Currently have a 2 node windows 2000 cluster, active/passive, with sql 2000
running a data vault that's controlled by node a. Would like to upgrade to
windows 2003, but run active/active with sql running on node b. To do this,
do I have to reinstall sql server? I'm at a loss and all help and any white
papers would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi

Don't think of "active/passive" or "active/active", rather think of it as 2
nodes, with either one or 2 (or 3 or 4 etc) virtual servers.

Currently, you have 2 nodes, with one virtual server and you want to have 2
nodes with 2 virtual servers. Between the 2 nodes, there is a shared quorum
drive.

The virtual server you currently have has a name, an IP address and disk
groups associated with it. If you want an additional virtual server, you
need the same again, another name, another IP address and another set of
disk groups.

Only one node can own a disk group at a time, so it you have allocated all
the space on the SAN to one disk group, you do not have space to make more
virtual disks for the other node. You might need to buy higher capacity
drives, add drives or add another SAN, or reduce the size allocated to the
disk group that currently exists.

I have a strict policy. No OS Upgrades to clusters. Re-Installs only.
Especially if you have to re-do the disk groups, it gives you a chance to
re-do the cluster.

So, backup your databases to a safe place, off the SAN, wipe it, setup your
disks and then re-do the whole cluster.

Get to know the content on
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...g/default.mspx

On the pages, there is a step by step on how to setup a SQL cluster:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../failclus.mspx

Regards
--------------------------------
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland

IM: mike (AT) epprecht (DOT) net

MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/

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

I have a slightly different approach. I will allow an OS node upgrade,
mainly to find out compatibility issues, then I go back and rebuild each
node from scratch.

Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator


"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike (AT) epprecht (DOT) net> wrote

Thanks Mike and Geoff!!!!

It's pretty much what I figured, but was hoping not.

Again, THANKS!!!!


"Geoff N. Hiten" wrote: