Installing the SQL Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008

Installing the SQL Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008

Installing the Cluster Feature

To install and configure failover clustering, complete the following steps:
1. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage.
2. In the Server Manager window, select Features from the list and click on Add Features.

3. In the Add Features Wizard window, select the following features:
• Failover Clustering
• Multipath IO (if you are planning to use MPIO)

4. Click Next. Confirm your selected features and click Install to continue. Confirm that the
Installations succeeded and click Close.

Installation is in progress.

Installation completed click Close.

5. Validate the cluster configuration using the Failover Cluster Management tool.

a. Ensure that all servers in your cluster are powered on and connected to the shared
storage.

b. Click Start→Programs→Administrative Tools→Failover Cluster Management to
run the Failover Cluster Management tool.

c. Right click on Failover Cluster Management àSelect Validate a Configuration… to run the validation wizard.

          

            d. When prompted to select the servers you want to add, type in the system host name for each of the cluster nodes. Then click the Add button. When finished adding all nodes,click Next to continue.

            e. In the next screen, select which test to run for validation (selecting “Run all tests” is recommended, especially for the first validation attempt). Then click Next.

            f. After prompting you to confirm the tests you selected, the wizard runs the tests, and a Summary Report screen should display the results and indicate that all tests were       completed successfully. All tests must pass with either a green check mark or in some            cases a yellow triangle (warning).

Validation is in Process

Validation Result

            g. When looking for problem areas (red X or yellow! marks), in the part of the report that summarizes the test results, click an individual test to review the details. Also review  the summary statement for information about whether the cluster is considered a supported configuration.

            

Active Directory Permission

Before creating the failover cluster delegate the object creation permissions to the user account which is going to use for cluster creation. Follow the steps to do it.

• Logon to the domain controller . Open Active Directory Users and Computers.

Select Delegate Control by Right click on sore.com domain. Give Next in Welcome to delegation control wizard.

• In below window add the respective users by hitting Add button and give Next.

• Below window will appear select Create a custom task to delegate and give Next.

• In the Delegate control of window chose Only the following objects in the folder and check Create selected objects in this folder.

From the Permission window check all and give Full control. Click Next.

• The below window will appear click Finish to complete.

6. Creating the Cluster.

• Right click on Failover Cluster Management tool, select Create a Cluster.

Create Cluster Wizard appears, with some useful information regarding clustering.  After reading, hit Next.

This is where you will enter the servers that will participate in you cluster. Just enter the name and hit Add for each one of them.  I already did it for my two servers (Node1 & Node2).

            b. Enter a Cluster Name - in our scenario cluster name is PaymentCluster. Only
            select the public network (with a check mark), and then assign a unique IP address for the cluster (100.101.102.111). Finally, click Next to create the cluster.

           

            c. After the cluster is created, make sure that the Public and Private networks are available,and that all shared storage disks are visible in the Failover Cluster Management tool.

            Cluster is created 

           

Configuring the Quorum in a Failover Cluster
           

In our scenario we are using 2 nodes cluster, so we have chosen the Quorum as Node and Disk Majority.

• Right click on cluster name. Go to More Actions... click Configure Cluster Quorum Settings...

• Before you begin window will open. Give Next.

• In next window select the Quorum as Node and Disk Majority and click Next.

• Chose Cluster Disk 2 for Quorum and give Next.

• In Confirmation windows verify the settings and give Next.

• The below screen will Appear and click Finish.

Quorum settings report.

SQL Server Installation in Node1

• The Installation Wizard starts the SQL Server Installation Center. To create a new cluster installation of SQL Server 2008, click New SQL Server failover cluster installation on the Installation page.

• The System Configuration Checker runs a discovery operation on your computer. To continue, click OK.

The system configuration is completed with no error.

System Configuration Report.

• On the Product key page, indicate whether you are installing a free edition of SQL Server, or whether you have a PID key for a production version of the product.  Select the appropriate edition for installation.

• On the License Terms page, select the check box to accept the license terms and conditions. Click Next to continue. To end Setup, click Cancel.

• On the Setup Support Files page, click Install to install the setup support files.

• The System Configuration Checker verifies the system state of your computer before Setup continues. After the check is complete, click Next to continue.

Correct any issues that are reported on the rules list. Errors block Setup, but warnings do not. It is a best practice to address all warnings and errors.

• On the Feature Selection page, select the components for your installation.

In the component selection window Select All. The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\.

• On the Instance Configuration page, specify whether to install a default or a named instance.

SQL Server Network Name — Specify a network name for the new SQL Server failover cluster. This is the name that is used to identify your failover cluster on the network. In our scenario PAYSQLSRV is SQL server name.

Instance ID — we have set instance name as PAYMENT. The instance name is used as the Instance ID. This is used to identify installation directories and registry keys for your instance of SQL Server.

Instance root directory — By default, the instance root directory is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\. To specify a no default root directory, use the field provided, or click the ellipsis button to locate an installation folder.
Detected SQL Server instances and features on this computer - The grid shows instances of SQL Server that are on the computer where Setup is running. If a default instance is already installed on the computer, you must install a named instance of SQL Server 2008.

Click Next to continue.

• The Disk Space Requirements page calculates the required disk space for the features that you specify, and it compares requirements to the available disk space on the computer where Setup is running.

• Use the Cluster Resource Group page to specify the cluster resource group name where SQL Server virtual server resources will be located. To specify the SQL Server cluster resource group name, you have two options:
• Use the drop-down box to specify an existing group to use.
• Type the name of a new group to create.

• On the Cluster Disk Selection page, select the shared cluster disk resource for your SQL Server failover cluster.

