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Are you ready for another OS version? February 27th, 2008 is the public launch date. Microsoft has a Vista sidebar gadget to help you remember the date – http://www.wedsg.com/winclient/vistasidebargadget/download.htm They seem to love this date, the end of February as they have done it before. Could it be they know by wives birthday is Feb 28? Free E-Learning for 2008 – https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=127516 (requires Microsoft Passport login to get the free stuff). Links to everything: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/default.aspx Nice overview: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/evaluation/overview.mspx 2008 Learning Portal: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/windowsserver2008/default.mspx Clustering: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/13c0a922-6097-4f34-ac64-18820094128b1033.mspx?mfr=true File Server Clustering: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/40bdcbc9-ce96-4477-8df3-7a20d4bc42a51033.mspx?mfr=true Print Server Clustering: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/40bdcbc9-ce96-4477-8df3-7a20d4bc42a51033.mspx?mfr=true NLB: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/40bdcbc9-ce96-4477-8df3-7a20d4bc42a51033.mspx?mfr=true  I love new OS releases and 2008 looks to be an excellent one!  

Sometimes I think that the movie Conspiracy Theory should have been about the software industry today. What has become of it lately? Here is what I believe: ·         I believe the Anti-Virus companies write all the viruses. ·         I believe most software is way over priced. ·         I believe we now alpha test software for vendors ·         I believe we beta test when service pack 1 comes out. ·         I believe 1.0 is not the standard to avoid, RTM (release to manufacturing/gold code) is. ·         I believe we get the final, ready for the world product when service pack 2 … Continue reading Observations about the software industry today

But if you want to test failover clustering…. Standard SCSI based clustering will no longer work (yes I tested it, no go).  Rocket Division StarWind will be the product you want to use to test Failover Clustering. http://www.rocketdivision.com/wind.html You will have to wait until the June 2007 time frame while they make it work with Beta 3. FalconStor iSCSI Storage Server http://www.falconstor.com/en/solutions/?pg=Products&sb=iSCSI I am not sure when they will support it. Microsoft bought StringBean (http://www.stringbeansoftware.com/downloads_update2_0.asp) which has a great WinTarget program. The program is now part of Windows Unified Data Storage Server and it called Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. That one works today, if … Continue reading Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" Beta 3 is out

Clusters are Highly Available and should never be considered Fault Tolerant.Highly Available = is when I come anytime my wife calls me.Fault Tolerant = Marriage.You don’t want to be married to you SQL/Exchange Cluster 🙂 You do want it around whenever you need it though. Active/Active = when your cluster is too busy for its own good.Active/Passive = one worker, one manager, you decide which is which.Node = Clustered computer, could also be the worker who sits in a cube, not to be confused with Dude.Virtual Server = this is kind of like be on a telecom at work, only … Continue reading Clustering terms made easy

Don’t panic, but you do have a problem. You look under Services and the Cluster service is running on the nodes. Open Cluster Administrator from one of the nodes, but don’t use the name of the cluster, the node name or an IP address, use a period (.). This will open it using a Local Procedure Call (LPC) and not a Remote Procedure Call (RPC). See Cluster Administrator Switches for Connecting to a Cluster for complete switch details. Now with Cluster Administrator open, expand the Cluster group and attempt to start any failed resources. Whatever keeps failing should give a … Continue reading Your Cluster won’t start and you can’t get into Cluster Administrator

By now you are aware that SP2 is out for Windows Server 2003 and R2. I have already seen quite a few posts in the public newsgroups where people are not aware of a few things. The Good It is a really good idea to backup your system before you attempt any major update or service pack. Remember your backup is only as good as your restore. Or as Geoff N. Hiten SQL MVP and SQL God says “Until you test a backup by restoring, you don’t have recovery plan, you have a recovery hope.” Another good idea, read the … Continue reading Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 – the good, the bad, and the ugly

The 2007 MVP Summit in Redmond/Seattle was awesome. Lots of great content. Here is what I learned: 1) SQL 2005 can cluster with Standard Edition (ok I knew that). What I learned was that you can have multiple SQL instances (that run on 2 nodes only) within any size cluster. So, if you have a 4 node cluster you can run 2-3 instances with multiple copies of SQL 2005 Standard Edition. Cool! Think of the savings. 2) Exchange 2007 Clustering is way cool and different, but in a good way. 3) Windows Server 2003 can support GPT – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919117 – and volumes larger … Continue reading What I learned at the MVP Summit last week – and I can tell you about!

I was chosen again this year to speak at Tech Ed 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/default.mspx Here is the abstract: Be the very first to learn about Windows Server codename “Longhorn” Failover Clustering. Are you using Windows Server 2003 Clustering? Are you following best practices? In this session we explore Windows Server codename “Longhorn” Failover Clustering by comparing it to Windows Server 2003 Clustering based on current best practices. The session begins with hardware configuration issues, concerns, and best practices—then and now. Next, we explore operating system configuration issues, concerns, and best practices. Then, we move on to the cluster service, and finally … Continue reading My Tech Ed 2007 Session – Top 10 Microsoft Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" Failover Clustering Enhancements over Windows Server 2003 Clustering, Based on Best Practices

I can’t believe it. Just when you think it’s safe to go back to reading the web… Part II  of the worst clustering article of all time is out. Back in July (http://msmvps.com/blogs/clustering/archive/2005/07/21/58509.aspx) I wrote how bad Part I was. Several months later Part II came out and I missed it. A former ClusterHelp.com student asked what Russ and I thought of Part II. Russ, summed it up nicely (http://msmvps.com/blogs/clusterhelp/archive/2006/06/23/102671.aspx) and I won’t restate what I wrote about Part I – even though it still fits. Let’s just say I hope there is not going to be a Part III.

Verify that there are no dependencies or extra resources other than those created by the SQL Server setup on any of the SQL Server cluster resources. Resources such as file shares, print servers, etc.must always have a unique network name and an IP address resource. You must remove any such non-default dependencies before you install SQL Server 2000 SP4. No dependencies other than those supplied by the SQL Server setup should be used. For example, if you have MSDTC resource in the SQL group and if MSDTC is dependent on SQL Server Network Name and SQL IP Address then you may have this issue. If this is … Continue reading Having problems installing SQL SP4 on a SQL 2000 Cluster?