SQL Server Performance Forum – Threads Archive

Adding on to existing SQL cluster

I am wanting to add an additional SQL virtual server to my existing two node (active/passive) 2003 cluster, do I just create a new virtual server by going through the CD installation?

Yes as long as you have seperate disks available in the shared storage for this instance to use. Note that this new virtual server will be a named instance in the format MyVirtualserverInstancename. MDAC 2.6 is required to connect to these unless you specify an alias on the clients that have lower MDAC (say a default Windows 2000 installation)

Just curious as to why you want to do this? From a resource and performance perspective, it would be better to limit each node to a single virtual instance. —————————–
Brad M. McGehee, MVP
Webmaster
SQL-Server-Performance.Com

I apologize, but I just realized how poorly my question was written. I am wanting to do active/active/passive configuration by adding an additional physical server to my existing cluster while replacing one of the existing cluster node (so that all three cluster node match in hardware spec). However I am unsure of how to go about getting the SQL binaries installed on the two new physical node without affect the one node I want to keep that is hosting the SQL virtual server. I am looking for a general idea how the scale out process work, should I want to create additional virtual SQL servers (and physical servers).

There might be information available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/failclus.mspx

Do a search on my site for "Cluster". Today I added several links to knowledgebase on clustering. Might be of some help to you. ———————–
–Frank
http://www.insidesql.de
———————–

Thank you for all the help. I think I found what I needed in the link provided. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/failclus.mspx I also verified the information in the SQL Server Books Online. So I have an idea of what I needed to do. How to add nodes to an existing virtual server (Setup)
On the Welcome screen of the Microsoft SQL Server Installation Wizard, click Next.
On the Computer Name screen, click Virtual Server and specify the virtual server to which you want to add a node. Click Next.
On the Installation Selection screen, click Advanced options. Click Next.
On the Advanced Options screen, click Maintain a virtual server for failover clustering. Click Next.
On the Failover Clustering screen, click Next.
You do not need to enter an IP address. On the Cluster Management screen, select the node and click Add.
If the node is listed as unavailable, you must modify the disk resources in the cluster group of the virtual server so the disk is available for the node you want to add to the MicrosoftÂ® SQL Serverâ„¢ configuration. Click Next. On the Remote Information screen, enter login credentials for the remote cluster node that has administrator privileges on the remote node of the cluster. Click Next.
On the Setup Complete screen, click Finish. ================== How to remove a node from an existing failover cluster (Setup)
On the Welcome screen of the Microsoft SQL Server Installation Wizard, click Next.
On the Computer Name screen, click Virtual Server and specify the name of the server from which to remove the node. Click Next.
You may see an error message saying that one (or more) of the nodes of the MicrosoftÂ® Windows NTÂ® 4.0 or Microsoft WindowsÂ® 2000 cluster are unavailable. This may be because the node(s) you are attempting to remove is damaged. The node(s) still can be removed. Click OK.
On the Installation Selection screen, click Advanced Options. Click Next.
On the Advanced Options screen, click Maintain a virtual server for failover clustering. Click Next.
On the Failover Clustering screen, click Next.
You do not need to modify any IP address(es). On the Cluster Management screen, select the node and click Remove. Click Next.
On the Remote Information screen, enter login credentials for the remote cluster node that has administrator privileges on the remote node(s) of the cluster. Click Next.
On the Setup Complete screen, click Finish.
If you are instructed to restart the computer, do so now. It is important to read the message from SQL Server Setup when you are done with installation. Failure to restart any of the specified nodes may cause failures when you run the Setup program in the future on any node in the failover cluster.

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