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WindowsClusterInterviewQuestionsandAnswers

WindowsClusterInterviewQuestions
andAnswers
HerearesomewindowsclusterInterviewQuestions
andAnswersforwindowsadministrator
WhatisClustering?Brieflydefine&explainit?

Clusteringisatechnology,whichisusedtoprovideHighAvailabilityformissioncriticalapplications.Wecan
configureclusterbyinstallingMCS(Microsoftclusterservice)componentfromAddremoveprograms,whichcanonly
availableinEnterpriseEditionandDatacenteredition.

TypesofClusters?
InWindowswecanconfiguretwotypesofclusters

1.NLB (networkloadbalancing)clusterforbalancingloadbetweenservers.Thisclusterwillnotprovideanyhigh
availability.Usuallypreferableatedgeserverslikeweborproxy.

2.ServerCluster: ThisprovidesHighavailabilitybyconfiguringactiveactiveoractivepassivecluster.In2node
activepassiveclusteronenodewillbeactiveandonenodewillbestandby.Whenactiveserverfailstheapplication
willFAILOVERtostandbyserverautomatically.WhentheoriginalserverbacksweneedtoFAILBACKthe
application

WhatisQuorum? Asharedstorageneedtoprovideforallserverswhichkeepsinformationaboutclustered
applicationandsessionstateandisusefulinFAILOVERsituation.ThisisveryimportantifQuorumdiskfailsentire
clusterwillfails.

WhyQuorumisnecessary?

Whennetworkproblemsoccur,theycaninterferewithcommunicationbetweenclusternodes.Asmallsetofnodes
mightbeabletocommunicatetogetheracrossafunctioningpartofanetwork,butmightnotbeabletocommunicate
withadifferentsetofnodesinanotherpartofthenetwork.Thiscancauseseriousissues.Inthissplitsituation,at
leastoneofthesetsofnodesmuststoprunningasacluster.

Topreventtheissuesthatarecausedbyasplitinthecluster,theclustersoftwarerequiresthatanysetofnodes
runningasaclustermustuseavotingalgorithmtodeterminewhether,atagiventime,thatsethasquorum.Because
agivenclusterhasaspecificsetofnodesandaspecificquorumconfiguration,theclusterwillknowhowmany
votesconstitutesamajority(thatis,aquorum).Ifthenumberdropsbelowthemajority,theclusterstopsrunning.
Nodeswillstilllistenforthepresenceofothernodes,incaseanothernodeappearsagainonthenetwork,butthe
nodeswillnotbegintofunctionasaclusteruntilthequorumexistsagain.

Forexample,inafivenodeclusterthatisusinganodemajority,considerwhathappensifnodes1,2,and3can
communicatewitheachotherbutnotwithnodes4and5.Nodes1,2,and3constituteamajority,andtheycontinue
runningasacluster.Nodes4and5areaminorityandstoprunningasacluster,whichpreventstheproblemsofa
splitsituation.Ifnode3losescommunicationwithothe rnodes,allnodesstoprunningasacluster.However,all
functioningnodeswillcontinuetolistenforcommunication,sothatwhenthenetworkbeginsworkingagain,the
clustercanformandbegintorun.
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DifferenttypesofQuoruminWindowsserver2008?
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1.NodeMajority UsedwhenOddnumberofnodesareincluster.
2.NodeandDiskMajority Evennumberofnodes(butnotamultisitecluster)
3.NodeandFileShareMajority Evennumberofnodes,multisitecluster
4.NodeandFileShareMajority Evennumberofnodes,nosharedstorage

DifferenttypesofQuoruminWindowsserver2003?

StandardQuorum: Asmentionedabove,aquorumissimplyaconfigurationdatabaseforMSCS,andisstoredin
thequorumlogfile.Astandardquorumusesaquorumlogfilethatislocatedonadiskhostedonasharedstorage
interconnectthatisaccessiblebyallmembersofthecluster.
StandardquorumsareavailableinWindowsNT4.0EnterpriseEdition,Windows2000AdvancedServer,Windows
2000DatacenterServer,WindowsServer2003EnterpriseEditionandWindowsServer2003DatacenterEdition.

MajorityNodeSetQuorums: Amajoritynodeset(MNS)quorumisasinglequorumresourcefromaservercluster
perspective.However,thedataisactuallystoredbydefaultonthesystemdiskofeachmemberofthecluster.The
MNSresourcetakescaretoensurethattheclusterconfigurationdatastoredontheMNSiskeptconsistentacross
thedifferentdisks.
MajoritynodesetquorumsareavailableinW indowsServer2003EnterpriseEdition,andWindowsServer2003
DatacenterEdition.

ExplainabouteachQuorumtype?

NodeMajority:Eachnodethatisavailableandincommunicationcanvote.Theclusterfunctionsonlywithamajority
ofthevotes,thatis,morethanhalf.

