If you are in the dark about how to install and configure Failover Cluster in Windows Server, you will get all that below.
A Windows Server Failover Cluster is a group of independent servers that work as one to enhance the high availability and reliability of applications and services. Being one of those highly important configurations, it is something each aspiring and current IT administrator should know. The article below describes how to set up Failover Cluster in a Windows Server environment.
Failover Cluster Setup and Configuration in Windows Server
Failover Cluster becomes essential in any of the production environments. If WSFC is set up in the environment, it is ready and warmed up by a secondary node for the moment the primary node goes down. Consider a small environment with a couple of nodes. If Node 1 fails, the failover clustering detects the failure and toggles Node 2 from passive to active.
After reading this, you should be able to install and set up Windows Server's Failover Cluster.
Provision the Failover Cluster Function
Set up the Storage Server to handle the file and storage jobs.
Turn on iSCSI Initiator software
Set up the server for storage.
Set up the Data Redundancy Cluster
Let's dive into their details.
1. Deploy the Failover Cluster Function
Each node that you will connect to your domain controller will require the Failover Cluster feature to be pre-installed. If you have multiple nodes connected, then you might want to find a way how to deploy this across all the connected nodes, but if your network isn't too big, then you aren't in for a lot of extra work. Just follow these steps for each, and voilà.
Open Server Manager.
Click on "Add roles and features".
Then, select an installation type: either role-based or feature-based, before clicking Next.
Click Next until you reach the Features tab. Look for Failover cluster under Features and place a check next to it.
If it asks you to "Add features," click on that, then follow the on-screen prompts to complete the software installation.
As earlier, this attribute needs installation on all the nodes that will take part in the failover clustering.
Two, configuration of the storage server with file and storage services.
What follows is the configuration of the storage which these two servers will utilize. Since the only determinant is IP addresses, that fact that it is a member of the domain does not matter to that storage server. The installation of File and Storage services for them can be installed by proceeding with the steps below.
Open Server Manager.
Go to "Add roles and features".
Head to File and Storage services, and then click on the Server Roles tab. In the list, look for the iSCSI Target Server, then check it and install it.
Just let it install and do nothing else, just install it on one computer since we will have only one storage server.
And last is to enable the iSCSI Intiator.
Next, one needs to go back to the nodes of the Failover Cluster and enable ISCSI Initiator. To do this, on the node server, click Tools > iSCSI Initiator. If this asks for confirmation, simply hit Yes. This has to be done on each server that connects to the node.
Configuration of Storage Server with iSCSI Target.
4. Setup Data Storage Server
Using iSCSI Initiator on each node, we connect the node servers to the storage server. Now that we are done with it, we can begin the process of adding nodes into the Storage Server. To do so, follow the steps below.
Click on the File & Storage Services in Server Manager.
Click the iSCSI tab.
From the Tasks menu, select New iSCSI Virtual disk.
Click Type a custom path, then click Browse. From here we have an option to point it to the disk we have created or select any folder that is existing on the server or even create a new folder on the server.
Then click the name of the virtual disk and click Next.
Get what you need; Fixed is faster, but Dynamic lets you add space as you go.
Name the target, then click Next again.
In the Access Server tab, click Add.
After making sure that Query initiator computer for ID is checked, click Browse.
After typing in the name of the node computer select Check names and repeat these steps to add all the nodes that are part of your environment.
Click next.
To provide authentication between devices, CHAP may be enabled.
Finally, create the link.
A two-node storage environment will be created in the process.
5. Restart the initiator and target nodes.
While making the configuration of the storage environment, we can specify its target to the initiator. To do the same, we simply follow the following steps.
The machine to work as node needs to have Server Manager open.
Go to the Tools menu and select iSCSI Initiator.
To configure an iSCSI target you will need to know the IP address of the target.
Click Quick Connect then OK.
If the volume does not appear in the Volume list try navigating to the Volumes and Devices area of the Control panel, clicking the Discover tab; if that doesn't work, click Auto Configure.
Failover Cluster Creation
After storage preparation, this is creating a cluster and adding two nodes into that, so for the same, just follow the following steps.
Open the Server Manager.
At the top corner, click on the Tools menu to open the Failover Cluster Manager.
Right-click the Failover Cluster Manager tab and select the option Create Cluster to open the application.
Click Next in the Create cluster wizard.
Click Add after typing the name of the server in the tab Select Server. You can browse as well.
After the test of validation is complete click Next.
Give a name to the cluster and an IP address which is not used. Click Next.
Finally, after the cluster creation is complete click Next.
After that, you will find that the cluster has been created in the top left corner. You can click on it by accessing it. Now here you can configure the cluster as per requirement: add roles and storage.
Having seen all about How to Install and configure Failover Cluster in Windows Server, we hope we have been of the best service to you.
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