Creating an Active/Active SQL Cluster using Hyper-V: Part1 Virtualized Storage

http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/04/10/creating-an-active-active-sql-cluster-using-hyper-v-part1-
virtualized-storage.aspx

Introduction
In this series of posts I will walk you through the processes of creating an Active/Active SQL server cluster using Hyper-V
and Microsoft iSCSI target software for virtualized SAN. The target is to create first a storage server hosted on a normal
Windows 2008 R2 server. Then connect to this server using two other machines as iSCSI initiators. Then I will create the
windows cluster along with the DTC clustered service. A clustered SQL server instance will then be created. Finally
another clustered SQL server instance will be created and Active/Active configuration of both instances will be applied.

Solution Architecture
The solution is fairly simple as per the below configuration.

Preparation
You need to create three virtual machines as illustrated above. One as the AD and storage server and another two as the
SQL server nodes that will act as Active/Active nodes.

These are all windows 2008 R2 servers and we have created the domain and joined all servers to this domain. You need
also to setup two network cards in each machine to function as normal LAN connection and another one for the cluster
heartbeat. It would be advisable also to separate the storage usage to another network if you have heavy usage. The
configuration given here is all static with normal local IPs assigned on all network cards.

Virtualized SAN Steps

In this section we will go through the needed steps to create the virtual storage server based SAN.
Configuring the iSCSI Target
1- Download the required iSCSI target software from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?
id=19867.
2- Copy the software to the storage server UK-LIT-AD in this case.
3- Double click the file to start the installation.
4- After it completes it will take you to a web page

5- Scroll down and click as below

6-

7-

8- Click install
9-

10- Now open server manager and you will find a new tree as below

11-
12- Give the new target a name (Just any name)

13- In the initiator list just click advanced and enter all the domain names of the servers that will have access to this
target. In our case this is UK-LIT-DB1 and UK-LIT-DB2.
14- If it displays a warning about the multiple initiators just accept it.

15- Click finish. And now you have completed the creation of your iSCSI target and what remains is to add the
required virtual disks to it.
16-

17- Place the new VHD and give it a name.

 18- Choose the disk size

19- Click finish and this would create the fixed size disk.
20- You will need to create the following disks so just follow the same approach

Disk Purpose

Quorum Cluster Quorum

DTC1 DTC cluster 1 log disk

DTC2 DTC cluster 2 log disk

SQL1 SQL cluster 1 shared disk

SQL2 SQL cluster 2 shared disk

Configuring the iSCSI Initiators

Now we will configure the two SQL nodes to be able to access these disks.
1- Log on to the first node UK-LIT-SQL1
2- Open the iSCSI initiator
3- Change the initiator name to match the machine name

4- In the discovery tab add a new discovery portal using the IP of the storage server.
5- Click on the targets tab and click refresh to show the available targets
6- Click connect then OK.
7- Go to the volumes and devices tab and click auto configure
 8- Do the same steps on UK-LIT-SQL2 starting at step 1 above but change the initiator name to match the machine
name as below

9- Go to any node of the two and open the server manager and then the disk management.
10- Bring all disks online to this node and then prepare them with primary partitions and format those using NTFS.

In the next parts I will show you how to configure the Active/Active SQL cluster.
Creating an Active/Active SQL Cluster using Hyper-V: Part2 the Clustered Instances
http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/04/11/creating-an-active-active-sql-cluster-using-hyper-v-part2-the-
clustered-instances.aspx

In part 1 of this series I showed you how to configure the virtual storage required for the cluster. In this part I will show
you how to create the SQL cluster as an Active/Passive cluster and in the next part I will show how to convert it to an
Active/Active cluster.

Introduction
In this series of posts I will walk you through the processes of creating an Active/Active SQL server cluster using Hyper-V
and Microsoft iSCSI target software for virtualized SAN. The target is to create first a storage server hosted on a normal
Windows 2008 R2 server. Then connect to this server using two other machines as iSCSI initiators. Then I will create the
windows cluster along with the DTC clustered service. A clustered SQL server instance will then be created. Finally
another clustered SQL server instance will be created and Active/Active configuration of both instances will be applied.

Solution Architecture
The solution is fairly simple as per the below configuration.

Windows Cluster Configuration Steps

Now that we have configured the storage we can start the windows failover cluster configuration.
1- Install the windows failover clustering feature to both nodes from the add feature wizard.

2- Bring all shared storage online to the current node.

3- Open the cluster management console and click create cluster. Note that it would be preferable to disable all
disks at this stage from the iSCSI target but the disk that will be used as the Quorum.
4- In the select servers page click browse and select the two nodes
5- Perform the cluster validation using the selection to run the cluster validation wizard

6- Select all tests

7- Review the validation and make sure there are no validation errors

8- Back to the create cluster wizard. Give the new cluster a name and an unused IP
9- The cluster is created and the first disk assigned to the first LUN is treated as the Quorum disk of the cluster

10- If you disabled all disks from the iSCSI target but the Quorum disk then you will need to add them as a new
storage to the cluster once they are needed. It is advisable to add every disk you will use once you need it.
11- Go and enable the first disk that will be used for the first cluster DTC.
12- In the cluster management add the new storage.

13- Go to the Services and applications node and click Configure a new service or application and select the DTC
service and then click next.
14- You can change the resource name if you want but you have to give it an unused IP

15- Select the disk

 16- Click finish to the confirmation screen

17- Now the windows cluster is prepared and ready for SQL server installation with an instance of DTC.

SQL Server First Cluster Instance

1- Go to the iSCSI target and create or add the shared disk to be used by the SQL cluster
2- Open the SQL server setup and click on new SQL server cluster

3- Go through the normal setup process

4-
5- Enter the SQL cluster name and leave as the default instance (or name this instance if you require)

Please note that if you are using any virtualization technology other than Hyper-V and installed
the guest additions, then you will need to uninstall these additions and restart the servers or the
above step will fail and report that it cannot validate the above settings.
6-
7-
8-
9-
10-
11-
12-
13- This completes the installation of the first SQL cluster on the first node

14- Logon to the second SQL node and start the SQL setup and choose to add a new node to a failover cluster
15-
16-
17-
18-
 19- Now that completes setting up the second node for this SQL cluster

SQL Server Second Cluster Instance

Now we will go through the installation of a second clustered SQL instance to be prepared as another active instance on
the passive node later.

1- Go to the iSCSI target and create or add another shared disk to be used by the second SQL cluster
2- Go to one of the nodes and then open the iSCSI initiator and then click again on auto configure of the volumes
and devices.

3- Now open the disk management utility and create the active partition on this disk and format it using NTFS.
4- Open the windows cluster management and add this disk to the cluster.

5- Open the SQL server setup and click on new SQL server cluster
6- Go through the normal setup process
7-
8- Enter the SQL cluster name and the instance name as BCInst

Please note that if you are using any virtualization technology other than Hyper-V and installed
the guest additions, then you will need to uninstall these additions and restart the servers or the
above step will fail and report that it cannot validate the above settings.
9-
10- Choose the already added disk
11- Choose a unique IP for his cluster
12-
13-
14-
15-
16- This completes the installation of the second SQL cluster on the first node

17- Logon to the second SQL node and start the SQL setup and choose to add a new node to a failover cluster
18-
19- Choose the new cluster BCInst
20-
21-
 22- Now that completes setting up the second node for this SQL cluster

In the next part I will show you how to configure the two created SQL instances in an Active/Active SQL configuration.