Hi guys:

I would like to acquire a little hands on building a clustering environment.
As per my initial readings, this is what I would need, could you guys let me
know what I am missing or misinterpreting?

Thanks
HARDWARE
1) build two computers, preferable with similar hardware components
2) Can use internal EIDE hard drives, 20 GB is OK (no need to have SCSI HDD
or RAID controllers)
3) Must have two network adapter cards, one for the normal network access
and the second one for the heartbeat
4) An external storage device is required. The two computer must connect to
this device
5) This external storage device can contain either EIDE or regular SCSI hard
drives
6) It is not necessary to use raid controllers

SOFTWARE
1) Windows 2000 Advanced server or Windows 2003 Enterprise must be installed
in each one of the computers
3) Each computer will have its own computer name (i.e SERVERONE, SERVERTWO
2) Windows Clustering services must also be installed on each computer
3) Once clustering services is activated a Virtual server will be created
4) The Virtual server will need to have its own "computer name" i.e.
SERVERCLUSTER
5) Four IP addresses will be needed, two for the physical servers, one for
the virtual server, and another one for the HEARTBEAT
6) Heartbeat IP address may be from a private schema (i.e. 192.168.0.1) and
a cross over cable can used to connect the two heartbeat NICs
7) SQL Server 2000 with latest service pack will need to be install on both
physical computers
8) SQL installation need to place files and data on the external storage
device
9) SQL clustering services will need to be configure in each server

Thanks for your expert advise in editing and completing the steps above

July

Some comments in-line:

--

Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP


"White Jul" <whitejul (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

bother.

available system if you don't use RAID everywhere.



a clustering solution if you don't have redundancy in your drives as well?

You will also need an ip address for the virtual SQL Server as well.

Also,if you are putting this in a production environment and you want it to
be supported your hardware must be on the hardware compatibilty list.

Rand
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

Asumption: This is for training and testing ONLY. If it is to be a
produciton box, consult the HCL and a cluster-certified vendor.

Comments Inline

--
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com

I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org

"White Jul" <whitejul (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

system.
SCSI can have multiple controllers.

When you assemble the system, you will need to deal with termination issues
on the SCSI bus. If you rely on the controllers to terminate automatically,
then when a node is powered off, you will have an improperly terminated SCSI
bus. For testing and training this is OK. For starting a CheapCluster(TM)
like this, you will want to start both and hold one at the OS load screen
(where you choose the OS) and let the other one start up completely. Then
you can bring the second node up. Non-HCL hardware has lots of little gotch
as like this.


server
(these are the public) and the heartbeat NICs will each need one (Private).
Windows Server 2003 cluster. See the following KB article for details.
PRB: Installation of a Named Instance of SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server on a
Windows 2003-Based Cluster Fails
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=sql2k

shared resources. The cluster install handles all nodes at once.

configuring each node. One install does it all.

Good Point Geoff, I guess I didn't read it like that. Some of my comments
might not apply if it's just training but you have to be careful here as
well. If the production hardware, software, configuration etc is going to
be different you can't expect the same results. Keep that in mind.

--

Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP


"Geoff N.Hiten" <SRDBA (AT) Careerbuilder (DOT) com> wrote

I understand your recommendation about HCL and all that
staff, but please understand that what I'm trying to do is
just a TEST ENVIRONMENT and I do not have any other
hardware resources than the one I mentioned in my original
post.

I really would like someone to take a look at what i have
(at home!) and let me know if it is all that I need to my
testing environment or any other recommendation, I also
understand all the precautions if this would be a
production scenario. It is only for testing and training
purposes.

Thanks for any advice

July

I think between the 3 answers you received you should have a very good
start. If only for testing the only thing I see that won't work (to the
best of my knowledge) is the use of EIDE drives. I believe they must be
either SCSI or Fibre.

--

Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP


"Whitejul#hotmail.com" <anonymous (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:ee1501c3f19b$682b9f20$a301280a (AT) phx (DOT) gbl...

yeah, what I'm looking is advise so I can setup my testing, training
clustering scenario!!!

Thanks for the feedback
July

"Geoff N.Hiten" <SRDBA (AT) Careerbuilder (DOT) com> wrote