How to: Create a New SQL 2012 Server Failover Cluster (Setup) multiple instances on windows server 2012 #ws2012

Now that windows 2012 is in beta we can talk almost about anything and it is time to create my demo SQL 2012 machine. In this case I uses the Windows server 8 cluster from the other blog item to create a SQL 2012 cluster with 3 instances. All of the instances are created on different ways , Instance 3 is a ZTI   #WS2012 #TEE #TEE13 #MVP13

For starters build a 2 node cluster or more nodes if you want and use the SQL 2012 Media. I use the Enterprise version.

Remember that I create the Server Group and my cluster I already added the disk to my cluster mounted the SQL 2012 ISO file to the node. Ready for the Setup.

again I use a lot of pictures in this blog and I do almost everything twice just to show you how you can configure your cluster.

the disk listing in the cluster. eh no we do not use the basic setup. Installation should be fun and not follow the wizard ok we have to use the wizard in this part. We use the advanced cluster preparation setup this will setup your SQL cluster in two parts.

 

 

 

Fill in your SQL product key or use a evaluation , accept the agreement.

  

Mm a warning it looks OK yes it is I create a new blog post on this ignore it for now.

 

Yes I corrected the binding order and we continue the setup.

 

I choose to install all the options This cluster will be used for the System center products.

 

 

I use a basic account but for more security you should use different accounts. And I will also configure my report server by hand later.

 

 

Now that the first step is ready we can do the second step but first I want to create a second instance preparation. as a basic I use the setup .ini file that you can save during the setup.

The second instance I use this ini file to create the instance preparation. Open the ini file and I changed the SQL01 in SQL02. easy

in the setup screen I use the install based on a Ini file setup. this is not an unattended setup. But all the screens are already filled in.  So this is like a practice unattended setup like in SQL03  

… import ini file As you can see the installation of a second instance is the same as installing one instance on a node or installing a third instance but you can install less or more options in the instances. they don’t have to be the same.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy just press next and finish almost unattended. You can also use the ini file of this installation if you want to rebuild this instance during a disaster.

Advanced Cluster Completion

Now that the Instance SQL01 and SQL02 are installed but not jet completed in my cluster we need to do the next step Cluster completion. This step we need to do this also twice , and yes one time I do this in the GUI and save the INI file and One I use the Ini file for the SQL02 setup just to see how it can be done.

 

Here we create the Cluster name and the SQL instance As you can see. And You see also the SQL02 instance. but remember you can only do one instance installation at the time

 

 

We choose the Disks and the IP address for this SQL cluster instance.

I use here only two disks but you can use more disk, DB ,Logs, and Temp DB and Analysis all on different disks. if you want more performance. this is if it runs on multiple SAN disks.

for System center the Collation is most important If you choose the wrong one you are in trouble it is hard to reconfigure this.

If you continue Setup using the default collation (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS), you will not be able to support multiple languages in Service Manager. In the future, if you decide you want to support multiple languages, you will have to re-install SQL Server.

Service Manager doesn’t like the default collation method (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS). If your SCSM SQL server is running with that collation mode you will get a warning when you install SCSM.

Further down in the error the Exhange 2010 MP was referenced with regards to “Microsoft.Exchange.2010.Reports.Dataset.Ten

After doing some investigation discovered that nager is only supported with a collation of “SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS” hange 2010 management pack relies on the collation being “SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS” to place certain data into the Data Warehouse.

Here is the bad news!!! The only way to resolve is it re-install SQL. So make sure if you are installing Operatons Manager your SQL collation is correct.

This error message is because we installed SQL Server in the default SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation. This collation is the only one that is supported by SCOM2012 and so this is necessary when we want to install SCOM2012 and want to connect SCSM with SCOM2012.

When installing SCSM 2012 it’s important to use a supported language.

If you use the default collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

multilanguage support will not be available in Service Manager.

Instead you should use a supported collation like eg.: Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

 

More info about this you can find here :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh495583.aspx

 

If you use system accounts you don’t want to add the domain administrator but in my demo It is ok

 

 

Ready. the one thing that I did not install is a DTC because it is so easy to install on a cluster we do this in just a few steps.  go to the failover cluster manager and add a cluster role

 

 

pick the msdtc and give the role a IP and I always use a own disk for the DTC but you can share this if you want. my advice use a own disk for a more flexible cluster

 

 

as you can see my cluster is ready to use

the second cluster completion I do this with a INI file all the steps are the same as without the ini file only the items are filled in.

..import ini file

 

 

I skiped the other screens

 

Done Now I have two SQL instances and 2 sets of ini files. these file I’m gonna use it for an unattended setup. SQL installation in just 10 minutes

the first step SQL cluster preperation

setup.exe /Q /CONFIGURATIONFILE=”C:\SQLSetup\ConfigurationFile.ini”

/SQLSVCPASSWORD=”<StrongPassword>” /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS/INDICATEPROGRESS

because I use a account for my SQL server I need to fill in my password.

 

 

 

  this will kick in the cluster completion.

For this unattended setup I created the following file I use the following account for all the services : sql2012 and the password is also sql2012 Remember this is a lap use strong passwords in real life !!!

Step one is the Cluster preperation

d:\setup.exe /q /CONFIGURATIONFILE=”C:\SQLSetup\SQL03-1.ini”

/AGTSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/ASSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/SQLSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/ISSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/RSSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″ /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /INDICATEPROGRESS

Step Two is the Cluster Completion

d:\setup.exe /q /CONFIGURATIONFILE=”C:\SQLSetup\SQL03-2.ini”

/AGTSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/ASSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/SQLSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/ISSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″

/RSSVCPASSWORD=”sql2012″ /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /INDICATEPROGRESS

 

 

You can do this also in one ini file but if something fails you don’t have to do it all again.

Happy clustering !!