Configuring Windows clustering

Configuring Windows clustering is required for Microsoft SQL always on high availability.

To configure Windows clustering:

1. Install the failover clustering role:
   1. In Server Manager on the DBSRV-1 server, on the Manage menu, click add Roles and Features.
   2. Proceed to the Features page. Select Failover Clustering. Click Install.
   3. Reboot the server.
   4. Repeat steps a-c on the DBSRV-2 server.
2. Validate the cluster configuration:
   1. On the DBSRV-1 server, go to Tools > Failover Cluster Manager.
   2. Before creating a cluster, click Validate Configuration.
   3. Add the desired servers' names to the cluster list. In this example, DBSRV-1 and DBSRV-2 will be joined to a single cluster. These servers are added for validation. Click Next.
   4. Select Run all tests. Click Next.
   5. Ensure that there are no errors in the tests run.
3. Click Create Cluster.
4. Proceed through the wizard. On the Access Point for Administering the Cluster page, enter a name for your Windows cluster in the Cluster Name field. Provide a virtual IP address to tie to your Windows cluster. Click Next and complete the wizard to create the cluster.

   

5. Verify the configuration:
   1. Go to Nodes. Ensure that the nodes' statuses display as up.
   2. Go to Networks. Ensure that the network status shows as up.
   3. Confirm that only one IP address is online at a given time.

      

   4. On the Active Directory server, you can see that a computer account was created and that it is tied to the Windows virtual IP address.
6. Go to More Actions > Configure Cluster Quorum Settings to configure the cluster quorum configuration to use a file share. A file share witness is a share that failover cluster uses as a vote in the cluster quorum:
   1. For the Quorum Configuration Option field, select Select the quorum witness.
   2. As the quorum witness, select Configure a file share witness.
   3. Browse to the desired file share path and complete the wizard for the cluster quorum settings. Ensure that this file share is not on any cluster nodes.