Establishing a Microsoft failover cluster

Before installing InfoScale Storage, you must first verify that Microsoft failover clustering is enabled (on a new Windows Server installation), and then establish a Microsoft failover cluster. This section summarizes the tasks; refer to Microsoft documentation for complete details.

To enable Microsoft failover clustering

  1. In Server Manager, select Features in the left pane (tree view) and then click Add Features (link on the right side of the screen).
  2. In the Add Features Wizard, check the Failover Clustering option, and click Next.
  3. Click Install.
  4. When the installation is complete, click Close.

To establish a Microsoft failover cluster

  1. Ensure that you have met the hardware prerequisites for a failover cluster. You can run the Microsoft wizard to validate the configuration. See the Microsoft documentation for details.
  2. Configure the shared storage and create a volume with drive letter "Q" for the cluster quorum disk. Use of other drive letters may result in the quorum recognition problems. You must have a basic disk reserved for this purpose on your shared storage.

    Microsoft recommends a minimum of 500 MB for the quorum disk; refer to Microsoft documentation for specific requirements.

  3. Create the first node of the cluster using Failover Cluster Management (Start > Administrative Tools > Failover Cluster Management).

    On Windows 2012 operating systems, launch Administrative Tools from the Start screen.

  4. In the action pane, click Create a Cluster.

    The Create Cluster Wizard will start. If this is the first time this wizard has been run, the Before You Begin page will appear.

    Review the information that is displayed and then click Next.

    You can hide this page on subsequent uses of the wizard; if this has been done, the first page might be the Select Servers page.

  5. In the Select Servers panel, type the name of the first node in the Enter server name field and click Add. You can also use the Browse button to browse the Active Directory for the computers you want to add.

    Repeat this step for the second node.

  6. After both nodes have been added to the list of Selected Servers, click Next.
  7. Based on the information on the validation warning screen, assess your hardware configuration, and select one of the options. Veritas recommends that you select Yes, which starts the Validate a Configuration wizard. Follow the wizard instructions.
  8. In the Access Point for Administering the Cluster screen, in the Cluster Name field, type the name for the failover cluster. This is the name that you use to connect to and administer the cluster.
  9. In the Address field of the network area, type the appropriate IP address and then click Next.
  10. On the Confirmation screen, verify that the cluster configuration is correct, and then click Next to create the cluster.
  11. Review the Summary page and then click Finish to close the wizard.

    Note:

    Setting up the cluster creates physical disk resources for all the basic disks on the shared bus. To use these disks when you create your SFW cluster disk groups, you must first remove the physical disk resources from the cluster. Otherwise, a reservation conflict occurs. After creating the SFW cluster disk groups, you will add Volume Manager Disk Group resources to the cluster, instead of physical disk resources.