NodeandDiskMajori ty:Eachnodeplusadesignateddiskintheclusterstorage(thediskwitness)canvote,
whenevertheyareavailableandincommunication.Theclusterfunctionsonlywithamajorityofthevotes,thatis,
morethanhalf.

NodeandFileShareMajority:Eac hnodeplusadesignatedfilesharecreatedbytheadministrator(thefileshare
witness)canvote,whenevertheyareavailableandincommunication.Theclusterfunctionsonlywithamajorityof
thevotes,thatis,morethanhalf.

NoMajority:DiskOnly:Theclusterhasquorumifonenodeisavailableandincommunicationwithaspecificdiskin
theclusterstorage.

Howisthequoruminformationlocatedonthesystemdiskofeachnodekeptinsynch?

Theserverclusterinfrastructureensuresthatallchangesarereplicatedandupdatedonallmembersinacluster.

Canthismethodbeusedtoreplicateapplicationdataaswell?

No,thatisnotpossibleinthisversionofclustering.OnlyQuoruminformationisreplicatedandmaintainedina
synchronizedstatebytheclusteringinfrastructure.

CanIconvertastandardclustertoanMNScluster?

Yes.YoucanuseClusterAdministratortocreateanewMajorityNodeSetresourceandthen,onthecluster
propertiessheet Quorum tab,changethequorumtothatMajorityNodeSetresource.

WhatisthedifferencebetweenageographicallydispersedclusterandanMNScluster?

Ageographicclusterreferstoaclusterthathasnodesinmultiplelocations,whileanMNSbasedclusterreferstothe
typeofquorumresourcesinuse.AgeographicclustercanuseeitherashareddiskorMNSquorumresource,while
anMNSbasedclustercanbelocatedinasinglesite,orspanmultiplesites.

WhatisthemaximumnumberofnodesinanMNScluster?

WindowsServer2003supports8nodeclustersforbothEnterpriseEditionandDatacenterEdition.

DoIneedspecialhardwaretouseanMNScluster?
 ThereisnothinginherentintheMNSarchitecturethatrequiresanyspecialhardware,otherthanwhatisrequiredfor
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astandardcluster(forexample,theremustbeontheMicrosoftClusterHCL).However,somesituationsthatusean
MNSclustermayhaveuniquerequirements(suchasgeographicclusters),wheredatamustbereplicatedinrealtime
betweensites.

DoesaclusterawareapplicationneedtoberewrittentosupportMNS?

No,usinganMNSquorumrequiresnochangetotheapplication.However,someclusterawareapplicationsexpecta
shareddisk(forexampleSQLServer2000),sowhileyoudonotneedshareddisksforthequorum,youdoneed
shareddisksfortheapplication.

DoesMNSgetridoftheneedforshareddisks?

Itdependsontheapplication.Forexample,clusteredSQLServer2000requiresshareddiskfordata.Remember,
MNSonlyremovestheneedforashareddiskquorum.

WhatdoesafailoverclusterdoinWindowsServer2008?
Afailoverclusterisagroupofindependentcomputersthatworktogethertoincreasetheavailabilityofapplications
andservices.Theclusteredservers(callednodes)areconnectedbyphysicalcablesandbysoftware.Ifoneofthe
clusternodesfails,anothernodebeginstoprovideservice(aprocessknownasfailover).Usersexperiencea
minimumofdisruptionsinservice.

WhatnewfunctionalitydoesfailoverclusteringprovideinWindowsServer2008?
Newvalidationfeature.Withthisfeature,youcancheckthatyoursystem,storage,andnetworkconfigurationis
suitableforacluster.

SupportforGUIDpartitiontable(GPT)disksinclusterstorage.GPTdiskscanhavepartitionslargerthantwo
terabytesandhavebuiltinredundancyinthewaypartitioninformationisstored,unlikemasterbootrecord(MBR)
disks.

WhathappenstoarunningClusterifthequorumdiskfailsinWindowsServer2003Cluster?
InWindowsServer2003,theQuorumdiskresourceisrequiredfortheCluster
tofunction.Inyourexample,iftheQuorumdisksuddenlybecameunavailable
totheclusterthenbothnodeswouldimmediatelyfailandnotbeableto
restarttheclussvc.

Inthatlight,theQuorumdiskwasasinglepointoffailureinaMicrosoft
Clusterimplementation.However,itwasusuallyafairlyquickworkaroundto
gettheclusterbackupandoperational.Therearegenerallytwosolutions
tothattypeofproblem.

1.DetemrinewhytheQuorumdiskfailedandrepair.
2.ReprovisionanewLUN,presentittothecluster,assignitadrive
letterandformat.Thenstartonenodewiththe/FQswitchandthrough
cluadmindesignatethenewdiskresourceastheQuorum.Thenstopand
restarttheclussvcnormallyandthenbringonlinethesecondnode.

WhathappenstoarunningClusterifthequorumdiskfailsinWindowsServer2008Cluster?

Clustercontinuestoworkbutfailoverwillnothappenincaseofanyotherfailureintheactivenode.

HPSystemManagementportno:2381

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