Installing SQL 2008 R2 Cluster Step-By-Step

Filed under: SQL Server 

Jan 16, 2013

Deploying SQL 2008 Cluster

This is a step by step Guide on deploying SQL 2008 Cluster

System Architecture Diagram

 
Let’s begin with the prerequisites 

Prerequisites

Fail-over Clustering System Requirement:

• Windows Server 2008/R2 : Failover Clustering feature is available with Windows Server 2008/R2 Enterprise/Data Center editions. You don't have this feature with the Standard edition of Windows Server 2008/R2.
• Domain role: All servers in the cluster must be in the same Active Directory domain.
• DNS: The servers in the cluster must be using Domain Name System (DNS) for name resolution.
• Account for administering the cluster : When you create a cluster or add servers to it, you must be logged on to the domain with an account that has administrator rights on all servers in that cluster ( if the account is not a Domain Admins account, the account must be given the Create Computer Objects and Read All Properties permissions in the domain ).
• Servers : Two identical servers in brand, model and configurations.
• Device Controllers ( HBA ) : i/SCSI or Fiber , both also to be the identical.
• Storage : You must use shared storage that is compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2.

In order to plan everything ahead, we need to prepare some IPs and names as well as Network Configuration
During the deployment you will be using IPs and Names for the following
1- Windows Cluster
2- DTC
3- SQL

You can plan for those and document them for use ahead of time, just to save yourself some time
This is what I made

Description	Hostname	IP Address	Subnet Mask	Default Gateway
Cluster IP Address	XXCLUSTER	172.21.XX.XX	255.255.255.128	N/A
SQL Instance IP Address	XX2010SQL	172.21.XX.XX	255.255.255.128	N/A
MSDTC Virtual IP	XX2010SQLDtc	172.21.XX.XX	255.255.255.128	N/A
SQL Cluster Node 1	Node1	172.21.XX.XX	255.255.255.0	172.21.X.1
SQL Cluster Node 2	Node 2	172.21.XX.XX	255.255.255.0	172.21.X.1

We then need to setup 2 Network Interfaces to be used in production and the other as a heartbeat

We need to configure the HeartBeat interface on each node as follows:
Node 1


Node 2


We do a little test and make sure they can communicate

Now the heart beat has been configured, you need to Assign IPs to the Production interfaces, those are the interfaces that will communicate with the servers.
Now that the networking part is out of the way, let’s go ahead and start the Failover Cluster Role installation

Windows Failover Cluster installation

The following steps need to be performed on both database tier machines.
1. Click on Server Manager > Features > Add Features

2.
 
2. Check the Failover Clustering checkbox and click Next
3. Click on Install to install the feature

4. Click Close to conclude the installation wizard

Host Validation Tests

Now we need to run the validation tests to make sure our nodes are correctly configured

1. Click on Validate Configuration

2. Click Next at the validation wizard’s intro screen

3. Click Browse in the Select Servers or a cluster window

4. Set the Object Types to Computers and search for the two cluster nodes

5. Once the two cluster nodes have been selected click on Next to proceed

6. Leave radio button at its default position (Run all tests) and then click Next

7. The validation wizard summary will be displayed. Review it and click Next to initiate the cluster validation

8. If the validation wizard returns any errors review and resolve them before proceeding. Errors need to be resolved before creating the cluster. Ensure that you review warnings.

Creating Windows 2008 Cluster

SQL Server 2008 R2 clustering requires a windows cluster to be setup prior to creating the SQL node. To create the windows cluster perform the following steps:
1. In the Failover Clustering Console click on Create a cluster

2. Click Next at the welcome screen

3. Click Browse and select the appropriate cluster nodes

4. Click Next to run pre-configuration validation (essentially the same validation as before, but recommended to run again right before the cluster setup).

5. Enter the following information in the Access point for Administering the Cluster window:
a. Cluster Name: SPCLUSTER
b. IP Address: 172.21.X.X

6. Review the summary in the confirmation window and click Next to proceed with the cluster installation

7. If any warnings/errors were generated review them and retry if necessary. If none were generated click on Finish to close the wizard.

Verifying Cluster Storage and Quorum

Now in windows server 2008 R2, the cluster Quorum and storage will be configured automatically, we need to check on that

And this seems right, now we need to check on the Quorum type to make sure that it is set to Node and Disk Majority

Configuring Windows 2008 (R2) Application Server

We now need to start deploying the application server role on both the nodes

Configuring MSDTC

Installing the SQL 2008 R2 Cluster

Now we are about to start the installation of the First node in the cluster

Enter your product key

Install the Support Files

Install Features

Configure the Network Name ( this is going to be the cluster name ) and instances


Choose your Cluster Resource Group ( I left it at default )




Configure the Service accounts Users and Password ( Best Practice is to use individual accounts )


Configure Your Locations ( Best practice is to Separate Database Files from Log Files)

The Install, But do not configure is the only option available as we haven’t installed the pre-requisites for Reporting Service.

Make Sure everything passes on the Cluster installation Rules

Review your install Summary and Click Install

Now wait for the installation to finish

Now after the installation finishes
Make sure your resources are up

Now that all is good and Green we need to start the installation on the second node
So fire up the Setup and choose

Install Support rules and Make Sure all passes

Enter your product key


You will see that setup has detected the current Single node cluster from above, click Next

Enter the same Accounts and passwords
Make sure everything is Green

Review your installation

Click on install and wait for the installation to finish

Verifying The Cluster

Now if you go to the SQL Server Clustered application properties you now see both nodes added

Hope that helps

Thanks
R.karthikeyan