In this presentation we review the basic requirements to install a SQL Server Failover Cluster. Regards, Eduardo Castro Martinez http://ecastrom.blogspot.com http://comunidadwindows.org

1. Introduction to Failover Clustering with SQL
Server (Level 100)
Eduardo Castro Martinez
Arquitecto Infraestructura
ecastro@simsasys.com
twitter: edocastro
http://ecastrom.blogspot.com
http://tiny.cc/comwindows

2. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

3. What is High Availability?
• The world is now a 24/7 global marketplace.
• Systems must be online or customers are lost.
• Goal of High Availability (HA) is to keep systems,
applications, services, e-mail, databases, files,
and printers always running.
• Every business now has High Availability needs.
Uptime Percentage Maximum downtime per year
99.999 5 minutes
99.99 52 minutes
99.9 8.7 hours
99 3.7 days

4. Why is HA Important?
• Server downtime is unavoidable.
• Keep your business running and competitive.
• Servers may go offline due to:
 Maintenance
 Upgrade
o Software or hardware
 Update
o Hot fix, security patch
 Accident
 Power outage
 Disasters
• Start planning now!

5. Failover Clustering
• 2+ machines (nodes)
• Redundancy everywhere (storage, network
interface cards [NICs], host bus adapters [HBAs],
Microsoft Windows® Server Multipath I/O
[MPIO], etc.)
• “Shared” storage accessible by all nodes
• 1 node will host a HA application
• Application writes data to “shared” storage

6. Failover Clustering
• Nodes monitor health of other nodes.
• If that node fails, health monitoring
will cause a “failover” of the resource.
• Another node starts the application
and reads the last saved information
from the shared storage.
• Clients experience a slight
interruption in service.

7. What is a Failover Cluster?
Public
HA Roles
Shared
Storage

8. Software Requirements
• Failover Clustering is an in-box feature:
 Windows Server® 2008 Datacenter and Windows Server
2008 R2 Datacenter
 Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008
R2 Enterprise
 Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008
R2 Enterprise for IA-64
 Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V ™ technology
 Windows Unified Data Storage Server
• Architecture:
 x64: up to 16 nodes
 x86: up to 8 nodes (not in R2)
 IA64: up to 8 nodes

9. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

10. Building Your Cluster
• 2 or more computers (nodes)
• 2 NICs and dedicated storage adapter
 3rd NIC for iSCSI
 HBA
• 3 Networks
 Public
 Private (heartbeat)
 Storage / iSCSI
• Shared storage
•HA Roles
• Operating system, service,
or application

11. Mix And Match Hardware
• You can use any hardware configuration if
 It passes Validate.
 Each component has a “Certified for Windows Server
2008/R2” logo (servers, storage, HBAs, MPIO, device-
specific modules [DSMs], etc.).
• It’s that simple!
 Connect your Windows Server 2008 or Windows
Server 2008 R2 logo’d hardware.
 Pass every test in Validate (It is now supported!).
 If you make a change, just re-run Validate.
• Details: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=119949

12. Clustering Storage
Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server
2008 R2 Supported
Shared Bus Types:
• SCSI-3 SPC-3 compliant SCSI Commands
• Persistent Reservations (PRs)
• Parallel-SCSI deprecated in 2008
• Multipath I/O (MPIO) recommended
• Basic GPT and MBR disks supported
Fibre Channel iSCSI SAS

13. Networking
• Key clustering component
 Public network – clients
 Private network – cluster communication
 Storage network – nodes access “shared” storage
• Multiple networks for added redundancy
• IPv4/IPv6
• DHCP or static IP addresses
• Nodes can reside in different subnets

14. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

15. Software Configuration
1. Install Windows Server 2008 R2.
2. Install Failover Clustering feature on each node
(If necessary, install other roles/features for
server).
3. Open the Failover Cluster Management.
4. Run Validate a Cluster Configuration.
5. To configure your cluster, run Create a Cluster
Wizard.
6. Make your applications highly available.

16. Validating a Cluster
• For Microsoft support, cluster must pass the built-in
Validate a Cluster Configuration (Validate) test
• Run during configuration and/or after deployment (Best
practices analyzed if run on configured cluster)
• Series of end-to-end tests on all cluster components
 Configuration information for support and
documentation
 Networking issues
 Troubleshoot in-production clusters
• More information
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=119949

17. demonstration
Failover Clustering
Validation and Creation
1. Configure hardware and storage.
2. Install Failover Clustering feature on all nodes.
3. Run Validate a Configuration Wizard.
4. Run Create Cluster Wizard.

18. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

19. HA Roles and Features
• Common • Other
 Exchange  DFS-Namespace
 File Server
 DFS-Replication (R2)
 Hyper-V
 DHCP
 Print
 SQL  DTC
 iSNS
• Generic Containers  MSMQ
 Generic Application  NFS
 Generic Script  Remote Desktop (R2)
 Generic Service  WINS
 Other Server
• 3rd Party
 Many different roles

20. demonstration
Highly Available Resources
1. Install the feature/role on all nodes.
2. Configure workload for High Availability.
3. Configure application or virtual machine.

21. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

22. What is Virtualization?
• Create a virtual operating system on a physical machine
(Hyper-V requires special hardware with hypervisor).
• Allow multiple operating systems and non-compatible
applications to exist on the same physical hardware.
• Virtual machines (VMs) have resources dedicated to
them such as disks, memory, processors, and networks.

23. The Virtual Data Center Vision
• Virtualize your workloads
• Consolidate servers
• Reduce costs
 Space/facilities
 Cooling
 Physical hardware
 Maintenance
• Easier management
• HW flexibility
• Quicker installations/deployments
• Legacy operating systems/applications

24. The HA Virtual Data Center
1 x 2-Node Cluster | 8 VMs | 1 Role / VM
Cluster

25. Hyper-V "Host" Clustering
• Cluster physical machines (hosts).
• The VMs are HA and can recover from crashes.
• The VM fails over between host machines.
• Most common configuration.
VMs
Physical “Host” Cluster

26. Hyper-V "Guest" Clustering
• The VMs are clustered (guests).
• The application within the VM is HA.
• Recovers from guest operating system
crashes. VMs VMs Virtual “Guest”
Clusters
Standalone host 1 Standalone host 2

27. Hyper-V "Hybrid" Clustering
• Cluster the “hosts” and cluster the “guests”
• HA VMs and HA application within the VMs
Virtual
Physical Cluster 1 Cluster 1 Physical Cluster 2
VMs VMs
Virtual
Cluster 2

28. Hyper-V Quick Migration
• Move a running VM from one host to another
host
• Little downtime while disk ownership of the VM
moves
• Client may be briefly disconnected
• Planned failover
• Supported in 2008 & R2

29. Quick Migration
Client accessing VM
Quick
Migrate
1. Save state of VM •SAN
4. Online Cluster Resources
2. Offline VM & cluster
resources 5. Start VM
3. Move VM & cluster resources 6. Client reconnects
•VHD

30. Hyper-V Live Migration
• Move a running VM from one host to another
host with no downtime.
• Client is not aware of the migration.
• Clients stay connected.
• Keeps TCP connection between clients and VMs
open.
• Planned failover.
 Failover clustering still recovers VM from a disk in an unplanned failover

31. Live Migration
Entire VM memory copied
Memory content is
copied to new server
Live Migrate
SAN
May be additional incremental data
copies until data on both nodes
is essentially identical
VHD

32. Live Migration
Session state is maintained
Client directed to new
No reconnections necessary host
Clients stay connected to “live” VM
SAN
ARP issued to point routing devices to
new node
Old VM deleted after success
VHD

33. Agenda
• High Availability
• Hardware
• Creating a failover cluster
• HA workloads
• HA virtual machines
• Other considerations

34. Session Summary
• Server downtime is inevitable.
• Failover clustering keeps your applications
running and recovers from disasters.
• Buy certified solutions or reuse hardware.
• Validate simplifies troubleshooting.
• Cluster and HA workloads are easy to create.
• Make almost anything HA.
• Multiple management options.
• VM integration and live migration support.

35. Want to see more?
High Availability 101 with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032407222&Culture=en-
US
Failover Clustering Feature Roadmap for Windows Server 2008 R2
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032407235&Culture=en-
US
Innovating High Availability with Cluster Shared Volumes
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032407238&Culture=en-
US
Multi-Site Clustering with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise”
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032407242&Culture=en-
US

36. For More Information, Go to:
Cluster Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/clustering/
Cluster Information Portal:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/clustering-home.aspx
Clustering Technical Resources:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/clustering-resources.aspx
Clustering Forum (2008):
http://forums.technet.microsoft.com/en-US/winserverClustering/threads/
Clustering Forum (2008 R2): http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-
US/windowsserver2008r2highavailability/threads/
Clustering Newsgroup: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-
us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering
Failover Cluster Deployment Guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd197477.aspx
TechNet: Configure a Service or Application for High Availability:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732478.aspx
TechNet: Installing Failover Clustering: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772178.aspx
TechNet: Create a Failover Cluster: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755009.aspx
Webcast: Build High-Availability Infrastructures with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering (Level
300):
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032364828&EventCatego
ry=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

37. Q&A

38. Introduction to Failover Clustering with SQL
Server (Level 100)
Eduardo Castro Martinez
Arquitecto Infraestructura
ecastro@simsasys.com
twitter: edocastro
http://ecastrom.blogspot.com
http://tiny.cc/comwindows

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