March 26, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hello,
I am 100% new to building clusters, so please pardon my newbie-ness...
I am trying to build a SQL 2005 cluster on Win2K3/SP2.
The servers are actually VMWare VM's hosted in our lab. When the servers were delivered, the OS was installed as was MSDTC. BTW, this is a 2-node active/active cluster.
Cluster Service was installed and had groups created for:
Cluster Group
ENTSSO (BizTalk Enterprise Single Sign-on)
MSDTC Group
Group 0 (Not certain if pre-installed)
Resources:
Cluster IP Address
Cluster Name
Quorum (Will be the Q: drive)
MSDTC
Disk F: Data
Disk G: Backups
Disk H: Log files
In DNS, there is an entry for each server.
Problem Description:
When I run the SQL install, I get to the point where it asks for the Default/Named Instance. I selected Named instance and entered "INST1", which is our default for the first instance. INST2 will be for the other node. So, the full instance name is something like Server01A/INST1 or Server02B/INST2.
The setup program accepts "INST1" just fine. After clicking Next, it wants the Virtual name. This is what I don't understand. What exactly is it looking for? Nothing I enter works. We typically (our normal standard) would be something like Server01DEVSQLA, meaning Server01, it's a Development server, and a SQL server. I guess I need to know is where is this Virtual name defined? Thinking that the install program was trying to DNS resolve and connect to it, I added the virtual name as a DNS Alias, but this still did not work. The only thing it accepts is a new, unknown name, such as Server01SQLA. This works for some reason.
Can anyone help me understand everything that needs to be in place prior to running the SQL install program? Also, what can I expect the install program to add to Cluster Administrator? Are there additional things I need to have in place prior to the SQL install on the 2nd node?
Thanks in advance,
Rich
March 26, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Hi Rich,
A virtual name is what your users will access it by; it you need to have a DNS entry registered with that name and virtual serer IP address. The failover clustering works by re-directing the users using DNS services to the proper node. The user does not connect to NODE 1 or NODE 2, they connect to the Virtual Server Name/IP and Clustering Services then redirects it to NODE 1 or NODE 2 for you automatically.
So in your 2-Node Active/Active Configuration you need at minimum:
2 - Virtual Server Names/IPs Registered
2 - Physical Server IPs/Names
Looks like for you are having separate hdd for Data and Log; which is good but it cannot share between the two instances so you need:
2 - Data Drives
2 - Log Drives
For your cluster groups you should have at minimum following groups:
SQLInst01
SQLInst02
Each Group will have minimum following resources
SQL Server Service
SQL Agent Service
SQL Full Text Service (if installed)
Network Name (Virtual Name)
IP Address (Virtual Name IP)
Data Drive
Log Drive
Hope that gives you some information, you can look at following site on setting up cluster:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179530(SQL.90).aspx
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/articles/clustering/cluster_sql_server_2005_p1.aspx
You can look at the cluster check list here:
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/articles/clustering/cluster_infrastructure_p1.aspx
Thanks.
Mohit K. Gupta, MCITP: Database Administrator (2005), My Blog, Twitter: @SQLCAN[/url].
Microsoft FTE - SQL Server PFE
* Some time its the search that counts, not the finding...
* I didn't think so, but if I was wrong, I was wrong. I'd rather do something, and make a mistake than be frightened and be doing nothing. :smooooth:[/font]
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