Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (237 page)

10. Close the Explorer windows and log off of the server.

Cluster Quorum Configuration

If all cluster nodes and shared storage were available during the creation of the cluster, the

best-suited quorum model would have been automatically selected during the cluster

creation process. In some cases, the selected quorum model might need to be changed if

the cluster configuration changes by adding or removing nodes or by deploying geograph-

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ically dispersed clusters. When the existing cluster quorum needs to be validated or

changed, perform the following steps:

1. Log on to one of the Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster nodes with an account with

administrator privileges over all nodes in the cluster.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Failover

Cluster Manager.

3. When the Failover Cluster Manager console opens, if necessary type in the name of

the local cluster node to connect to the cluster.

4. In the tree pane, select the cluster name; in the tasks pane, the current quorum

model is listed.

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5. Review the current quorum model, and if it is correct, close the Failover Cluster

Manager console.

6. If the current quorum model is not the desired model, right-click the cluster name

in the tree pane, click More Actions, and select Configure Cluster Quorum Settings.

7. If the Before You Begin page opens, click Next, then on the Select Quorum

Configuration page, select the option button of the desired quorum model or select

the option button of the recommended model, and click Next to continue, as shown

in Figure 29.8.

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FIGURE 29.8

Configuring the cluster quorum model for a failover cluster.

8. If a quorum model contains a witness disk or file share, select the designated disk or

specify the path to the file share, and click Next.

9. On the Confirmation page, review the settings, and click Next to update the cluster

quorum model for the failover cluster.

10. Review the results on the Summary page, and click Finish to return to the Failover

Cluster Manager console.

11. Close the Failover Cluster Manager console and log off of the server.

Enabling Cluster Shared Volumes

When Hyper-V virtual machines will be deployed on Windows Server 2008 R2 failover

cluster nodes and shared storage is used, the new Cluster Shared Volumes can be enabled

for use with Hyper-V Live Migration configurations for designated virtual machines.

Cluster Shared Volumes are currently only supported on failover clusters for Hyper-V and

unlike other cluster shared storage, these designated volumes can be read and written to

by all nodes in the cluster simultaneously. Obvious to some is the fact that when two

separate systems can write to a single disk, corruption can occur and that is why this

Deploying Failover Clusters

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feature is only currently supported for Hyper-V and Live Migration. One important point

to note is that for a virtual machine to use a Cluster Shared Volume, this feature must be

enabled on the cluster and the virtual machine must use storage that has been added to

the Cluster Shared Volume storage group prior to virtual machine creation. To learn how

to enable Cluster Shared Volumes and deploy virtual machines using CSV storage, refer to

Chapter 37, “Deploying and Using Windows Virtualization.”

Deploying Services or Applications on Failover Clusters

After the desired cluster configuration is achieved, the cluster is ready for the deploying of

Services and Applications groups. Windows Server 2008 R2 provides several out-of-the-box

cluster resources that can be used to deploy Windows services and applications using

failover clusters, as shown in Figure 29.9.

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FIGURE 29.9

Windows Server 2008 R2 built-in cluster services and applications resources.

Before a particular built-in service or application can be deployed in the cluster, the role,

29

role service, or feature associated with it needs to be installed on each node prior to running

the High Availability Wizard. For example, before a File Services server can be deployed on a

failover cluster for high availability, the File Services role will need to be installed on each

node in the cluster. After the prerequisites are installed on each cluster node, perform the

following steps to deploy the service or application on the failover cluster:

1. Log on to one of the Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster nodes with an account with

administrator privileges over all nodes in the cluster.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Failover

Cluster Manager.

3. When the Failover Cluster Manager console opens, if necessary type in the name of

the local cluster node to connect to the cluster.

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4. In the tree pane, select the cluster name, expand it, and select Services and

Applications.

5. Right-click Services and Applications, and select Configure a Service or Application.

6. In the High Availability Wizard that opens, click Next on the Before You Begin page.

7. Select the desired service or application on the Select a Service or Application page,

and click Next to continue. If the necessary roles, role services, or features are not

installed on each node prior to selecting the desired entry, an error is displayed and

the process cannot continue. For this example, we have selected File Server as the

service or application that will be managed by the failover cluster.

8. On the Client Access Point page, type in the name and IP address for the new file

server, and click Next. This is the name and IP address used to publish or host the

service or application. Also, a computer account in the Active Directory domain

and DNS entries will be created for each name defined in a failover group’s Client

Access Point.

9. Select the disk that will be dedicated to this Services and Applications group on

the Select Storage page by checking the check box next to each disk, and click

Next to continue

10. Review the settings on the Confirmation page, and click Next to deploy the service

or application in the failover cluster.

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11. Depending on the service or application deployed, there can be specific postcreation

wizards that open to complete the configuration. Complete the steps in the wizards

as required or close the wizard and return to the Failover Cluster Manager console.

Otherwise, click Finish to close the High Availability Wizard window and return to

the Failover Cluster Manager console.

12. In the tree pane, expand Services and Applications to reveal the new group.

13. Select the new group in the tasks pane, and in the Actions pane, review the available

management commands, such as Add a Shared Folder or Manage Shares and Storage,

as shown in Figure 29.10, for a deployed file server named CLUSTERFS.

14. Complete the configuration of the newly deployed service or application, close the

Failover Cluster Management console, and log off of the cluster node.

Configuring Failover and Failback

Clusters that contain two or more nodes automatically have failover configured for each

Services and Applications group as long as each node has the necessary services or applica-

tions installed to support running the group locally. Failback is never configured by

default and needs to be manually configured for each Services and Applications group if

desired. Failback allows a designated preferred server or “preferred owner” to always run a

particular cluster group on the preferred node, when it is available. When the preferred

owner fails and the affected groups failover to alternate nodes, once the preferred node is

back online and functioning as desired, the failback configuration options are used to

determine if the group will automatically failback immediately or after a specified time

period. Also, with regard to failover and failback configuration, the Failover and Failback

properties define how many failures in a specified number of hours will be tolerated

Deploying Failover Clusters

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FIGURE 29.10

Reviewing the available actions for a file server failover cluster group.

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before the group is taken offline and remains offline. To review and if necessary change

the failover and failback configuration options on a particular Services and Applications

group, perform the following steps:

1. Log on to one of the Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster nodes with an account with

administrator privileges over all nodes in the cluster.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and select Failover

Cluster Manager.

3. When the Failover Cluster Manager console opens, if necessary type in the name of

the local cluster node to connect to the cluster.

4. In the tree pane, select the cluster name, expand it, and select Services and

Applications.

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5. Expand Services and Applications, right-click the desired group, and select

Properties. For this example, the CLUSTERFS file server group will be used.

6. In the CLUSTERFS group properties on the General tab, in the Preferred Owner

section, check the box next to the desired node if failback will be configured. Do not

close the group property window.

7. Select the Failover tab and review the number of allowed failures in a specified

number of hours. The default is one group failure allowed in six hours.

8. In the lower section of the tab, if desired, enable failback and configure whether fail-

back will be allowed and whether it will occur immediately when the preferred node

is online or if the failback can only occur during after hours, such as between the

hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. or 17 and 6, as shown in Figure 29.11.