How to install windows cluster

It does not matter whether you use physical or virtual machines, just make sure your technology is suitable for Windows clusters. Before you start, make sure you meet the following prerequisites:. Two Windows machines with the latest updates installed. The machines have at least two network interfaces: one for production traffic, one for cluster traffic. In my example, there are three network interfaces one additional for iSCSI traffic.

Join both servers to your Microsoft Active Directory domain and make sure that both servers see the shared storage device available in disk management. Reboot your server if required. As an alternative, you can also use the following PowerShell command:. After a successful installation, the Failover Cluster Manager appears in the start menu in the Windows Administrative Tools. After you installed the Failover-Clustering feature, you can bring the shared disk online and format it on one of the servers.

On the second server, the disk stays offline. Before we create the cluster, we need to make sure that everything is set up properly. If the results indicate that the tests completed successfully and the configuration is suited for clustering, and you want to create the cluster immediately, make sure that the Create the cluster now using the validated nodes check box is selected, and then select Finish.

Then, continue to step 4 of the Create the failover cluster procedure. If the results indicate that there were warnings or failures, select View Report to view the details and determine which issues must be corrected.

Realize that a warning for a particular validation test indicates that this aspect of the failover cluster can be supported, but might not meet the recommended best practices. If you receive a warning for the Validate Storage Spaces Persistent Reservation test, see the blog post Windows Failover Cluster validation warning indicates your disks don't support the persistent reservations for Storage Spaces for more information.

For more information about hardware validation tests, see Validate Hardware for a Failover Cluster. To complete this step, make sure that the user account that you log on as meets the requirements that are outlined in the Verify the prerequisites section of this topic. If the Select Servers page appears, in the Enter name box, enter the NetBIOS name or the fully qualified domain name of a server that you plan to add as a failover cluster node, and then select Add.

To add multiple servers at the same time, separate the names by a comma or a semicolon. If you chose to create the cluster immediately after running validation in the configuration validating procedure , you will not see the Select Servers page. The nodes that were validated are automatically added to the Create Cluster Wizard so that you do not have to enter them again. If you skipped validation earlier, the Validation Warning page appears.

We strongly recommend that you run cluster validation. Only clusters that pass all validation tests are supported by Microsoft. To run the validation tests, select Yes , and then select Next. Complete the Validate a Configuration Wizard as described in Validate the configuration. In the Cluster Name box, enter the name that you want to use to administer the cluster.

Before you do, review the following information:. If the server does not have a network adapter that is configured to use DHCP, you must configure one or more static IP addresses for the failover cluster. Select the check box next to each network that you want to use for cluster management.

Select the Address field next to a selected network, and then enter the IP address that you want to assign to the cluster. If you're using Windows Server , you have the option to use a distributed network name for the cluster. A distributed network name uses the IP addresses of the member servers instead of requiring a dedicated IP address for the cluster.

By default, Windows uses a distributed network name if it detects that you're creating the cluster in Azure so you don't have to create an internal load balancer for the cluster , or a normal static or IP address if you're running on-premises.

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Keep up the outstanding work! You must be logged in to post a comment. Applies to: SQL Server all supported versions. To install a failover cluster, you must use a domain account with local administrator rights, permission to log on as a service, and to act as part of the operating system on all nodes in the failover cluster. Identify the information you need to create your failover cluster instance for example, cluster disk resource, IP addresses, and network name and the nodes available for failover.

For more information:. Before Installing Failover Clustering. You must have one WSFC group for each failover cluster instance you want to configure. You must ensure that your system meets minimum requirements. Add or remove nodes from a failover cluster configuration without affecting the other cluster nodes.