2000 local disk cluster

[Guest]

I want to try and create a failover cluster setup for our
Exchange system. I keep hearing though that the cluster
service within 2000 uses a shared disk between the two
nodes of the cluster. So should one system fail the other
kicks in and all is good but if the disk itself fails then
the cluster is screwed. So is it possible to create a
cluster using 2 machines that are completly separate and
use their own hard drives which just synchronize the files
from the primary to the failover machine during normal
operation. Should failure occur then the 2nd node sees
that it is not getting a response from the primary and
kicks on. Again the main thing being to have the machines
not sharing a single drive or array but to use local disks
on each of the nodes. Any insight or help is greatly
appreciated!!

 

[John Toner [MVP]]

It is possible to do as you describe, but you'll need a third party software
to do it. You can look at NSI's GeoCluster product if you're looking to do
this with MSCS, or you could look at a Legato clustering solution that could
do the same thing without requiring Advanced server licenses.

www.nsisoftware.com

www.legato.com

Regards,
John

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the answer and for the links. Will start
looking into this. I take it then with these the Quorum
is made local on both machines but the primary node is set
to replicate to the other secondary node and this is
written to only when the primary is offline and then just
replicated back when primary is back online, again to keep
changes made only by the quorum owner.? Again though,
thank you for the information and your help!!

 

[John Toner [MVP]]

They use their software to create an IP-based mirror (RAID1) of the hard
disks between the hosts. I haven't fully tested these products, so make sure
you test these before implementing this type of solution in your
environment. I do not necessarily recommend these products to you...I'm just
making you aware of some options.

Additionally, you should be aware that you might lose Microsoft support for
your cluster if you implement these solutions into your environment. Only
configurations that are listed on the Microsoft HCL are supported. With
Legato, that's not a big deal as you would be using Legato's cluster product
but with NSI, it sits underneath MSCS. So if you have any problems with
MSCS, you'll need to count on NSI for support.

Test, test, test, and then test it again. Make sure the solution is right
for you before investing.

Regards,
John