Windows Server 2003 cluster post-Setup configuration

Server|window now that the network on each node is configured correctly and the Cluster service is configured, you need to configure the network role to define its functionality in the cluster. Here is a list of network configuration options in Cluster Administrator:

Enable for cluster application: If this check box is selected, the Cluster service will use the network. By default, this check box is selected for all networks.

For client access only (public network): Select this option if you want the Cluster service to use only this network adapter for external communication with other clients. The network adapter will not communicate node to node.

For internal cluster communications only (private network): Select this option if you want the cluster to use only this network to communicate node to node.

All communications (mixed networks): Select this option if you want the Cluster service to use this network adapter for node communication to nodes and external clients. This option is selected by default for all networks.

This white paper assumes that only two networks are used. It explains how to configure the two networks as mixed networks and private networks, respectively. This is the most common configuration. If you have resources available, it is recommended that you use two dedicated redundant networks for internal cluster communications.

Configure Heartbeat 1. Start Cluster Administrator.

2. In the left pane, click Cluster Configuration, click Network, right-click Private, and then click Properties.

3. Click for internal cluster communications only (private network), as shown in Figure 22 below.



Figure 22: Use Cluster Administrator to configure the heartbeat.

4. Click OK.

5. Right-click Public, and then clicking Properties (as shown in Figure 23 below).

6. Click to select the Enable this network check box for cluster application.

7. Click All communications (mixed networks), and then click OK.



Figure 23: The Common Properties dialog box.

Heartbeat Adapter Priority After configuring how the Cluster service applies the role of the network adapter, the next step is to prioritize internal cluster communications applications. This applies only to two or more networks that are configured to communicate with nodes. The priority arrow to the right of the screen specifies the order in which the Cluster service uses each network adapter to communicate between nodes. The Cluster service always attempts to use the first-listed network adapter for Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communication between nodes. The next network adapter on the list is used only when the Cluster service is unable to communicate with the first network adapter.

1. Start Cluster Administrator.

2. In the left pane, right-click the cluster name (in the upper-left corner), and then click Properties.

3. Click the Network Priority tab, as shown in Figure 24 below.



Figure 24: The Network Priority tab in Cluster Administrator.

4. Confirm that the private network is listed at the top of the list. Use the Move up or down buttons to change the order of precedence.

5. Click OK.

Configure the cluster disk to start Cluster Administrator, right-click any disk that you want to remove from the cluster, and then click Delete.

Note that all disks are not on the same bus by default, because the system disk creates "Physical disk resources" for them and clusters them. Therefore, if a node has more than one bus, some of the disks that may be listed will not be used as shared storage, for example, internal SCSI drives. These disks should be removed from the cluster configuration. If you plan to implement volume mount points for some disks, you may want to remove the current disk resources for those disks, remove the drive letter, and then create a new disk resource that does not have a drive letter assigned.

Quorum disk configuration The Cluster Configuration Wizard automatically selects the drive that will act as the quorum device. and will use the minimum partition of more than MB. You may want to change the automatically selected disk to the quorum disk that you specify.

Configure quorum disk 1. Start Cluster Administrator (CluAdmin.exe).

2. Right-click the cluster name in the upper-left corner, and then clicking Properties.

3. Click the Arbitration tab.

4. In the Quorum resource list box, select a different disk resource. In Figure 25 below, disk Q is selected in the Quorum resource list box.



Figure 25: The Quorum resource list box.

5. If the disk has more than one partition, click the partition in which you want to store the cluster-specific data, and then click OK.

Create a deferred boot the Cluster service may fail to start when all cluster nodes start simultaneously and try to attach to the quorum resource. This may occur, for example, when a power failure occurs, and power is restored to all nodes. To avoid this type of situation, you can increase or decrease the time setting that displays the list of operating systems. To find this setting, click Start, point to My Computer and right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. Click the Advanced tab, and then in the Startup and Recovery boxes, click Settings.