Windows 2003 R2 Ent. Ed Local Quorum Cluster Question 1

[1smahanes]

I am trying to setup 2 HP DL 320 servers with Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise edition. The 2 servers are identical. I have used the Windows Guide to Creating and Configuring a Server Cluster Published 11/11/2003.

The first server is setup using a local quorum and is happy and healthy. When I try to add the second server to the cluster it fails during the wizard . I am running the wizard from node 1 and selecting node 2 using the advanced option of minimum analysis. The error reported is. A multi-node cluster cannot be created because the quorum resource does not support adding nodes to the cluster.


A brief overview is. Setting up 2 servers in a cluster to run the print server funtion at the client site. 2 HP DL320
servers SATA Raid 1 with 4GB of memory. Windows 2003 R2 Ent. Edition. Dual Nics with Nic 1 as Public and Nic 2 as Private.

I'm sure this a "Me Issue". Any suggestions will be appreciated. Hopefully before I go bald from pulling
my very few remaining hairs out.

Scott Mahanes

 

[ShackDaddy]

You can't join another node to a cluster with a local quorum. Local quorums are only for testing, and are always single-node clusters. Not really clusters at all. To actually have a multi-node cluster, you need some shared storage so that both nodes have access to the data they need if one of the nodes goes down. A local quorum does not create that environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/insider/installquorum.mspx#WhyAndWhat

You may want to do Network Load Balancing instead of real clustering. NLB doesn't require a quorum and is just an active/active redundancy of resources that can be applied to web sites, terminal services and print servers.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[1smahanes]

Thanks for the reply. That is what I thought, but the engineer that speced the hardware quote thought there
was another way to do it without shared media. I appreciate
you taking the time to answer my boner question.

Scott Mahanes