Microsoft Failover Clustering

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Installing Microsoft Failover Clustering on VMware vSphere 4.1 with RDMs

March 14, 2013 Microsoft Failover Clustering No comments

This is a quick guide to installing Microsoft Failover Clustering on VMware vSphere 4.1 on 2 VMs across the 2 hosts

Pre-Requisites

Failover Clustering feature is available with Windows Server 2008/R2 Enterprise/Data Center editions. You don’t have this feature with the Standard edition of Windows Server 2008/R2
You also need a form of Shared Storage (FC)
To use the native disk support included in failover clustering, use basic disks, not dynamic disks and format as NTFS
Setup 1 Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller Virtual Machine with Active Directory Services and a Domain
Setup 1 x Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine for Node 1 of the Windows Cluster with 2 NICs
Setup 1 x Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine for Node 2 of the Windows Cluster with 2 NICs

Instructions

Make sure all Virtual Machine are joined to the domain
Make sure all Virtual Machines are fully updated and patched with the latest S/W updates
You may need to adjust your Windows Firewall
On the first network adapter rename this as Public and on the second adapter, rename this as Private or MSCS Heartbeat
On the first network adapter, add the static IP address, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS
On the second network adapter, just add the IP Address and Subnet Mask
Go back to the original screen and untick the following boxes
Clear the Client for Microsoft Networks
Clear the File and Printer Sharing
Clear QOS Packet Scheduler
Clear Link Layer Toplogy checkboxes

Click Properties on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

Click the DNS tab and clear the Register this Connection’s Addresses in DNS

Select the WINS tab and clear the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup checkbox

After you configured the IP addresses on every network adapter verify the order in which they are accessed. Go to Network Connections click Advanced > Advanced Settings and make sure that your LAN connection is the first one. If not click the up or down arrow to move the connection on top of the list. This is the network clients will use to connect to the services offered by the cluster.

Adding Storage

I am assuming that your Storage Admin has already pre-created the LUNs that we are going to assign

Go to vCenter and click Edit Settings
Select Add > Select Hard Disk

Select Raw Device Mapping

You will see that there are 4 LUNs available. This is because I want to set up Microsoft Failover Clustering with SQL Failover clustering and I need 4 disks for the Quorum, SQL Data, SQL Logs and MSDTC

Select to store with the Virtual Machine. When an RDM is used, a small VMDK file is created on a VMFS Datastore and is a pointer to the RDM. This will be used when you configure the 2nd node in the cluster

Select Compatibility Mode. Physical Compatibility Mode is required for Microsoft Failover Cluster across hosts

Review and Finish
Because you added the new disk as a new device on a new bus, you now have a new virtual SCSI controller which will default to the recommended type, LSI Logic SAS for Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2

In Edit Settings, you need to click on the newly created SCSI Controller and select Physical for SCSI Bus Sharing. This is required for failover clustering to detect the storage as usable

You now need to repeat this action for all RDMs you need to add
When you have finished adding all the RDMs you should see the following in Edit Settings for the VM

You should now have the following setup to work with

Next we need to add the RDMs to the second VM which is a slightly different procedure
Click Edit Settings on the 2nd VM and Add Hard Disk

Select Choose and existing Virtual Disk

To select the RDM Pointer file browse to the datastore and folder for the VM where you created the pointer file on the first VM

Select the same SCSI Virtual Device Node you setup on the first VM for the first RDM

Review Settings and make sure everything is correct

Next you will need to set the SCSI Bus Sharing Mode to Physical and verify that the type is LSI Logic SAS

You now need to do the same for all the disks that have been added
Check everything looks correct and this is your storage setup

Configuring the storage on the VMs

Power on Node/VM1
Connect to Node1/VM1
Launch Server Manager and navigate to Disk Management under Storage
In Disk Manager you will see the new disks as being offline
Right click each disk and select Online and if necessary right click again and select Initialise Disk then select the MBR partition type
Create a simple volume on all 4 disks which should then look like the below

Next Power on and log into Node2/VM2
Open Disk Management and right click each disk and select Online. Once the Disks are online you will see the volume labels and status
If the disks have been assigned the next available drive letters then you will need to change the drive letters to match the letters you assigned on Node1/VM1
The disks will now look identical to Node1/VM1

Install Microsoft Failover Clustering

You will need to install Failover Clustering on both nodes as per below procedure

Open Server Manager > Add Features > Failover Clustering

Click Install

On the first Node1/VM1 click Start > Administrative Tools > Failover Cluster Manager
Click on Validate a Cluster

Validation will run a variety of tests against your virtual hardware including the storage and networking to verify if the hardware is configured correctly to support a failover cluster. To pass all tests, both nodes must be online and the hardware must be configured correctly

Select your 2 Nodes/VMs

Click Next and Run all Tests

Verify the server names and check the tests

Click Run and the tests will begin

Your configuration is now validated and you can check the reports for anything which is incorrect

Click Create the cluster now using the validated nodes

Type a name for your cluster
Type an IP Address for the Cluster IP

Check details are all correct and click Create

Finish and check everything is setup OK

If you want to install SQL Server clustering, we will need to install a MSDTC Service
Go to Services and Applications – right click and select “Configure a service or application

Click Next and select DTC

Put in a name and IP Address for the DTC

Click Next and select the storage you created for the MSDTC

Click Next and Review the confirmation

Click Next and the MSDTC Service will be created

Finish and make sure everything was setup successfully

Congratulations, you have now set up your Windows Failover Cluster
Check that your Windows Cluster IP and your MSDTC IP are listed in DNS

To set up SQL Server Failover Clustering

http://www.electricmonk.org.uk/2012/11/13/sql-server-2008-clustering/

Testing Microsoft Failover Clustering on VMware Workstation 8 or ESXi4/5 Standalone

November 12, 2012 Clustering, Microsoft Failover Clustering, VMware No comments

VMware Workstation and vSphere ESXi (Free Version) are the ultimate flexible tools for testing out solutions such as Microsoft Failover Clustering. I wanted to test this out myself before implementing this on a live VMware environment so I have posted some instructions on how to set this up step by step.

Pre-Requisites

Note: This test environment should not be what you use in a Production environment. It is to give you a way of being able to work and play with Windows Clustering

Note: Failover Clustering feature is available with Windows Server 2008/R2 Enterprise/Data Center editions. You don’t have this feature with the Standard edition of Windows Server 2008/R2.

Note: You also need a form of Shared Storage (FC or iSCSI) There are very good free solutions by Solarwinds and Freenas as per the links below you can download and use for testing

Note: To use the native disk support included in failover clustering, use basic disks, not dynamic disks and format as NTFS

VMware Workstation 8 (If you are a VCP 4 or 5, you will have a free VMware Workstation license)
Setup 1 Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller Virtual Machine with Active Directory Services and a Domain
Setup 1 x Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine for Node 1 of the Windows Cluster with 2 NICs
Setup 1 x Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine for Node 2 of the Windows Cluster with 2 NICs
1 x Freenas Virtual Machine (Free Storage Virtual Machine in ISO format) We will not be using this in this demo but it is also a very good free solution for creating Shared Storage for Testing
http://www.freenas.org/
1 x Free Starwind ISCSI SAN edition (Requires a corporate email registration) This is what we will be using in this demo (Version 6.0.4837)
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-free

Instructions

Make sure all Virtual Machine are joined to the domain
Make sure all Virtual Machines are fully updated and patched with the latest S/W updates
On the first network adapter rename this as Public and on the second adapter, rename this as Private or MSCS Heartbeat
On the first network adapter, add the static IP address, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS
On the second network adapter, just add the IP Address and Subnet Mask
Go back to the original screen and untick the following boxes
Clear the Client for Microsoft Networks
Clear the File and Printer Sharing
Clear QOS Packet Scheduler
Clear Link Layer Toplogy checkboxes

Click Properties on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

Click the DNS tab and clear the Register this Connection’s Addresses in DNS

Select the WINS tab and clear the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup checkbox

After you configured the IP addresses on every network adapter verify the order in which they are accessed. Go to Network Connections click Advanced > Advanced Settings and make sure that your LAN connection is the first one. If not click the up or down arrow to move the connection on top of the list. This is the network clients will use to connect to the services offered by the cluster.

