Windows Failover Clustering

Windows Failover Clustering

Clustering

Hello Guys,

Today I am going to share little knowledge about Windows clustering.

What is server cluster?

A Server cluster is a collection of independent servers that together provide a single, highly available platform for hosting applications.

The technique that we used in Microsoft Windows to configure cluster is called Microsoft windows clustering.

Cluster Requirements? (Here I am discussing two node cluster requirements)

Note:- You can use starwind for the storage.

• Two machine with same Hardware.
• OS on both the machines having same version and same updates.
• Two-two LAN card on both the machines.
• 2 Private IP addresses for cluster Heartbeat
• 3 Public IP address, Two IPs for machine’s public interface and one IP for Cluster name.
• You must have shared storage that must be connected to all the nodes of the cluster.
• You must have Cluster application installed on both the machines. J
• The server in Cluster must use DNS server for name resolutions.
• All the servers in the cluster must be in the same Active Directory domain.
• You must be logged on to the domain with an account that has administrator rights and permissions on all servers in that cluster
  
  
  Here I will create two nodes file cluster.
  
  
  1.       Install the OS on both the nodes with same hardware and OS version, meeting the above mentioned requirements.
  2.       Add both the nodes to a domain and make them members of that domain.
  3.       Login to node with the user having rights or administrator that has rights and permissions on all the nodes in that cluster.
  4.       Make sure storage is visible in both the nodes.
  5.       Now we need to configure the cluster nodes.
  6.       Open the cluadmin.msc and then create new cluster.
  
  
  
  
  

7.   Select the domain and enter the name of the cluster (BlogTest)

8.  Now it will analyze the configuration that will check all the pre-requisites for the cluster
 


9. Now you need to enter the IP address that the clients will used to connect to cluster.





10. Now you need to enter the credentials for the domain account under which the cluster service will 
       run on the nodes,




1. 11. After going ahead with the some steps ,you will finally Finish this wizard

    12. Now your cluster is ready and now you need to add the second node in the cluster.     

1        to do this follow the below screenshot

   

13. You will get the following wizard.

14. After that you need to enter the authorized account and the node joining will 
     get start.

  15. After you finish with this step you will see both the nodes in the console, Now you
     need to configure the cluster for file share.To configure this , please follow the below







16. After going through the wizard and selecting the cluster group , you will get the list of
     application that you can configure,Select the File Share.

17.After you select File Share, You will come to the next configuration page that is given 
    below and here you need to provide the share name, permissions etc.

18. After providing all the details , you can click next and then Finish.
19. After this your two node cluster is ready, you can try to make fail over :)

20. Be Happy :) if failover works otherwise google Zindabaad