Clustering SQL 2008 on Windows 2008 R2 what can go wrong

 

Ok this post is not only on how to setup a sql 2008 cluster but more on what can go wrong and more important how to solve this.

As much as I hate an installation that goes wrong and you spent day’s on how to solve this because you can ‘t bing your problem.

Here is what I have on hardware in this case a two node cluster windows 2008 R2 RC build 7100 and the SQL 2008 DVD

I have more than enough disk space in may case I have two disk of 100 GB but I will use only one disk per instance this is not Best Practice but handy in a test lab.

So I downloaded the SQL DVD and hit the setup.

  

I love the warning but as every one I do not read it and click run program 2x , finaly there is the setup splash.

So First I do the Prereq. This is nice this way you can see if the configuration you use is ok for the job.

  

Well I have a pending reboot and a .NET security warning , mmm strange I can’t connect to the Web .  first a reboot.

Since this is not tux I rebooted the kernel.

   

ok after the Reboot I hit setup again and I click the setup failover cluster , now there is no pending reboot here and I can go further

  

Remember that You must use the same product key on your Cluster nodes !!!!

Yes I agree who reads this any way I just wanna do a fast setup my boss want the sql cluster ready today. Yes I can.

 

  

Yes next
next eh No MSDTC ? do I need it ? mmmm network binding error firewall error can’t the setup handle this for me ?

  

Troubleshoot the install errors:

 

Ok it seems is will not be a next next finish I agree setup Right. and this is whay you must read the guides!! except in a demo where things must go wrong.

So first we do a MSDTC setup this is needes if You wanna do Transactions

We also need to cluster the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource (MSDTC). Although MS DTC is not required for Database Engine-only installation, without it being clustered, you would receive a warning message during the setup configuration checks because of the incompliance of the Cluster_IsDTCClustered rule. If you need to install SSIS, Workstation Components or use distributed transactions, then MS DTC must be clustered. In our example, the MSDTC resource is clustered in a group called "Your name MSDTC Group". This group contains the MSDTC resource, a shared Physical Disk T: to store MSDTC log files, a network name, and an IP Address. Before clustering MSDTC, network MSDTC access must be enabled on both nodes. For more information, please refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817064/. The MSCS Cluster Service account will need to have public rights to SQL Server so that it can run SELECT @@servername for the IsAlive cluster checks.

Setup MSDTC :

This is the easy part Go in you FCM ( Failover Cluster Manger ) configure a service or application and select the MSDTC.

  

So I give the MSDTC the IP and point it to the new disk for the log files. I use a separate disk for the MSDTC so that I can move the resource where and whan I want.

  

 

Done I just created my MSDTC failover cluster resource !

Network binding Order : 

This error is easy to fix and it is new I have never seen this error ( or I did always ther right steps ) so go to your network tab eh yes but where is it. well it take me almost a minute to find it.

Go to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections

click organize and layout and check the menu bar now you can go to advanced.

  Change the order and done.

Back to the SQL backup :

 

So Again I swing the SQL setup

  

I named the first instance and changed the default

  

  

So whay would you use DHCP ?? just give it a fixed IP

  

I use the same service account for all the services added the administrator to the sql admins.  You should create a group and put users in i. but you can do this later.

  What is this \\?\volume{

Ok this is strange I give the SQL server disk 4 , lets see what the problem is. Oh ok this is a CSV disk CSV = cluster shared volume.

You can’t use this disk!.

So I added a fresh new iscsi target to the nodes and run the setup again.

  

No errors

    

  

As in the settings above I filling the items and go.

  

Ok Now I have more disks to use and I do not choose a CSV volume , and no I do not wanna use DHCP

  

Same services account

  

Now as you can see I can see the disk letter this is great and almost done.

  

Yes I do believe in the error roporting this way we can make the product better.

  

No the filestream does not need an update I’m using Windows 2008 R2 RC state of the art server. I saved the config file maybe I do a command line setup later if I want to reinstall this cluster.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20090604_212627\ConfigurationFile.ini

 

As you can see the ini file is easy to read and to adjust where needed.

  

What another error ;-( kerberos , Well this is a nice error bink it and you will see not much errors or resolution about this.

Did I miss something I solved all the other errors.

So what is it :

RequireKerberos

Controls whether or not the Network Name resource can be brought online without Kerberos authentication. The choices are:

RequireKerberos is set to 1. The next time this resource is brought online, clients using this resource will be authenticated using Kerberos. That is, a computer object for the Network Name resource will be created or updated before that resource comes online.

RequireKerberos is set to 0. Disables this option, that is, no computer object is created for the Network Name resource. This is the default. The Cluster service will try to detect if a computer object already exists for the Network Name resource; if a computer object is present, the resource will fail to come online. If this property were previously set to 1, setting it back to zero will disable the computer object created for this Network Name resource, if any.

Do not rename a Network Name resource and change the Kerberos authentication setting at the same time. Instead, allow time for changes to replicate after performing each action.

  

When I looked at my install I can’t see anything about a sql cluster only the network name. ah no ip settings.let me fix this.

  

Done fixed the IP and bring it online start the sql manager and go. NO  it won’t work. You know whay. YOU missed the error in the beginning.

this is saying USE SP1  my download came without sp1 and I can download sp1 but how to use it.

Well it is not easy, yes it is.

First copy the files from the DVD to a disk location.

use robocopy .

robocopy “sqlDVD” to “ disklocation” ( change the names !)

download the sp1 sql 2008 software details.aspx-FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19

Extract the sp1 files to the hardisk loaction

SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-x86-ENU.exe /x:v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU
SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-x64-ENU.exe /x:v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU
SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-ia64-ENU.exe /x:v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU

Change the Setup files

robocopy SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1 setup.rll
robocopy SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1 setup.exe

robocopy v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\pcu\ia64 v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\ia64 /xf  Microsoft.SQL.Chainer.PackageData.dll
robocopy v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\pcu\x64 v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\x64 /xf  Microsoft.SQL.Chainer.PackageData.dll
robocopy v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\pcu\x86 v:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\x86 /xf  Microsoft.SQL.Chainer.PackageData.dll

and merge the sp1 files.

And change the installation path in the DefaultSetup.ini located in the ia64,x64,x86

PCUSOURCE="z:\SQLSERVER2008_FullSP1\PCU"

So I did the complete setup again but now with SP1 and I can login in the SQL manager

  

 

Watch the servername instance you can see this in de FC manager netbios name and sql name.

Now that we are installed SQL on node 2 we must install SQL2008 SP1 on node 2.

  

Just add the node to the cluster and follow the guide fillin the serial

  

 

Fill in the password and next

I hope I showed you that alot can go wrong and a setup can always be tricky if you want to to this to fast.

I will mesh this configuration so that I hopefully have
nice errors to solve.

In the next session I will add a second instance.

positive comments are welcome