Configure Clustered MSDTC on Windows 2008 R2

  • The method and requirements of MSDTC configuration has changed in Windows 2008/R2 environments. It seems to require a DTC name with a paired IP address in order to create a clustered MSDTC. Can someone explain or clarify? Thanks!

  • dbychen (9/14/2011)


    The method and requirements of MSDTC configuration has changed in Windows 2008/R2 environments. It seems to require a DTC name with a paired IP address in order to create a clustered MSDTC. Can someone explain or clarify? Thanks!

    a unique virtual network name and virtual IP address are required whatever the OS

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  • Thanks Perry.

    Can MSDTC share a drive owned by the SQL Server or the Quorum drive? Does it require a dedicated drive?

  • I would configure it in a separate cluster group.

    If you put in a cluster group with one of your instances, a failover of that group would bring down MSDTC which is potentially used by other instances as well. As for the quorum drive, if you experience a situation where half of your nodes are separated from the other half, or half your nodes are down, the cluster is essentially being held up by the quorum drive (given even node cluster with quorum disk). In such a scenario, if MSDTC should happen to fail, it will fail the cluster group, it will not be possible to for the nodes to form a quorum anymore, resulting in the entire cluster to go down.

    So, I'd say: Definitely its own drive.



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  • dbychen (9/19/2011)


    Thanks Perry.

    Can MSDTC share a drive owned by the SQL Server or the Quorum drive? Does it require a dedicated drive?

    As you know, you may now have multiple clustered MSDTC applications within Windows 2008. It can make sense to create a clustered MSDTC resource for each clustered instance of SQL Server and store each MSDTC application in each of the SQL Server cluster groups\applications. This way the service will fail with the SQL instance, there is a cluster utility to map a clustered MSDTC resource to a specific clustered instance, but usually by putting the resource into the same group as the SQL instance will force the mapping. For each MSTDC I always use a separate dedicated disk.

    Multiple MSDTC resources and how to map them are detailed here and here

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  • It is now considered best practice on W2008 and W2008 R2 to have a separate instance of MSDTC for each node that will be active in a cluster. This allows the services that need MSDTC on a given node to always have access to a local MSDTC instance, which gives quicker access to MSDTC than accessing a remote instance over the network.

    If you use SQL FineBuild to create your SQL Clusters, it can also create your MSDTC clusters, and bind the SQL Instance to the MSDTC instance. If you have a favourite node for each instance, you can add the FineBuild /PreferredOwner:servername parameter and FineBuild will set the preferred ownership and put the instance online at the preferred server.

    FineBuild v3.0.0 will do this for SQL 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 and Denali clusters on W2008 and above. On W2003, FineBuild will create only one MSDTC cluster, and Denali cannot be installed on W2003.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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  • Hi,

    We have 2 node cluster setup in our environment by windows admin with msdtc configured using ip address. Is it possible to configure active/passive sql server cluster instance with the same ipaddress of msdtc? If yes, what will be the consequences of using same msdtc ip address to sql server active/passive cluster instance. If there is a consequences then I can request new ip address for sql cluster instance.

    Windows 2012 Enterprise and SQL 2012 standard edition's were involved in this scenario

    Thanks,

    Sandeep

  • sandeepkumart (9/24/2014)


    Is it possible to configure active/passive sql server cluster instance with the same ipaddress of msdtc?

    No, the installer checks the IP address to ensure it is not in use. The instance requires a unique dedicated IP address, considering the amount of IP addresses possible for assignment why are you so worried?

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  • You will also have to configure a port number for MSDTC via the ServerTcpPort registry key, as it does not have a default port. Google can find a lot of advice on how to do this.

    If you have multiple MSDTC clusters, each one will need its own port. FineBuild can set this up for you.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

    When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

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