Hi folks

This is the second part of our three part article series about MS SQL Server 2008 R2 clustering. In the first part , I created Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machines in vSphere 4 environment. In this part, I will build the cluster infrastructure,  means create a two-node Windows cluster. Lets start with the requirements for failover cluster creation.

There are software, hardware, networking and accounting requirements for a two-node failover clustering. Therefore it could be easier to represent them as a table. Table 1 shows the requirements of a two-node failover cluster.

Table 1: Requirements for a two-node failover cluster

As a matter of fact, my environment meets all the requirements listed in the table. But I am strongly recommend you to read the requirements and be sure to meet them in your environment. As I talked about the requirements, lets start the creation of two-node failover cluster.

First of all, I have to configure the network settings of public and private network interfaces (Note: I renamed these interfaces as LAN and Heartbeat, respectively). To do this, I open the network connections page via Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel -> Network Sharing Center -> Change Adapter Settings) and open the properties of public network interface (LAN) on the first server. I open the TCP/IP v4 properties and fill the necessary fields as they are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: IPv4 settings of public network interface

After that I open the properties of private network interface (Heartbeat) and fill the necessary fields as they are shown in Figure 2. I give an IP address from 100.100.100.0/24 IP block, as you can see in the figure.

Figure 2: IPv4 settings of private network interface

After that I repeat the same steps for the second virtual machine. Table 2 represents the values that I give to each server.

Table 2: IP values for each server

As you remember from the first part of the article, LAN interface has to be ordered before Heartbeat interface in the advanced settings (Figure 4 of the first part). After I verify it via the Advanced Network Settings, I control the communication between the two virtual machines by Ping command. All the verification process finishes smoothly in my case (I can successfully ping both machines from each other via each interface) and two machines are ready to be clustered in networking point of view. In this point, it can be a good idea to make the virtual machines  members of mstip.com domain.

After including the machines to the domain, the only thing left before the creation and configuration of cluster is enabling the Failover Cluster Feature for each machine from Server Manager snap-in. For this purpose I open the Server Manager snap-in (Start -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager) and select “Add Features” from the Features field. From the opening wizard, I select “Failover Clustering” from the list (Figure 3) and complete it. After I finish the same procedure on the second server, I am ready to cluster the two machines.

Figure 3: Failover Clustering selection

Before cluster creation, I have to validate my virtual servers for clustering. For this purpose I open the “Failover Cluster Manager” snap-in (Start -> Administrative Tools -> Failover Cluster Manager) on one of my virtual machines. On the main screen which is seen in Figure 4, there is a “Validate a configuration…” link. I click on that link and a new wizard appears. The first screen is an informative one and by clicking Next button, server selection screen appears (Figure 5).

Figure 4: Main screen of “Failover Cluster Manager” snap-in

Figure 5: Server selection screen

Here I select my two virtual machines and add them to the list by the help of Browse button and click Next. In “Testing Options” screen, I select “Run all tests (recommended)” choice and press Next button again (Figure 6). The wizard starts to validate various components (Figure 7) and when it finishes the validation process, it creates a detailed report about what is wrong and what is OK. In my validation report, everything seems fine therefore I can proceed to the creation of cluster.

Figure 6: “Testing options” screen

Figure 7: Validation process working

To create a new cluster, I click on the “Create a cluster” link on the main screen of “Failover Cluster Manager” snap-in. It leads to a new wizard, of course :). On the first screen, I select my two virtual servers again and press Next button. On the second screen, I have to give a name and IP address to my new cluster. I fill the necessary fields as they are seen in Figure 8. This means that my newly created cluster will serve with this new name and IP address. The users or services that will utilize the cluster, won’t know about the real names and IP addresses of my two virtual machines. Figure 9 represents the nodes, cluster and their DNS records.

Figure 8: Cluster name and IP address

Figure 9: Representation of clustered nodes

After few Next buttons, I finish the wizard. This gives you a new working Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster. Now you check whether all the configuration is working without an error or not via “Failover Cluster Manager” snap-in. Actually the interface is helpful enough in a way that all the working components of the cluster are shown with a green OK sign.

This is the end of part two. In this part, I create my two-node Windows cluster. In the next part, I will install MS SQL Server 2008 R2 product on my clustered environment. See you next time.

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