How to change the network IP addresses of SQL Server failover cluster instances

This article discusses how to change the network IP addresses of SQL Server failover cluster instances.

If you are using SQL Server 2005, see the "How to: Change the IP Address of a SQL Server 2005 Failover Cluster" topic in SQL Server Books Online.

Change the IP addresses of SQL Server 7.0 failover cluster instances

If you must change the IP address of your existing SQL Server 7.0 failover cluster instances, Microsoft recommends that you uncluster SQL Server by using the SQL Server Cluster Wizard. You can use the SQL Server Cluster Wizard to remove the failover cluster instances. You can then use the SQL Server Cluster Wizard to cluster SQL Server again with the new IP address.

Note The SQL Server failover cluster instances will be offline and unavailable until you uncluster the failover cluster instance, change the IP address, and then cluster the failover cluster instance again.

If you change any other IP addresses in the cluster or you change the domain where the cluster resides, complete that process before you cluster the server again.

Because of improved functionality and recoverability in SQL Server 2000, Microsoft recommends that you upgrade all clustered SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 7.0 servers to SQL Server 2000. You may not be able to perform a SQL Server cluster upgrade on a computer that has a previous application running as a production environment with the SQL Server cluster. For more information and assistance, contact your application vendor.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Change the IP addresses of SQL Server 2000 failover cluster instances

If you must change the IP address of your existing SQL Server 2000 failover cluster instance, whether it is a default instance or a named instance, you can use the Advanced\Maintain Virtual Server for Failover Clustering option in the SQL Server 2000 Setup program.

To use the Advanced\Maintain Virtual Server for Failover Clustering option, follow these steps:

1. Insert the SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition CD, and then click SQL Server 2000 Components.
2. Click Install Database Server.
3. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
4. Type the name of the failover cluster instance that you want to modify, and then click Next.
5. Click the Advanced options tab, and then click Next.
6. Click Maintain a Virtual Server for Failover Clustering, and then click Next.
7. In the Failover Clustering dialog box, you can:
   • Add an IP address for additional networks.
   • Remove and replace an existing IP address.
   • Remove IP addresses that you do not need.
   After you make these changes, click Add, and then click Next.
   
   Note Assign only one IP address for each network and one network for each network adapter. SQL Server requires that each IP address that is assigned to it have its own unique subnet mask. SQL Server does not support multiple IP addresses on the same subnet because this may result in duplicated names on the network. For example, if you have a public network and a private network and you want to assign an additional IP address to your SQL Server failover cluster instance, you must add another network adapter to each node to create a new network. You can then assign the additional IP address to the new network.
8. Make any changes to the nodes, and then click Next.
9. Verify the requested user information and password, and then click Next.
   
   To verify that the changes were made, see the SQL Server 2000 IP resource properties in Cluster Administrator for the failover cluster instance.
10. Click Finish.

If the subnet mask for the resources in Windows cluster is changed, the steps that are mentioned earlier cannot be used to change the IP address of a SQL Server failover cluster instance.

Change the IP address when the subnet mask for the resources in a Windows cluster is changed

If you change the subnet mask for the resources in a Windows cluster, and there is only one network adapter for the public network on each node in the cluster, you may not be able to use the SQL Server 2000 Setup program to change the IP address of a SQL Server failover cluster instance. When you change the subnet mask for the resources in a Windows cluster, the subnet mask of the network card and the public network also changes. Therefore, the SQL Server resources do not come online because the subnet mask for the SQL Server failover cluster instance and the SQL Server IP address resources are obtained from the Microsoft Cluster Service. If the SQL Server resources are offline, you cannot use the Setup program to change the IP address of a SQL Server failover cluster instance.

If the subnet mask for the resources in a Windows cluster is changed, follow these steps to change the IP address of SQL Server failover cluster instance:

1. Open Cluster Administrator.
2. In the left pane, expand the Windows cluster name, expand Cluster Configuration, and then click Networks.
3. In the right pane, verify that the public network has the new subnet mask.
4. In the left pane, expand Groups, and then click Resources.
5. Right-click the SQL Server IP Address resource name, and then click Properties.
6. Click the Parameters tab.
7. In the Address box, type a new IP address.
8. In the Subnet mask box, type the new subnet mask.
9. In the Network box, click the public network that has the new subnet mask.
10. Bring the SQL Server IP Address resource online. You may notice that the SQL Server IP address resource and the Network name resource come online.

To make sure that the SQL Server IP address is changed, follow these steps:

1. Check the SQL Server IP Address resource by right-clicking the resource, clicking Properties, and then clicking the Parameters tab. The IP address and the subnet mask should be displayed. Click Cancel.
2. Check the SQL Server error log to make sure that the instance of SQL Server is listening on the new IP address on the designated port.

Change the IP address of SQL Server 2005 failover cluster instances

To change the IP address on any Microsoft SQL Server 2005 failover cluster instance, follow these steps:

Warning The computer that is running SQL Server will be offline during this process.

1. Take the SQL Server IP Address resource offline.
2. Check Configuration Manager for an alias that matches the Virtual SQL Server name. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Configuration Manager.
   2. Expand SQL Native Client Configuration, and then click Aliases.
   If an alias exists whose name is the same as the SQL Server Virtual Server name, change the IP address of the alias to a new IP address.
3. Right-click SQL Server IP Address resource, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Parameters tab.
5. Enlist the new IP address.
6. Click Apply, and then click OK.
7. Bring the IP Address resource online to validate no conflicts.
8. Right-click the SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances group name, and then click Bring Online.
9. Open the current SQL Server errorlog file, and verify that the new IP Address is used.

Warning SQL Mail is not fully supported when it is used with SQL Server 2000 failover clustering because MAPI is not cluster-aware. When SQL Mail is used on a failover cluster, Microsoft makes commercially reasonable efforts to provide support but cannot guarantee stability or availability. Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in SQL Server 6.5, 7.0, and 2000 when SQL Mail is used on a failover cluster.

If the SQL Server 2005 clustered instance is already installed, you have to add a new virtual IP address on which SQL Server 2005 will listen. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cluadmin, and then click OK.
2. In the Cluster Administrator window, expand the Groups node.
3. Expand the group to which you want to add the IP address resource.
4. Bring the SQL network name resource offline.
5. Create a new IP address resource.
   
   Note The new IP address is the additional virtual IP address on which SQL Server 2005 will listen.
   
   To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the group, point to New, and then click Resource.
   2. In the New Resource dialog box, type the name that you want to use for the resource, select IP Address in the Resource type list, and then click Next.
   3. In the TCP/IP Address Parameters dialog box, specify the IP address, and then click Finish.
6. Configure the SQL network name resource to be dependent on the new IP address. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the SQL network name resource, and then click Properties.
   2. In the Properties dialog box, click the Dependencies tab.
   3. On the Dependencies tab, click Modify.
   4. Add the new IP address from the Available resources list to the Resource dependencies list.
   5. Click OK two times.
7. Bring all resources online.

For more information about related Microsoft Cluster Service subjects, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: