Microsoft Cluster Service installation resources

This article provides basic information that you should understand before you install Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) on Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows NT 4.0, Enterprise Edition. This article contains references to information that you can use to plan the installation of MSCS in your environment.

For more informatoin about how to create and configure a Windows Server 2003 server cluster, refer to the "Guide to Creating and Configuring a Server Cluster Under Windows Server 2003" white paper. To obtain this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Hardware Compatibility List Requirements and Configuration

Before you install MSCS, verify that your hardware is on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) as a complete cluster solution. When you accept the license agreement during the installation of MSCS, you are agreeing to the fact that your hardware is certified for use with MSCS.

To determine if your computer is on the HCL as a complete cluster solution, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Step-by-Step Installation Guide

Before you start the installation of the operating system on either node of the system, download and thoroughly read the "Step-By-Step Guide to Installing Cluster Service" document at the following Microsoft Web site: This guide provides you with crucial information about basic cluster concepts, the power state of your hardware during installation, and hardware configuration issues. It also walks you through the installation process.

Although this installation guide is written for Windows 2000 Advanced Server, it is also a useful reference point for installing MSCS on a computer running Windows NT 4.0, Enterprise Server. It is important to note, however, that the computer running Enterprise Edition must have Service Pack 3 or later installed when you install MSCS.

Another thing to consider when you install your cluster is the possibility of a power outage (which could cause both nodes to restart at the same time). To ensure that both nodes of the cluster never start at the same exact time, change the Boot.ini file timeout value of one node to 10 seconds and change the value of the other node to 90 seconds. This gives one node plenty of time to "get ahead" of the other node, and prevents the computers from competing for the shared disks, which could cause a failure.

Disk Configuration

Even though your configuration is on the HCL, you need to verify that your PCI storage host adapter (SCSI or FibreChannel) and your shared disks are configured properly.

Verifying Host Adapter Configuration

• It is important that the clustered computers have a separate PCI storage host adapter (SCSI or FibreChannel) for the shared disks. For MSCS to recognize a disk as a shared disk, the disk must be on a controller that is separate from the adapter of the operating system's boot disk.
• The PCI storage host adapters you use in both nodes must be identical to ensure that the adapter BIOS and other firmware in both nodes are 100-percent compatible.
• Each device on the shared SCSI bus must have a unique SCSI ID. Because most SCSI controllers default to SCSI ID 7, you must change the SCSI ID on one controller to a different SCSI ID (for example, SCSI ID 6). If more than one disk is located on the shared SCSI bus, each disk must have a unique SCSI ID.
• Each SCSI bus segment must have exactly two points of termination, and these points must be located at the two ends of the segment. If you overlook any of these requirements, the bus may not operate properly in the MSCS environment.

Verifying Disk Configuration

• Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter server shipped from Microsoft do not provide support for dynamic disks in a server cluster (MSCS) environment. You can use the Volume Manager for Windows 2000 add-on product from Veritas to add the dynamic disk features to a server cluster. When you install the Veritas Volume Manager product on a cluster, Veritas is the first point of support for cluster issues.
• By default, MSCS only fails over disks that it recognizes as physical disks. If your hardware manufacturer requires that you configure the shared disks as virtual disks, you need to install their drivers before you install the Cluster service.
• You must partition and format all disks you are using with MSCS before you run MSCS Setup. You must format all partitions that you are using as a cluster resource with NTFS (they can be either compressed or uncompressed).
• Microsoft uses what is called a shared-nothing model when it comes to managing disks. Shared-nothing means that each physical disk or hardware fault-tolerant disk set on the shared SCSI bus can be owned (accessed) by only one node of the cluster at a time. Ownership of the disks moves from one node to another, when the disk group fails over or moves to the other node. Therefore, if you intend to share resources from both nodes of a cluster, you need at least two shared storage disks (check with your hardware manufacturer to see if your external array is capable of this, otherwise you may need additional hardware).
• The disk resources on the shared SCSI bus must have the same drive letter on both nodes. Because computers vary in the way they assign drive letters and because MSCS makes all drive assignments permanent during Setup, assign drive letters to all disk resources on the shared SCSI bus before you install MSCS. Keep in mind that the drive letters that you assign should be higher letters (Q, R, and so on). In addition, a best practice is to avoid having a single extended partition on a logical disk.
• Make sure that MSCS is installed and running on one node before you start an operating system on another node. If you start an operating system on other nodes before you install, configure, and run the Cluster service on at least one node, the cluster disks may be damaged. It is crucial that you use the power sequencing information that is outlined in Table 1 of the installation guide at the following Microsoft Web site:
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb727114.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb727114.aspx)

Network Configuration

Microsoft requires that you have two PCI network adapters in each node of the cluster to be certified for the HCL. Configure one of the network adapters in each node on your production network with a static Internet Protocol (IP) address that is for your public network, and configure the other network adapter in each on a separate network for private cluster communication only. All network cards on the public network need to be on the same logical network (same subnet) regardless of their physical location. It is recommended that you put the private network adapter in one of the following private network ranges:

• 10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255 (Class A)
• 172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255 (Class B)
• 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255 (Class C)

Because the Cluster service is not capable of detecting more than one network adapter per node in a given network, plan your network addresses carefully. Microsoft does not recommend that you use network teaming on a cluster. However, if you do use manufacturer-specific network adapter teaming software it must be seamless to the cluster and must reside only on the public network. The private network cards (heartbeat) should be a non-teamed, non-multiported, standard network adapter, and connected with a separate crossover cable (or to a hub).

Each network can have one of four roles in a cluster. The network can support the following roles:

• Only node-to-node communication.
• Only client-to-cluster communication.
• Both node-to-node communication and client-to-cluster communication.
• No cluster-related communication.

The default configuration during installation is to configure your public network adapter for "All Communication" and the private (heartbeat) network adapter for "Internal Cluster Communications." Microsoft recommends that you keep this default configuration. When you configure the public network adapter for "All Communications" you provide the fault tolerance for your cluster-to-cluster communications. For your cluster to install and function properly, you must configure at least one of the networks for "Internal Cluster Communications" or "All Communications."

MSCS does not support the use of IP addresses assigned from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server for the cluster administration address (which is associated with the cluster name) or any IP address resources. Although Microsoft recommends that you use static IP addresses for your nodes public network adapters, you can use IP addresses permanently leased from a DHCP server for the Windows 2000 public network configuration on each node.

MSCS requires a dynamic name method such as Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) on your network to function properly. With static entries you cannot connect to resource after failover to the other node in the cluster. The public network adapter should have WINS and/or Dynamic DNS servers configured in its TCP/IP properties. To prevent a WINS server from registering the cluster's private network adapter as a multihomed entry, ensure that the WINS TCP/IP client bindings are disabled on your private network adapter. In Windows 2000, you need to disable NetBIOS on the private network adapter.

Before You Install MSCS

Before you install MSCS, you may want to review the following information depending on the planned role of the cluster.

General Clustering

A good place to start learning about general cluster concepts is the Microsoft Cluster Server Administrators Guide, which is located on the Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition CD-ROM 1 in the Support\Books folder (look for the Mscs*.doc file).

You can find additional MSCS information at the following Microsoft Web sites:

• What's New in Cluster Service
  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/technologies/clustering.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/technologies/clustering.mspx)
• Deploying Microsoft Windows NT Server for High Availability
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc723486.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc723486.aspx)
• Cluster Strategy: High Availability and Scalability with Industry-Standard Hardware
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767157.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767157.aspx)

File and Print Sharing

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)

Although the preferred method of clustering IIS is using Network Load Balancing (NLB) or Windows Load Balancing in Windows NT 4.0, IIS is still supported on MSCS.

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: You can also download white papers that describe how to install Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack from the following Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft SQL Server

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: You can also find information about SQL Server on MSCS at the following Web site:

Microsoft Exchange Server

For detailed information about how to install Exchange Server 5.5 on MSCS, refer to the following Microsoft Web site: NOTE: Click Clustering with Microsoft Exchange Server.

You can also find clustering documentation on the Exchange Server CD-ROM in the Docs\Word_docs\Clustering folder.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: