for W2K8? No. Just a disappointment.

    The problem was in set up. I created the standard 1GB parent drive, and the dependent volumes, but when I got to the installation dialog where I could assign the temp/log/data devices, I got errors. I was told, when I requested the sql files be created on the mount points, that my suggested path was either malformed or not absolute; if I chose a hard path from the root of the parent drive, I was told the drive wasn't in the cluster.

    Here's what I got when I chose a mount point:

    "The path \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\Harddisk5\Partition1\MSSQL.INSTANCE1\MSSQL\DATA\ is malformed or not absolute. Error code 0x84B40000."

    When I got chose "e:\mount-point-for-data\mssql.instance1\mssql\data," I was told e: wasn't in the cluster.

    A colleague came in and said, "well, assign drive letters to the mounted volumes." So we did that got SQL2K8 to install, but now I'm stuck with the drive letters, which we don't want AND the parent drive. When we open the explorer now we've got TWO pictures of the same volumes.

    I tried just deleting the drive letters and that didn't work: SQL couldn't start dependent only on the path.

    What a drag.

  • bhindla (3/25/2009)


    Well, I'm glad it's working out for you . . . not so much for me.

    I'm running (or trying to run) SQL2K8 on W2K3 SP2. I know SQL2005 works with Mount Points on W2K3 because I've got it in a three way active/active/active cluster.

    But for W2K8? No. Just a disappointment.

    The problem was in set up. I created the standard 1GB parent drive, and the dependent volumes, but when I got to the installation dialog where I could assign the temp/log/data devices, I got errors. I was told, when I requested the sql files be created on the mount points, that my suggested path was either malformed or not absolute; if I chose a hard path from the root of the parent drive, I was told the drive wasn't in the cluster.

    Here's what I got when I chose a mount point:

    "The path \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\Harddisk5\Partition1\MSSQL.INSTANCE1\MSSQL\DATA\ is malformed or not absolute. Error code 0x84B40000."

    When I got chose "e:\mount-point-for-data\mssql.instance1\mssql\data," I was told e: wasn't in the cluster.

    A colleague came in and said, "well, assign drive letters to the mounted volumes." So we did that got SQL2K8 to install, but now I'm stuck with the drive letters, which we don't want AND the parent drive. When we open the explorer now we've got TWO pictures of the same volumes.

    I tried just deleting the drive letters and that didn't work: SQL couldn't start dependent only on the path.

    What a drag.

    Did you verify your SQLServer instance is dependant on the mountpoints (cluster admin !) ?

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • After installation, attempt to start sql with it dependent on mountpoints didn't succeed.

    Problem occurred during installation before I had chance to make it dependent on anything, before it was even installed. Cluster-Admin is a domain admin.

  • I would like read this article but there is NO ARTICLE in that link. If anybody already been saved this article, then please email me to pshaship@hotmail.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Clustering/65968/

    Thanks

  • I'm having the exact same problem. Has anyone been able to solve this issue?

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply