In this section, you see how to make configuration settings to your new two-node cluster. You look at the configuration settings you can make after everything is operational from configuring with wizards.
In the following illustration, the actual quorum configuration is available from the cluster. To get to this Properties dialog box, right-click the cluster object itself within the Cluster Administrator and select Properties. You can now configure the settings for the entire cluster itself. Here, in the next illustration, you can change the settings once again for the quorum. Note, for most of the settings changes you make, you’re forced either to restart the Cluster Administrator or to take objects offline and online, so the settings changes can take place. Here, you can change the quorum log size to be larger or smaller. I recommend either keeping the log the size it is or increasing it (in the preplanning stages, you should have made sure you acquired a server with plenty of disk space available).
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While you’re still looking at the Cluster properties, you can click the next tab to look at the Network Priority. The Network Priority tab enables you to set which interface should be given priority. In this case, you can see I set the external, publicly accessible interface (LAN) to be given priority. In the following illustration, you can move the priorities up and down (up being the highest priority), and you can also set the properties on each interface. Change the properties by clicking the Properties button on the interface which you want to configure. You might or might not see both interfaces in the Network Priority tab. If you don’t, then you have an interface configured as external only. Later in the section, you see how to set internal/external and mixed interface values. Be aware, this is only looking at the internal interface or interfaces that are mixed, as in both internal and external.
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In the next illustration, you can see the Cluster Group properties where you can set thresholds and periods for failover and failback. To get to the failover and failback settings, right-click the actual cluster group in the Cluster Administrator console. Right-click cluster group | Properties | Failover tab. Failover is set by default. You can adjust the threshold, which defaults (and is recommended) at ten and the period of six hours, which you can also leave at default level. Most important here is to notice failover is configured by default, as you see shortly, failback is not.
In the next illustration, you moved to the Failback tab and now you see that failback is configured by default. As you learned in Chapter 1, a failover is what happens when one node goes down or offline and the other node in the cluster takes over. Failback is
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when the other node that failed attempts to take over automatically as the primary and active node on the group when it comes back online. This can be prevented, as seen in the following illustration, or it can be configured either to failback immediately or within an hourly range.
Let’s move to some actual cluster group resources to configure. In the left-hand side of the Cluster Administrator, you find your cluster group. If you left-click it once, you can see in the Contents pane (right side) a cluster IP address. This is, by far, the most important setting you can view because it’s the IP address by which the cluster will be referenced by your client. Look at this setting. In the right-hand side Content pane, right-click the Cluster IP address and select Properties. You’ll open a dialog box, as seen in the following illustration. Here, on the General tab, you can find the possible
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owners of the IP address and they’re set to be both nodes in the group. Make sure you select the Modify button on the General tab and add all cluster nodes to the Cluster IP address.
Next, click the Parameters tab to set the actual interface, so the cluster, as well as the IP address of the cluster itself, is accessible by clients. This IP address was referred to as the VIP in Chapter 1 and is the IP address clients use to connect to the cluster. In the next illustration, you can add the IP address and switch the interface. It’s configured as accessible from the LAN interface (which isn’t my Heartbeat interface) and to have an IP address unique to the cluster itself, not one carried currently by any nodes. You need to know how to configure this IP address in case you configured it wrong during
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the initial setup with the Create New Cluster Wizard. Here’s where you can now make those specific setting changes.
Before moving to the next topic, which is to configure the NIC connections, I want to mention taking advantage of new Server 2003 Cluster Service features within the cluster group. In the same section (the Contents pane) where the cluster IP address is located, you can also find a Cluster Name object. Right-click it and go to Properties | General tab | Parameters tab. Within the Parameter tab, you can also rename your cluster here. I showed you the easy way to do it earlier—this is simply another way to rename the cluster itself. In the Cluster Name Properties box, with the advanced tab, look at the Enable Kerberos Authentication check box.
This is what you can select to make sure Kerberos is used for authentication for the Cluster Service. Table 3-1 mentioned that Windows Server 2003, when used with clustering services, now has full active directory integration where the cluster becomes a computer object within the directory. This is a solution that benefits those who want to take advantage of delegation and Kerberos authentication. Here’s where you can force the cluster to use Kerberos.
Next up in advanced configuration is setting the NIC properties. If you look at Cluster Administrator and expand the Navigation Pane folders down to the Cluster Configuration level, you’ll find a Networks folder. Left-click the Networks folder and, in the Contents pane of the Cluster Administrator, you’ll find the NIC interfaces configured for this cluster. As previously mentioned, when looking at the network
priority within the Cluster properties, you can now set the interfaces on how they will listen for client traffic.
In the next illustration, we selected the properties of the Heartbeat interface connection.
In these properties you will enable your interfaces for cluster use by putting a check in the Enable this network for cluster use check box. Once you do, you’ll next be asked to specify which interfaces you want to enable for specific communications. Because you named your interfaces properly (denoting what they are) you won’t have a problem configuring this role. In the three radio button selections, you have the following:
• Client Access only (public network) is the setting for your publicly accessible client access network interfaces. Because you named your interface (this one is the heartbeat) that would not be proper for this connection.
• Internal Cluster communications only (private network) is perfectly accessible for your heartbeat connection. This will keep communications optimized for the private heartbeat connection.
• All communications (mixed network) is what you can use if you have all your connections plugged into the same device (hub, switch, and so on) and you are uncertain of what connection goes where exactly. This (as you can see from the next illustration) is the default selected for enabling this function. You can either leave it here, or you can set it to private internal use.
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We have now gone over some of the more obscure settings changes you can make on your cluster, and ones that will definitely keep your cluster from working if set incorrectly. Lets now look at creating a new cluster group.