Evicting a Node in a Cluster Can Cause Problems in SQL 6.5 or 7.0

It may seem easy to troubleshoot a node in a cluster by evicting the node and reinstalling the cluster service. This process can be disastrous to the SQL Virtual Machine and make you reinstall SQL 6.5 or 7.0.

Normally evicting a cluster node is not a problem. Reinstalling the cluster and joining the other node typically replicates the proper entries. However, when an SQL virtual machine is involved, it becomes complex.

Before you evict a Cluster Node running SQL, you must uninstall the SQL Virtual Machine first. The process is to run the cluster Wizard for SQL Virtual machine (not the SQL install) and uncluster SQL on both nodes. The path on the SQL CD-ROMs are: For Alpha computers, it would be in the Alpha folders.

Changing the name of the computer forces an eviction and has a similar effect because after the computer name is changed, it does not communicate with the other node.

The evict a node, follow these steps:

1. In Cluster Administrator, right-click the node name.
2. Click Evict Node.

NOTE: If you evict a node like this while running an SQL Virtual cluster, you need to completely reinstall SQL.