Move the quorum disk to a new Drive 1

[wesmamas]

Hi,

I need some advice regarding MSCS. I'm currently working with a two-node cluster running win 2000 Adv Server. The thing is that I need to move the quorum disk from its old location, to a new one.

I've got two different ways of doing that:

First by means of the Cluster Administrator:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280353/en-us

Second: by means of the cluster server recovery utility.

The first solution seems to be the simplest one, but I don't know if I could have problems with any application running in the cluster... I have read that applications that are using the disk will reference files on the disk via a drive letter. And since this first solution does not touch the drive letter of the old quorum disk, I am afraid it could cause some applications like SQL or any other to stop working correctly...

As for the second option, I've never worked with this tool, and I do not know how it's going to behave.

Which one should I used based on your experience?

Thanks in advance...

 

[mrdenny]

I've used that same procedure on a Windows 2003 cluster running SQL with no problem. We planned for the outage but there wasn't one.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

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[wesmamas]

Thanks a lot for your reply...

Just one more thing, did you try that procedure with SQL service running, or you interrupt it during the quorum disk allocation change?

 

[mrdenny]

With SQL running. SQL doesn't need access to the Quarum to run.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

My Blog

 

[wesmamas]

Hi,

I know that SQL doesn't need access to the Quorum to run, it's just another group with different resources associated to the cluster. But at the end is dependent on the quorum, because, if the quorum disk stops working or fails, the cluster service stops working and as a result the SQL service will fail too.

What I meant is that moving the quorum disk will also imply assigning a different disk signature. And I wasn't sure that following the procedure of “changing the quorum disk designation (280353)” with SQL running could cause the system to crash.

I read on this article that if the signature of the quorum disk changes, the cluster service could not start...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305793/en-us

So I guess that the "changing the quorum disk designation (280353)" procedure also changes: disk signature, dependencies... right?

Sorry if I'm kind of annoying, but I am trying to have these concepts clear.

 

[mrdenny]

It would stop SQL if the cluster services stop or fail. For safty sake it would probably be good to stop the SQL Service. Just to be on the safe side.

I do know that Windows 2000 clustering is a little fussier than Windows 2003 clustering and I was using Windows 2003. It would probably be best to stop the other services.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

My Blog

 

[Kuskaya]

Only as additional information.There is also a tool called Cluster Server Recovery Utility (ClusterRecovery.exe)to change disks.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F0-A408-4232-9353-64AAFD65306D&displaylang=en

This utility is primarily aimed at the following scenarios:

Restoring resource checkpoint files
Replacing a failed disk
Recovering from disk signature changes
Migrating data to a different disk on the shared bus

Regards,
Cengiz Kuskaya