Clustering an existing set of servers

I have two non-clustered win2k servers (advanced server) with SQL Enterprise
installed with local storage. Production use has already started on a limited
basis. Would it be possible to to in place clustering using the following
steps?
1.Installation and configuration of additional hardware on each sever to
support SAN connectivity.
2.Getting the necessary IP addresses for one (active/passive) or two
3Installation and configuration of Microsoft Cluster Service on each server.
4.Install and configure named instance
5. Add the database logins from the non-clustered instances to
the newly created name instance.
6. Restore all users databases onto the new named instance.
Has anyone attempted this and been successful. The discussion of high
availability solutions including clustering was put off until just before
go-live. Hardware and budget are limited.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions
From a very high level, yes, the general steps are right but the details are
quite a bit more involved.
Before going into that, I strongly suggest you check out the MS clustering
hardware certification list. While you can hook up lots of different
hardware for a homegrown failover cluster solution, and many of them will
work just fine, if something bad happens, you'll have challenges with
Microsoft support. There are good reasons clusters are certified as a system
and not as "mix-n-match" components. Cluster hardware really isn't much more
expensive than "regular" stuff these days. If you're serious about HA,
convince your management/finance folks that it's not worth saving 10-15%
cost now and risk significant pains and costs later.
aK.
"John Kingery" <John Kingery@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BAB4AD2D-B866-4EE2-AAE2-77856D7D84E7@.microsoft.com...
> I have two non-clustered win2k servers (advanced server) with SQL
Enterprise
> installed with local storage. Production use has already started on a
limited
> basis. Would it be possible to to in place clustering using the following
> steps?
> 1. Installation and configuration of additional hardware on each sever to
> support SAN connectivity.
> 2. Getting the necessary IP addresses for one (active/passive) or two
> 3 Installation and configuration of Microsoft Cluster Service on each
server.
> 4. Install and configure named instance
> 5. Add the database logins from the non-clustered instances to
> the newly created name instance.
> 6. Restore all users databases onto the new named instance.
> Has anyone attempted this and been successful. The discussion of high
> availability solutions including clustering was put off until just before
> go-live. Hardware and budget are limited.
> Thank you in advance for any suggestions
>
|||I am pretty sure you will have to uninstall SQL and reinstall for it to be
cluster aware, though I have never done this.
Even if it does work, would you trust your configuration? Take one of the
machines, attach external storage, start over and cluster it, move the
databases from the existing SQL using the attach command, when moved, redo
the old SQL server. That is what I would do
Cheers,
Rod
MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering
http://msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
"John Kingery" <John Kingery@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BAB4AD2D-B866-4EE2-AAE2-77856D7D84E7@.microsoft.com...
>I have two non-clustered win2k servers (advanced server) with SQL
>Enterprise
> installed with local storage. Production use has already started on a
> limited
> basis. Would it be possible to to in place clustering using the following
> steps?
> 1. Installation and configuration of additional hardware on each sever to
> support SAN connectivity.
> 2. Getting the necessary IP addresses for one (active/passive) or two
> 3 Installation and configuration of Microsoft Cluster Service on each
> server.
> 4. Install and configure named instance
> 5. Add the database logins from the non-clustered instances to
> the newly created name instance.
> 6. Restore all users databases onto the new named instance.
> Has anyone attempted this and been successful. The discussion of high
> availability solutions including clustering was put off until just before
> go-live. Hardware and budget are limited.
> Thank you in advance for any suggestions
>