Adding a second instance to a cluster

  • Hi there,

    I currently have a single instance cluster with 2 nodes and I have a requirement to add a second instance to it (both instances will be live on the same node, so one node will still be 'passive'). I just have the following questions:

    1. Can I specify the same network name for the second instance during setup? So the instances would be as follows...cluster1\inst1, cluster1\inst2.

    2. Does installing a second instance require any additional IP addresses?

    3. Can the second instance share the same SAN disks as the first, so all the MDF and LDF files are in the same location?

    Thanks,

    Matt

  • matt.gyton (8/10/2012)


    1. Can I specify the same network name for the second instance during setup? So the instances would be as follows...cluster1\inst1, cluster1\inst2.

    No, networknames, like computernames, must be unique in the Windows domain.

    matt.gyton (8/10/2012)


    2. Does installing a second instance require any additional IP addresses?

    Yes, IP address, network name, storage, etc

    matt.gyton (8/10/2012)


    3. Can the second instance share the same SAN disks as the first, so all the MDF and LDF files are in the same location?

    No, you need separate storage resources for each new instance.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • That's great, thanks Perry.

  • Actually just one more question if I may....

    Would we only need new disks for the Data and Logs for the new instance? (and just keep the single instances of Quorum and MSDTC for the whole cluster)

    So we would go from this:

    Q: - Quorum

    M: - MSDTC

    D: - Data

    L: - Logs

    ...to this:

    Q: - Quorum

    M: - MSDTC

    D: - Instance1 Data

    L: - Instance1 Logs

    K: - Instance2 Data

    J: - Instance2 Logs

    (...we won't worry where the tempdb is for now! ;-))

  • you only need 1 quorum disk resource, period. There are other quorum models available and depending on the number of nodes and geographical location, you could probably do away with quorum disk altogether

    With regards to MSDTC, yes you could possibly get away with one resource for both instances especially as they're all going to be active on the same node 😉

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Excellent - Thanks again.

  • Sorry to revive this thread but I have encountered one final dilemma during the SQL Install...!

    When installing the second instance to the existing cluster, in addition to giving the new instance it's own Network name, does it have to have a different instance name too or can I have 2 default instances with different network names?

    So could I have the following both hosted on the same cluster:

    cluster1/MSSQLSERVER

    cluster2/MSSQLSERVER

    Or would it have to be something like:

    cluster1/MSSQLSERVER

    cluster2/instance2

    The first default instance is already on there.

    Thanks

  • No, you may have only 1 default instance. The rest would be named

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Thanks again Perry....just wondered if I might be able to get away with it as they had different network names! 😉

    Cheers

  • No, the network names have nothing to do with it, it's the instance name that is the restriction. Each machine can only have 1 default instance clustered or not.

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

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