MSCS - New to MSCS and would like some advice

[Noddy53]

Hi,
I am very new to Clustering and am trying to provide a solution for a client but am finding it very hard to sort out what the licensing requirements are for MSCS.

I am looking at clustering Windows 2003 Server Standard and SQL 2005 Standard in an active Passive Node.

I am finding conflicting information on the Web as to:-
Can W2K3 Std use MSCS or does it need to be W2K3 Ent?
Can SQL 2005 Std be used on an MSCS cluster or does it need to be SQL 2005 Ent?
Do both Active and Passive Nodes need to be licensed at both OS level and SQL?

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[pagy]

Enterprise for both Windows and SQL

If you only have one SQL instance then you only require one SQL licence.

You will need a Windows OS licence for each server.

Paul
VCP4

https://www.mcpvirtualbusinesscard.com/VBCServer/PaulP/profile

RFC 2795 - The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS)

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2795.html

Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week

 

[Noddy53]

Thanks for the information basically what i expected but good to get it confirmed.

Any Idea on W2K3 Std or Ent as I am still not 100% clear if W2K3 Std allows for MSCS but know Ent does,as my client wishes to re-use licences where possible.

 

[pagy]

Has to Enterprise version of Windows for clustering

Paul
VCP4

https://www.mcpvirtualbusinesscard.com/VBCServer/PaulP/profile

RFC 2795 - The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS)

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2795.html

Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week

 

[itsp1965]

From what I recall though, SQL Server Std 2005 can participate in a max 4 node cluster w/o going to enterprise edition. As for the Windows version Pagy is correct you'll need enterprise

 

[pagy]

Ah, you can have a 2 node cluster with sql 2005 standard for the database server only..

Paul
VCP4

https://www.mcpvirtualbusinesscard.com/VBCServer/PaulP/profile

RFC 2795 - The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS)

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2795.html

Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week

 

[mrdenny]

Windows Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition are required for clustering.

For SQL Server you'll need SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise Edition to cluster.

If your database will be internet facing you'll need to buy one CPU license for each CPU in the active node. For licensing the active node should be defined as the node which has the most physical CPU sockets.

You can install as many instances on the cluster (up to 25) without any additional license requirements as long as all the instances will be running on the same node.

If your database is not internet facing, and you have CALs for each user already you can get server licensees. However you'll need one for each instance installed, however you can run SQL instances on both nodes.

Typically people use CPU licensing for the cluster because of the number of users using the database to make the high availability requirement worth the cost of the storage.

Denny
MVP
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MCTS (SQL 2005 / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2008 BI / MWSS 3.0: Configuration / MOSS 2007: Configuration)
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[xmsre]

You won't be doing any clustering in Windows Server 2003 Standard.