Hi,

I want to test the clustering environment before implementing the same on
production servers. The resources i have with me are high end ( p4 2G ,
512MB RAM ) personal computers. I can install 2k3 on two systems .. what do
i use for "shared storage".. can i use the shared drive of another desktop
computer on the same network as "shared disk array"... please help me out as
i have to give a presentation regarding the same...

Regards,

Navket Singh Naru
DBA

To be supported, a cluster has to be sold as a cluster solution. You cannot
just put pieces together as a cluster and have it supported as a cluster by
Microsoft.. With that said, the shared dirve will have to be a physical
drive that can be shared between the computers. It cannot be the shared
drive on a remote computer. The drive will have to be seen as an attached
drive byt the cluster service or it will not use it.

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

Hi,

I am going to start with "putting the pieces" together and making them work before i can go ahead and play around with our on site production servers. OFF SITE i have to come up with some contraptions that "works" as a cluster solution. and by doing this i become more familiar with the steps

So is there an other way to set up clustering .. by putting the Pieces Together ... the problem is what pieces ??

Navket Singh

If all you are looking for is a demo or training aid, you can build a
CheapCluster(TM).

Take any two machines P-II 400 or better, plug an extra NIC and a SCSI
adapter into each. Connect a SCSI drive or two in an external storage
array, load the OS, configure as a cluster and go. It won't be very stable
and it is completely unsupported, but it makes a great training and demo
tool. Do NOT attempt to run any real work on such a system.

Some people use VMWare to build a virtual cluster, but I haven't tried that
myself.

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

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

"DBA76" <navket.naru (AT) sdiindia (DOT) com> wrote

servers. OFF SITE i have to come up with some contraptions that "works" as a
cluster solution. and by doing this i become more familiar with the steps.

You may wish to register for the Virtual Server 2005 Beta program. With this product you can simulate a W2K3 Server Cluster. Although it isn't a replacement for hardware in a production environment it may help you get a better understanding off what hardware devices you'll need and how clustering works. You can run it on almost any PIII/PIV/Xeon single or multi-processor server

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...r/default.mspx