Microsoft Windows Cluster Services For Windows 2003 & Windows 2008
Posted by themsguru on Jun 8, 2008
I thought its highly desirable to assemble a list of interesting links on the Microsoft Clustering services and often seek information regarding MS Clustering Services as they tend to hide when you need them the most.I hope these links will help you find out all the info you need about Microsoft Clustering Services. These links point to papers covering all versions of the MS Cluster Server (MSCS) Services.
For those who do not know what I am talking about, Cluster, is a service that offers “High Availability” to services. Ooops, not to be confused with Fault Tolerant, that is another entirely different concept. Raid 1array is a good example of Fault Tolerant, if a harddisk in Raid one Configuration break the system keep operating on the other one without any interruption. High Availability instead is a service that is responsible for giving the highest uptime of an application or service. In case the first node fail there will be a court of service but is minimal since it is the time it takes to initiate such application or service in a second server. Below is my Magical MS Cluster Services Information Links list
Server Clusters: Architecture Overview (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Rolling Upgrades (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Storage Area Networks (Windows 2000 and 2003)
MSCS Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide (NT 4.0)
Troubleshooting Windows Server Clusters (Windows 2003)
Server Cluster Frequently Asked Questions (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Majority Node Set Quorum (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Geographically Dispersed Clusters (Windows 2003)
Quorums in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Clusters
Server Clusters: Cluster Configuration Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Network Configuration Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Storage Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Backup and Recovery Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Security Best Practices (Windows 2003)
Server Clusters: Quorum Options (Windows 2003)
How to turn on cluster logging in Microsoft Cluster Server
What’s New in Failover Clusters in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Validating Hardware for a Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008: Step-by-Step (Windows 2008)
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node File Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring a Two-Node Print Server Failover Cluster in Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Failover Cluster Quorum Configuration Step-by-Step Guide (Windows 2008)
Failover Clustering and Active Directory Configuration Step-by-Step Guide (Windows 2008)
Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide (Windows 2008)
Microsoft High Availability Strategy White Paper (Windows 2008)
Overview of Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 (Windows 2008)
Quick Migration with Hyper-V (Windows 2008)
Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering Architecture Overview (Windows 2008)
WS2008 Failover Clustering Datasheet (Windows 2008)
WS2008 Multi Site Clustering (Windows 2008) Step-by-Step Guide for Testing Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
Those links were based on documents and links to Technet with relevant information about the service or Cluster Failover Cluster depending on the version of Windows. Now I would like to make some links with tools or utilities that may serve to work with Microsoft Cluster service.
Cluster Server Recovery Utility (ClusterRecovery.exe) Cluster Diagnostics and Verification Tool (ClusDiag.exe)
Microsoft Cluster Configuration Validation Wizard (ClusPrep) Microsoft Product Support’s Reporting Tools (MPSReport) for Cluster
If a link does not work please leave me a comment so that I can solve the problem. I hope these links will be helpful for someone who wants to set up a Cluster or supporting it. I was served a lot by these links and would like to share it. If you have another good link and would like to share it please post it in the comment as well. Thanks
Embarrassing Limitations for Windows 2008 Server Core
Posted by themsblogger on Jun 8, 2008
Windows 2008 Server Core has some truly embarrassing Limitations. In this Article I will try to cover few of them.
For example I read that a core installation can be used to run a web server with IIS 7 but then:
“As Internet Explorer being a prerequisite for. NET Framework, you can not use Powershell or run any managed Application (note: nothing. NET), although IIS is supported it can not be used to publish web applications based on ASP.NET, but Only html based sites. ”
How? Only sites based on HTML? Both true, I say nothing web server.
And nothing Powershell? But for the peppa, I have only the line of command and I also take away the Powershell?
It is not over, continuing with quotes:
You can not upgrade from an earlier version of Windows Server.
Right! Better format. : o (
“You can not upgrade mode Server Core mode from full graphical interface, but you will need a new installation.”
Great! OK! Choose well immediately otherwise: zak! formats the distribution if you want Explorer.
I understand, vai installation standards as before.
I need to say I find very good the idea that they offer a minimal installation, although undoubtedly it need to be improved (who said the service pack?). Maybe for the moment will be mainly used in embedded devices.
The point of this article. Before deciding to go all the way with your infrastructure on Windows 2008 Server Core, Please test rigidly as it has a lot more limitation than Windows 2008 with Graphical interface.
I hope this would help and warn many new comers to Windows 2008.