My secondary node which is currently on Advanced Server
2000 has been having problems, so I'm going to disjoin it
and rebuild it.I would like to go ahead and upgrade that
node to Advanced Server 2003 and rejoin it to the virtual
server.I will of course eventually upgrade the other node
to 2003 too, but I was just wondering if it will be ok to
have them both there with different operating systems in
the meantime.Please advise. Thanks in advance.

From Windows 2003 "Help and Support Center" topic "Rolling Upgrade"

A mixed version cluster is a cluster in which the nodes are running
different versions of the operating system. Although mixed version clusters
are supported by Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition they are not the
optimal configuration. It is recommended that you upgrade all nodes to the
same operating system by completing the final two phases of the rolling
upgrade.

When your cluster is in a mixed version state, it is recommended that you
do not make any changes to the cluster configuration, such as adding or
removing nodes. It is also recommended that you do not make changes to any
of the cluster resources while your cluster is in a mixed version state.


Note: You cannot have one node Win2K3 and other node with NTS4.0. (Win2K
and Win2K3 works fine)

HTH,

Uttam Parui
SQL Server Developer Support Engineer, MCDBA, MCSE, MCT
Product Support Services
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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In the Windows Server 2003 Upgrade notes, there is a whole chapter on
running different OS's in a cluster.

The jist of it is that it works, but don't install or remove any software,
or hardware, or nodes, whilst running in this mode, and run it for the
shortest possible period.

MS meant it to be an option to maintain high availability during an OS
upgrade.

Look at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...g_from_w2k.asp

--
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Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Epprecht Consulting (PTY) LTD
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mobile: +27-82-552-0268
IM: mike (AT) NOSPAMepprecht (DOT) net

Specialist SQL Server Solutions and Consulting

"Rob" <anonymous (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote