Windows Server 2008

High Availability

Ramnish Singh
IT Advisor
Microsoft Corporation
Agenda
Failover Clusters
Network Load Balancing
Overview
What is a failover
cluster?

Benefits of a failover
cluster

Windows Server 2008

failover cluster changes

Failover cluster
components
New Features
Setup and migration
Simplicity
Cluster management
and operations

Maximizing availability
Stability
Storage configuration
and management

Security Improvement to
networking and security
Improvements to Setup
Simulated clustered actions to test cluster capability
Node tests
Network tests
Storage tests

A new stream-lined Cluster Setup wizard for one step

cluster installation.

Fully scriptable cluster installation and configuration

Capture and apply resource group settings from

Windows Server 2003 server clusters to Windows
Server 2008 Server failover clusters
Improvements to Cluster Management
and Operations
New, simplified, task-oriented cluster
administrator MMC snap-in

Quickly add clustered resources

Command line (cluster.exe) and WMI cluster

management
Troubleshoot a cluster with Windows Event
Tracing
Backup cluster configuration data with the
Volume Shadow Copy Service

Better control of Shared folders

Improvements to Storage Configuration
and Management
Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and SAS storage support
On-line hot-add of disks to other cluster
application
Better storage performance and stability, larger
than 2TB partitions

Perform disk maintenance more easily

Perform disk maintenance more easily

Improvements to Security
Cluster Service runs under the LocalSystem eliminating the
need for the Cluster Service Account (CSA)

Kerberos only authentication, no NTLM

Enhanced encryption

Cluster access auditing

Improvements to Networking
Support for IPv6 on production and private
networks
No more single subnet limit, routable cluster
communication
Name resolution without NETBios for DNS only
networks
Support for DHCP assigned cluster IP address
and heartbeat IP addresses
Technical Background
Maximizing Availability
Geographically Dispersed
Failover Clusters

Failover Cluster Requirements

Cluster Migrations

Cluster Validation Tool

Cluster Administrator

Cluster Configuration
Maximizing Availability
Majority-based cluster membership
Who and what gets a vote is fully
configurable
4 quorum models
Witness Disk Quorum
Majority Quorum (Shared Disk)
Majority Node Set Quorum
Shared Witness Quorum – hybrid of Majority
Node Set and Shared Disk

Up to 16 nodes in a cluster with x-64 edition of

Windows Server 2008 Server
Witness Disk Quorum Model

Only the Disk gets a vote

“Legacy” quorum model
Nodes have no vote – quorum disk is the master
Cluster stays up even if only 1 node can talk to the
disk

Node 1 Node 2

SAN

Shared Storage
Vote Device is master
Majority Quorum Model

New majority-based quorum model

Disk is optional witness to have a vote in deciding
majority
3 total votes, with 2 needed for majority
The Cluster can survive the loss of any 1 vote

Vote Vote

Node 1 Node 2
Each node
counts as 1 vote

SAN

Shared Storage
Vote Device gets 1
vote
Majority of Nodes Quorum Model

Only Nodes get votes

3+ Node votes without Shared Storage vote
Majority of votes needed to operate cluster
No shared disk vote

Vote
Vote
Vote

Node 1 Node 3
Node 2

Replicated Storage Devices

Shared Witness Quorum Model
Allows a cluster with no shared disk (hybrid of Majority
of Nodes + Witness Based Quorum)
Improved from Windows Server 2003 to support greater
than 2 nodes
Excellent solution for GeoCluster (file share in a 3rd site)
Single server could serve as the witness for multiple
clusters

Witness File Share on an

independent server

Each node
counts as 1 vote
Vote Vote

Node 1 Node 2
Geographically Dispersed Failover Clusters
Routable and configurable heartbeats ease the
creation of geographically dispersed failover clusters.

Witness

Site
3

Site Site
1 2
Failover Cluster Requirements
Operating system: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise or
Datacenter Edition
Multiple network adapters on each node, connected to
different IP subnets (production and heartbeat)
Access by each node to a shared storage device (fibre
channel, iSCSI, SAS) – for clusters with shared data needs
Cluster Migrations
Cluster Migration Tool facilitates migration of a
cluster using a roll forward model

Capture and apply resource group settings from

a Windows Server 2003 server cluster to a
Windows Server 2008 failover cluster

Server Clustering Failover Clustering

Cluster Configuration Validation Wizard
(ClusPrep v.2)
Runs a focused set of tests on cluster nodes,
networks, and storage to verify the feasibility of
installing a cluster on a set of servers

