Configuring the SQL Server service group involves creating VCS resources for the SQL agents, storage agents (NetApp, LDM) and network agents. VCS provides several ways of configuring a service group, which include the service group configuration wizard, Cluster Manager (Java Console), and the command line. This chapter provides instructions on configuring a SQL service group using the SQL Server Configuration Wizard.

A SQL service group is used to bring a SQL Server instance online on another node if the active node fails. If you have set up multiple cluster nodes, you specify the priority of the failover node while configuring the service group. The SQL Server Configuration Wizard enables you to create a SQL Server service group and define the attributes for its resources on all the nodes within the cluster simultaneously.

You use the VCS SQL Server Agent Configuration Wizard to configure a service group for SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012. You can configure a service group for only one SQL Server version in a single wizard workflow. To configure another SQL Server version, you must run the wizard again.

For a shared storage configuration, use the service group configuration wizard to configure the service group.