Should MSDTC Resource have a dedicated physical drive? 1

[sharper]

Hello there,

I am building a two node Exchange cluster. Going through the articles I have configured MSDTC as a cluster resource and am about to install Exchange. Should the MSDTC resource have a totally seperate physical disk or can I share it with say the drive destined for the Exchange databases?

Thanks,

S.

 

[mrdenny]

I've seen the article in the MSKB that says that it should have it's own resoure group. We have choosen to not to that. We leave MSDTC in the main cluster group using the Quarum drive as it's physical resource. This is the way that the DTC installer set it up when you first install it.

Granted this is on a SQL Server not an Exchange box, but I can't imagine that there's a reason to do it differently for an Exchange server.

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)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[sharper]

Excellent. That worked. I felt it was a bit of a waste of SAN space.

Thanks for you help, much appreciated.

Oscar.

 

[xmsre]

Per the guidance in technet (HA guide), the DTC is in the default
cluster group. This assumes it will be on the quorum drive.

"The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) resource is
required for Exchange Server Setup and Service Pack Setup. On a cluster that
is dedicated to Exchange, it is recommended that the MSDTC resource be added
to the default Cluster Group. It is further recommended that the 'Affect the
Group' option be unchecked for the MSDTC resource. This prevents a failure
of the MSDTC resource from affecting the default cluster group"