Identifies hardware and configuration problems

prior to releasing a cluster into a production
environment

Can be used as a
diagnostic tool

Required for Microsoft

support
Cluster Node Inventory and Validation
Inventory:
Validation:
Operating system
versions Communication between
cluster nodes
Hot fix and service
SCSI reservation
pack consistency compatibility among
CPU architecture cluster nodes
Memory Presence of multiple
network adapters in each
Domain membership node and configuration
of valid IP addresses
Unsigned driver
installations Accessibility of shared
storage device by each
PnP devices cluster node
Host Bus Adapters Network and disk
(HBAs) and network input/output
adapters
Cluster Setup
Cluster Administrator
The new, simplified, task-based management console
Service and application based administration
Configuring Highly-Available Resources
Failover Cluster Events, Logs, and Reports

HTML Based for Easy

Collection and Remote
Analysis
Command-Line Configuration
(Cluster.exe)
Cluster.exe facilitates automation of cluster
administration through scripting
Sample syntax:

- To add a node to the cluster, type:

Cluster /add /node:TPA-NODE-01

- To evict a node from the cluster, type:

Cluster NODE TPA-NODE-01 /EVICT

- To manually fail over a resource, type:

Cluster GROUP ClusterFS /move:tpa-node-01
Implementation/Usage Scenarios
Failover clusters are used for servers that run
applications with a shared data set. For example SQL
Server 2005, Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office
Sharepoint Server 2007, and File and Print Services.
Failover Clustering
Recommendations
Validate cluster node hardware
Minimize the services installed on cluster nodes
Ensure the physical security of cluster nodes
Implement consistent security practices to detect and
prevent irregular and unwanted communication to cluster
nodes
Ensure the security of network services that a failover
cluster relies on (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP)
Test and install the latest hot fixes and service packs on
cluster nodes
Administer cluster nodes only from trusted computers
Summary
Enhanced cluster validation with the Cluster Configuration
Validation Wizard
Simplified installation procedures and task-based management
with a new Cluster Administrator MMC snap-in
Increased cluster node support on x64 edition Windows Server
2008 Server
New Witness disk architecture
Enhanced IP addressing features (IPv6, DHCP)
Elimination of VLAN requirement with routable cluster
communication
Elimination of NetBIOS dependency
Support for fibre channel, iSCSI, and SAS storage architectures
Overview
Support for IPv6

Support for NDIS 6.0

WMI Enhancements

Improved DOS attack and time starvation protection

Support for multiple dedicated IP addresses per node

Support for rolling upgrades

Consolidated management through Network Load

Balancing Manager
Technical Details
NLB is an optional feature, which must be installed in
one of three ways:
Server Manager (GUI)
Ocsetup.exe (command line)
Unattended answer file with setup.exe during OS
installation

NLB can be used to load balance a Terminal Server farm

TS Session Directory keeps track of disconnected sessions
and ensures that users are reconnected to those sessions
Host must be in same subnet
Servers must be in same domain
Implementation/Usage Scenarios

Ensure high availability for services and

applications

Ensure scalability for services and

applications

Provide highly-available Terminal Services

sessions
Recommendations
Implement NLB to provide high availability
and scalability to services and applications
Use only the TCP/IP network protocol on
the cluster adapter
Do not enable Network Load Balancing on a
computer that is part of a failover cluster
Secure the load balanced applications and
hosts
Secure the network traffic between nodes
Summary
NLB provides high availability and scalability for services
and applications
NLB now provides support for IPv6, NDIS 6.0, multiple
dedicated IP addresses per node, rolling upgrades, and
consolidated management through the Network Load
Balancing Manager. Also provided are enhancements to
WMI and improved protection against Denial of Server
(DOS) attacks.
3 Installation options: Server Manager, ocsetup, and
during an unattended installation of the operating system
NLB can provide highly-available terminal services
sessions
Resources
Windows Server 2008
Product: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx
Home Page: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/Windows Server 2008/default.mspx
Webcasts: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/windowsserver2008.aspx?tab=webcasts
Forums: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=161&SiteID=17

Failover Clustering
Web Page: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/Windows Server 2008/failover-clusters.mspx
Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/clustering/archive/2006/10/26/welcome-to-cluster-teams-blog.aspx
Presentation: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-
174cf47d23cd/SER119_WH06.ppt
Webcast:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032325410&EventCategor
y=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US
Forum: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=827&SiteID=17
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