Clustering VMWare: A Startup Guide
Have put together some tips on Clustering VMWare Server, have a look, hope it helps...
Clustering VMWare: Virtual Machines Clusters
Objective: To build two virtual machines that will be highly available Clustered nodes.
Purpose: To test and build applications that use the clustered resource.
NOTES: (1) Virtual machines have always the same hardware, they don't depend from the HOST
hardware type and for the same reasons you can save, move and load a virtual machine anywhere where
VMWare is installed. (2) VMWare uses 2 main file type to run virtual machines .vmw file (Config File) and
.vmdk file (virtual hard disk) to create a shared SCSI disk there are 2 things we need to change manually
on the config file after you use the virtual disk configuration wizard, the following line need to be changed
to "FALSE": disk.locking = "FALSE" This will allow any virtual machine to load a SCSI disk device even if
it's in use by an other virtual machine (Cluster disk emulation). Create as many disk as you need, keep in
mind that at least one will be internally used by the cluster service, so if you need 4 clustered data drives,
create 5. (3) VMWare gets installed in the default directory C:\Program Files\VMWare and 4 CD images
ISO come with it (VMWare Utilities and Drivers for guests OS: Windows, Linux, Netware and FreeBSD?).
After I installed the first Windows 2000 and 2003 server OS running with all the updates, I backed the
images up so they can be loaded as manytimes we need, the computername is general (it needs to be
renamed) and the administrator password is blank (need to be changed too).
Steps:
Configuring Windows 2003 Cluster
I followed the following instructons on how to build a cluster:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/planning/server/clustersteps.asp
I created 2 Virtual Network Connections for each VMachine that was going to become a cluster node: the
LAN connection (Bridged on the VMWare Network Configuration) and the "Heartbeat" crossover
connection.
The host OS installed is Windows 2000 Server with basic configuration, McAfee? and winzip on it. The
Guests's OS in Windows 2003 Enterprise Server (for Cluster support), McAfee?, Winzip and "VMWare
tools for Windows Guest OS"
I configured The HOST to log automatically on with U/P on the local machine 3 batch files in the "vmuser"
profile startup folder will automatically start the new nodes and lock the Host machine.
The Windows 2003 Cluster has been configured with the following IP addresses
IP Address Description
10.10.30.110 Cluster NETBIOS name
10.10.30.111 Node 1 Server
10.10.30.112 Node 2 Server
10.10.30.113 Virtual SQL Server Name
10.10.30.114 Virtual MQ Series Name
Cluster SETUP First we need to setup the crossover connection which is needed for the Cluster to work:
on Node1 I use 192.168.0.1/30 and Node2 192.168.0.2/30 Create a user on the domain that will be
memeber of the local administrators on both nodes [i.e. "_Cluster"] find a good IP and NetBIOS? name to
give to the cluster.
On Windows 2003 there is no need to reboot the machine to create the cluster, just open CLUSTER
ADMINISTRATOR from the Administrators Tools and on the first node that is going to be member of the
cluster choose "Create a new cluster", you will be guided thru a Wizard that will ask for the SCSI disks,
the Virtual IP and NetBIOS? name that the cluster will have, you will also need the system account
created to run the cluster. After the process complete succefully, Open Cluster Administrator on Node2
and select "Add nodes to Cluster", the wizard will guide you until the process complete.
Test the cluster moving the resources back and forth between the nodes.
DTC Resource Setup Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click
Cluster Administrator. In Open Connection to Cluster, select the applicable cluster or server in the Cluster
or server name list. If you select a server, the name of the cluster to which it belongs will appear in the
console tree. In the console tree, click the cluster group to which you want the DTC resource to belong.
After the group is selected, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Resource. In the New
Resource Wizard, in Name and Description, type a name and description for the DTC resource, and
select Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) in the Resource type list box. Then click Next. In Group,
select the group that you want the DTC to belong to. By default, the DTC resource will install into the first
group it locates that has an IP, Name, and Physical Disk resource, unless you identify a specific group.
On the Possible Owners page, add the nodes that will own the DTC resource. If you want to add nodes to
the automatically chosen list under Possible owners, select them from the list under Available nodes and
click Add. If you want to remove nodes from the automatically chosen list under Possible owners, select
them in this list and click Remove. Then click Next. On the Dependencies page, under Available
resources, select name of the Physical Disk resource in the group and click Add. Then click Finish.
To bring the DTC resource online: Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and
then click Cluster Administrator. In the console tree, click the Resources folder. In the details pane, click
the resource you want to bring online. On the File menu, click Bring Online. This also brings the Physical
Disk resource online that the DTC resource is dependent on.
MSMQ 3.0 Cluster Resource Setup To install MSMQ 3.0 on a cluster node Click Start, point to Control
Panel, and then select Add or Remove Programs. Click Add/Remove? Windows Components. In the
Windows Components Wizard, select the Application Server check box, click Details, select the Message
Queuing check box, and then click Details. On the Message Queuing page, you can select the following
subcomponents that you want to install: To provide message routing services, select the Routing Support
check box. To install the MSMQ directory service, which provides access to MSMQ objects in Active
Directory for MSMQ 1.0 clients on computers running Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows Millennium
Edition (Me), and Windows NT ® 4.0, and for MSMQ 2.0 clients on computers running Windows 2000,
select the Downlevel Client Support check box. If the computer belongs to a domain and you want it to
operate in workgroup mode, clear the Active Directory Integration check box. In this case, you cannot
install Routing Support. If you want to install MSMQ Triggers, select the Triggers check box. If you intend
to send messages by HTTP transport, select the MSMQ HTTP Support check box. Click OK, and then
click Next. Follow the remaining instructions in the wizard.
SQL Server on Cluster SQL Server doesn't work on Windows 2003 w/o SP, SQL is compatible with at
least SP2 installed. On a cluster environment it cannot be installed and left it OFFLINE, after the
installation is complete the SETUP will try to start the SQL Cluster Resource and ,failing, will then
uninstall it and clean both nodes. To workaround this problem Microsoft wrote an article, Knowledge Base
# 815431 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815431
To get to the supported configuration of SQL Server 2000 SP3 on a Windows Server 2003-based
computer, use the following method: Use Client Network Utility to Create a Named Pipes Alias before you
install a named instance of SQL Server 2000 virtual server, use Client Network Utility (CNU) to create a
server alias to make a connection over named pipes (during Setup) while creating and bringing the SQL
Server resources Online. Repeat this process for each named instance installation. From the node where
you intend to run Setup, create a server alias for the client connection:
Run Cliconfg.exe on the cluster node where you will run Setup.
Note If Cliconfg.exe is not installed on your computer, install it by running Sqlredis.exe from the SQL
Server 2000 installation files: to do so, type the following information at a command prompt:
\x86\Other\sqlredis.exe /q:a /C:"setupre.exe WARN=1 -s -SMS
You may have to restart your computer if Cliconfg.exe is not immediately available. For additional
information about SQL Server 2000 Setup, click the following article number257716 to view the
article257716 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 257716 INF: Frequently Asked Questions - SQL Server
2000 - Setup
In the SQL Server Client Network Utility dialog box, click the Alias tab. Click Add to open the Add Network
Library Configuration dialog box. Click to select the Named Pipes check box. Type the alias name in the
Server alias box. For example: VIRTUALSERVERNAME\INSTANCENAME. Type the virtual server
instance name in Server name box. For example: VIRTUALSERVERNAME\INSTANCENAME. Verify the
name in the Pipe name box. By, default, the value in the Pipe name box is:
\\VIRTUALSERVERNAME\pipe\MSSQL$instancename\sql\query
Run SQL Server 2000 Setup. For the virtual server name, use the same virtual server name and instance
name that you used in steps e and f. Run SQL Server 2000 SP3 Setup. After Setup completes
successfully, run the Server Network Utility. Select the instance, select TCP/IP, and then click Properties.
Type 0 in the Default port box. Re-start the SQL Server resource from Cluster Administrator. Remove the
named pipes alias that you created in step 1.
With this procedure SQL should work on the Cluster resource, try to fail over to test it.
