SQL Server 2008 Cluster installation on Windows 2003 Server.

Here we will see how to install SQL Server 2008 on a Single Node Cluster (A/P).

I assume that you have cluster services installed having Cluster name with Groups having Cluster IP, Cluster Name, Quorum and MSDTC. Also have external storage on SAN or NAS as resources for SQL Server Databases.

Copy the Binaries to the server and start the installation. To install the SQL Server on a cluster node select the New SQL Server Failover cluster installation option.

Setup will do a pre-requisite check for Cluster resources to avoid any problem during the installation.

Enter the product key or choose the SQL Server installation as Evaluation version.

Accept the Licensing Term and proceed further

SQL Server will install the Support files.

Select the features to be installed as per requirement. (Database Engine, SQL Server Replication, Full-Text Search, Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Shared Features). All Shared feature will be installed to the default directory.

Provide a SQL Server Network Name .In my case I have provided VPCSSQLBAU and for SQL Server Instance I have not given any instance name, So SQL Server will take the default instance name.

SQL Server will provide a Disk Usage Summary which will have Disk Size of the system and space used by SQL Server for SQL Server Directory.

Select the SQL Server Cluster Resource Group name. Will suggest you to keep it default.

Select the Cluster Disk for Database Storage and Engines. I have only one disk so I have select the same disk.

Provide the Cluster Network IP for Failover cluster (system engineer will provide the IP which is free)

In the Cluster Security policy window provide the Database Engine domain group , SQL Server Agent Domain group and Analysis domain group, to have minimum manageability of the AD Groups we have created a single domain group for SQL Server.

In the Server Configuration Wizard provide the SQL Server Service account who will be part of the SQL Server Domain Group.

Choose the Authentication Mode, Suggest to choose the Mixed Mode Authentication. Choosing Mixed Authentication asked to provide the SA Password, Keep the password confidential. Also add your windows login in the SQL Server Administrators groups.

In u have opted to install analysis services, SQL server wizard will prompt to provide the provisioning account for Analysis Services.

Choose the best option to install reporting services.

Cluster Installation Rules will do a check for below listed Rules to check if SQL Server Installation will be interrupted or not by any rule.

Click Next to start the Installation

Once the installation is done, open the SQL Server Cluster Admin and check if SQL Server is installed properly.

Once everything is done, run the SQL Server 2008 Setup on the passive node to install the client component. Choose “Add Node to a SQL Server Failover Cluster”.