The cluster disk is where the SQL Server data will be stored. More than one disk can be specified. The Available shared disks box displays a list of available disks, whether each is qualified as a shared disk, and a description of each disk resource. Click Next to continue. In our scenario we have given F: (Cluster drive 4) drive to store the DB data.

Note: The first drive is used as the default drive for all databases, but it can be changed on the Database Engine or Analysis Services configuration pages.

On the Cluster Network Configuration page, specify the network resources for your failover cluster instance:

• Network Settings — Specify the IP type and IP address for your failover cluster instance, we have set100.101.102.122 as IP address for failover cluster instance.  Click Next to continue.

• Use the following page to specify the security policy for the cluster.

The following screenshot displays the cluster security policies available for Windows Server 2008. In Windows Server 2008 and later versions, service SIDs (server security IDs) are the recommended and default setting. The option to specify domain groups is available but not recommended. This is displayed in the following screen shot.

Click Next to continue.

• On the Service Accounts tab, specify login accounts for SQL Server services. The actual services that are configured on this page depend on the features that you are installing. We have used Use the same account for all SQL Server services and selected domain admin account.

You can assign the same login account to all SQL Server services, or you can configure each service account individually. The startup type is set to manual for all cluster-aware services, including full-text search and SQL Server Agent, and cannot be changed during installation. Microsoft recommends that you configure service accounts individually to provide least privileges for each service, where SQL Server services are granted the minimum permissions they have to have complete their tasks. To specify the same login account for all service accounts in this instance of SQL Server, provide credentials in the fields at the bottom of the page.

• When you are finished specifying login information for SQL Server services, click Next.

• Use the Collation tab to specify nondefault collations for the Database Engine and Analysis Services.

• Use the Account Provisioning tab to specify the following:

• Authentication mode - select Mixed Mode authentication for your instance of SQL Server. If you select Mixed Mode authentication, you must provide a strong password for the built-in SQL Server system administrator account.  We set sqladmin123 as password.

After a device establishes a successful connection to SQL Server, the security mechanism is the same for both Windows authentication and Mixed Mode.

• SQL Server administrators - You must specify at least one system administrator for the instance of SQL Server. To add the account under which SQL Server Setup is running, click Add Current User. To add or remove accounts from the list of system administrators, click Add or Remove, and then edit the list of users, groups, or computers that will have administrator privileges for the instance of SQL Server.  Here administrator, hcluser accounts are added as SQL admin.

Click OK. Verify the list of administrators in the configuration dialog box. When the list is complete, click Next.

• Use the Data Directories tab to specify nondefault installation directories. To install to default directories, click Next.

We selected default settings.

• Use the FILESTREAM tab to enable FILESTREAM for your instance of SQL Server.  In our scenario we have not enabled it.

Click Next to continue.

• On the Analysis Services Configuration page, use the Account Provisioning tab to specify users or accounts that will have administrator permissions for Analysis Services. You must specify at least one system administrator for Analysis Services. To add the account under which SQL Server Setup is running, click Add Current User. To add or remove accounts from the list of system administrators, click Add or Remove, and then edit the list of users, groups, or computers that will have administrator privileges for Analysis Services. We added administrator & hcluser accounts.

Click Next.

• Use the Data Directories tab to specify nondefault installation directories. To install to default directories, click Next.

• Use the Reporting Services Configuration page to specify the kind of Reporting Services installation to create. For failover cluster installation, the option is set to “Install, but do not configure the report server.” You must configure Reporting Services after you complete the installation.

• On the Error and Usage Reporting page, specify the information that you want to send to Microsoft that will help improve SQL Server. By default, options for error reporting and feature usage are disabled.

• The System Configuration Checker runs one more set of rules to validate your configuration with the SQL Server features that you have specified.

• The Ready to Install page displays a tree view of installation options that you specified during Setup. To continue, click Install.

• During installation, the Installation Progress page provides status so that you can monitor installation progress as Setup continues.

• After installation, the Complete page provides a link to the summary log file for the installation and other important notes. To complete the SQL Server installation process, click Close.

• If you are instructed to restart the computer, do so now.

Adding Node to SQL failover cluster

• To add a node to an existing failover cluster instance, click Installation in the left-hand pane. Then, click Add node to a SQL Server failover cluster.

The System Configuration Checker will run a discovery operation on your computer. To continue, click OK. Setup log files have been created for your installation.

• On the Product Key page, specify the PID key for a production version of the product. Note that the product key you enter for this installation must be for the same SQL Server 2008 edition as that which is installed on the active node.

• On the License Terms page, read the license agreement, and then select the check box to accept the licensing terms and conditions. To continue, click Next. To end Setup, click Cancel.

• On the Setup Support Files page, click Install to install the setup support files. To install prerequisites, click Install.

• The System Configuration Checker will verify the system state of your computer before Setup continues. After the check is complete, click Next to continue.

• On the Cluster Node Configuration page, use the SQL Server instance name box to specify the name of the SQL Server 2008 failover cluster instance that will be modified during this setup operation.

• On the Service Accounts page, specify login accounts for SQL Server services. The actual services that are configured on this page depend on the features you selected to install. For failover cluster installations, account name and startup type information will be prepopulated on this page based on settings provided for the active node. You must provide passwords for each account.

When you are finished specifying login information for SQL Server services, click Next.

• On the Error and Usage Reporting page, specify the information to send to Microsoft that will help to improve SQL Server. By default, options for error reporting and feature usage are enabled.

• The System Configuration Checker will run one more set of rules to validate your computer configuration with the SQL Server features you have specified.

• The Ready to Add Node page displays a tree view of installation options that you specified during setup.

• The Add Node Progress page provides status so you can monitor add node progress as Setup proceeds.

• After installation, the Complete page provides a link to the summary log file for the installation and other important notes. To complete the SQL Server installation process, click Close.