Make sure you note down all IP Addresses as you go along. This is always handy
Disable the Domain Firewall on both Windows Servers
At this point, you can choose whether to use Freenas or Starwind. I will be continuing with Starwind but you can follow the Freenas instructions as per below link if you are more familiar with this
http://www.sysprobs.com/nas-vmware-workstation-iscsi-target
Install the Starwind Software on your Domain Controller
Highlight Starwind Server and select Add Host which will be the DC
Click General and Connect
Put in root and the Password is starwind
Go to Registration – Load License which you should have saved from your download
Select Devices in the left and Pane, right click and Add a new device to the target. The wizard opens as below. Select Virtual Hard Disk

Click Next and Select Image File Device

Click Next and Create new Virtual Disk

Select the radio button at the end of the New Virtual Disk Location

The below window will open

Create a new folder called StarwindStorage

Type in the first name quorum.img so it all looks like the bottom

Edit the size to what you want

Next, type an alias name > Next

Finish

Do the exact procedure above for SQLData
Do the exact procedure above for SQLLogs
Do the exact procedure above for MSDTC
You need to add MSDTC to every Windows Cluster you build. It ensures operations requiring enlisting resources such as COM+ can work in a cluster. It is recommended that you configure MSDTC on a different disk to everything
The Quorum Database contains all the configuration information for the cluster
Go on to your first Windows Server
Click Start > Administration Tools > iSCSI Initiator. If you get the message below, just click Yes

Click the Discovery Tab > Add Portal
Add the Domain Controller as a Target Portal
Click the Targets Tab and you will see the 4 disks there
Login to each disk clicking Automatically Restore this Connection
Go to Computer Management > Click Disk Management
Make all 4 disks online and initialized
Right click on each select create Simple Volume
Go to the second Windows Server
Click Start > Administration Tools > iSCSI Initiator
Click the Discovery Tab > Add Portal
Add the Domain Controller as a Target Portal
Click the Targets Tab and you will see the 4 disks there
Login to each disk clicking Automatically Restore this Connection
Go to Computer Management > Click Disk Management
Don’t bring the disks online, don’t do anything else to the disks on the second server
Go back to the first Windows Server
Select Server Manager > Add Features > Failover Clustering
Go back to the second Windows Server
Select Server Manager > Add Features > Failover Clustering

Once installed on the second server, go back to the first Windows Server
To open Failover Clustering, click on Start > Administrative Tools > Failover Cluster Manager

Click on Validate a configuration under management.
When you click on Validate a Configuration, you will need to browse and add the Cluster nodes, these are the 2 Windows servers that will be part of the cluster, then click Next
Select Run all tests and click Next

Click Next
Review the validation report, as your configuration might have few issues with it and needs to be addresses before setting up your cluster

Your configuration is now validated and you are ready to setup your cluster.
Click on the second option, Create a Cluster, the wizard will launch, read it and then click Next

You need to add the names of the servers you want to have in the cluster

After the servers are selected, you need to type a Cluster name and IP for your Cluster
Put this cluster name and IP in your DNS server

Next
Next
Finish
Open Failover Cluster Manager and you will see your nodes and setting inside the MMC. Here you can configure your cluster, add new nodes, remove nodes, add more disk storage and any other administration
If you want to install SQL Server clustering, we will need to install a MSDTC Service
Go to Services and Applications – right click and select “Configure a service or application

Select the DTC and click next
On the Client Access Point page, enter a Name and an IP address to be used by the DTC, and then click Next.
Put the DTC Name and IP Address in your DNS Server

If you find that it has taken the wrong disk for your Quorum Disk, you will need to do the following
Right click on the cluster and select More Actions
Configure Cluster Quorum Settings
Click Next
On the next Page – Select Quorum Configuration
Keep Node and Disk Majority

On Configure the Storage Witness, select the drive that should have been the Quorum drive
Now you should be completely set up for Windows Clustering. Have a look through all the settings to familiarise yourself with everything.

Next Post

My next post will contain Instructions on on how to setup SQL Server clustering. You should have this environment set up first before following on with installing SQL Server.

YouTube Videos

These videos are extremely useful as quidance to this process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7onR2BjTVr8&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJy-OBHtMZE&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJp_Npt7UM&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a27bp_Hvz7U&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2u2l-3jO7M&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPtcdbbnGFA&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNihwqv8SwE&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i4YGr0QxKg&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xsKvSTaVgA&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erx1esoTNfc&feature=relmfu