Configuring shared disks
Use the Windows Disk Management utility to configure additional shared disk resources. Verify
that all shared disks are formatted as NTFS and are designated as Basic.
Additional shared disk resources are automatically added into the cluster as physical disk resources
during the installation of cluster services.
Verifying disk access and functionality
Write a file to each shared disk resource to verify functionality.
At this time, shut down the first node, power on the next node and repeat the Verifying Disk Access
and Functionality step above for all cluster nodes. When it has been verified that all nodes can
read and write from the disks, turn off the cluster nodes and power on the first, and then continue
with this guide.
Configuring cluster service software
Failover Cluster Management provides the ability to manage, monitor, create and modify clusters
and cluster resources.
Using Failover Cluster Management
Failover Cluster Management shows information about the groups and resources on all of your
clusters and specific information about the clusters themselves.
Creating a cluster
During the creation of the cluster, Failover Cluster Management will analyze and verify the hardware
and software configuration and identify potential problems. A comprehensive and easy-to-read
report is created, listing any potential configuration issues before the cluster is created.
Some issues that can occur are:
•
No shared disk for the Quorum disk. A shared disk must be created with a NTFS partition at
least 512 MB in size.
•
Use of DHCP addresses for network connections. All Network adapters must be configured
with static IP addresses in a cluster configuration.
•
File Services for Macintosh and Service for NetWare are not supported in a cluster
configuration.
•
Dynamic Disks are not supported in a cluster configuration.
•
Errors appear on a network adapter that is not configured or does not have an active link. If
the network adapter is not going to be used it should be disabled.
Adding nodes to a cluster
Only the Quorum disk should be accessible by the new node while the new node is not a member
of the cluster. The new node should not have access to the other LUNs in the cluster until after it
has joined the cluster. After the node has joined the cluster, the LUNs may be presented to the new
node. Move the physical disk resources over to the new node to confirm functionality.
CAUTION:
Presenting other LUNs to the non-clustered system could lead to data corruption.
Geographically dispersed clusters
Cluster nodes can be geographically dispersed to provide an additional layer of fault tolerance.
Geographically dispersed clusters are also referred to as stretched clusters.
Configuring cluster service software
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