Month: June 2007

In a previous blog, I talked a little bit about some of the major changes to disk storage for Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering. Now, while I wait for dinner to cook, is a good time to cover some of the changes. 2TB Limit- The biggest change, in my opinion, has to be elimination of the Master Boot Record (MBR) requirement for clustered disks. MBR forced a limitation to the physical disk resource size of 2TB. Now, Windows Server 2008 supports the use of GUID (sometimes called Global) Partition Table (GPT) which allows up to 16 Exabyte. The practical limit … Continue reading Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering – Storage Changes

One of the big changes in Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering is the new quorum model. In Windows Server 2003, we had only two choices, either the single disk quorum that has been around since NT 4.0 or Majority Node Set (MNS). Actually, there are three if you consider MNS with the File Share Witness (FSW) as a separate option. In Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering, administrators now have four choices on how to implement the quorum. One option is to use Node majority. In this option, a vote is given to each node of the cluster and the cluster … Continue reading Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering – The New Quorum Model

The number one question by far at the cluster booth during TechEd was, “What are the differences between Windows Server 2003 Server Clustering and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering?” The major differences that I can discuss off the top of my head include: Service Account – There is no longer a need for a service account for the cluster service. It now uses the local system account. Validate – The new validate tool tests the complete configuration and provides a report of items that need to be fixed or a nice report saying that the cluster passed. If the cluster passes … Continue reading Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering – Top Questions

I am sure there are many of you that have a million questions about Windows Server 2003 clustering and Windows Server 2008 failover clustering. Guess what? You can ask away at the booth at TechEd. Three of the Windows Server – Clustering MVPs will be rotating along with some Microsoft personnel at the Failover Clustering booth. I will be working it a few hours a day during TechEd along with fellow MVPs Ryan Sokowloski and Rodney Fournier.  From my understanding, we will be in the TLC Yellow section next to the Datacenter Edition booth. Come say hello and feel free … Continue reading TechEd and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering

Microsoft recently published a two hours online course on Failover Clustering for Windows Server 2008 (formerly known as Longhorn). You can access this content here and for $39.99, you can spend as much time as you want for the next three years reviewing the content. This course, Course 6051: Implementing High Availability and Virtualization in Windows Server 2008 is part of a larger group of courses that can be purchased as a group, or you can purchase this individual course separate from any other eLearning course. Rod Fournier and I are working on very similar material, with much more depth … Continue reading eLearning – Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering