Windows Server 2012Failover Clustering New FeaturesJoe D’Antoni

Philadelphia SQL Server Users Group

13 February 2013

About Me

@jdanton Joedantoni.wordpress.com jdanton1@yahoo.com

Overview ofChanges

Easier ManagementIncrease Scailability—Hyper VGreater Flexibility

Windows Server 2012

Windows Failover Cluster

Failover Cluster Instances Node A Node B

SQL Instanc

e

Cluster Virtual Name\InstanceName

Scalability Limits

Windows Server 2008R2

16 NodesWindows Server 2012

64 Nodes

Failover Cluster Management (Hyper-V)

Search, filtering, and custom views. Administrators can manage and navigate large numbers of clustered virtual machines or other clustered roles.

Multiselect. Administrators can select a specific collection of virtual machines and then perform any needed operation (such as live migration, save, shutdown, or start).

Simplified live migration and quick migration of virtual machines and virtual machine storage. Live migration and quick migration are easier to perform.

Support for Hyper-V Replica. Hyper-V Replica provides point-in-time replication of virtual machines between storage systems, clusters, and data centers for disaster recovery.

Server Manager

4000 Hyper V VMs per cluster

Server Manager will show all nodes, including the name of the cluster and any VMs in the cluster

Server Manager

All Nodes can be seen from Server Manager

This can be done either remotely or locally on the cluster

New AD Integration Features

When creating a new cluster, the cluster object will be created in the Organizational Unit (OU) where the node(s) resides

This action will use the account of logged on user—not a system account

If needed this can be specified at cluster creation

AD New Features

Automated repair of cluster virtual computer objects (VCOs) if they are deleted accidentally

Cluster access only to Read-only domain controllers

Ability of the cluster to start with no AD DS dependencies

Failover clusters do not support group Managed Service Accounts

However services running on a cluster (e.g. SQL Server) do

Quorum

Windows Cluster

Quorum Node 1 Node 2

Node Majority Mode

Node and Disk Majority

Q

In Node/Disk Majority Mode

Cluster sustain node failure

Quorum Management

Dynamic quorum model is now the default when creating cluster

Nodes and also be manually removed from voting (for example—a SQL Availability Group node used exclusively for reporting)

DynamicQuorum

Node1 Node2 Node3 Node4

Quorum File Share

Washington Philadelphia

Node 4 is now not a voting member of the cluster

Cluster Validation

Storage Tests will run significantly faster

Tests are now integrated with WMI

New Checks are Included for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) for Hyper-V and its VMs

Tests check to see if networking is optimal so live migrations can function as expected

Cluster Aware Updating

Cluster Node A Cluster Node B

Windows Cluster

Quorum Disk

Cluster Aware Updating

Node A goes down while being updated, service move to Node B

Node B then goes down for update, and is restarted

Node B doesn’t begin its updates until Node A has come back up

Cluster Aware Updating

Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) is an automated feature that allows you to update clustered servers with little or no loss in availability during the update process. During an Updating Run, CAU transparently performs the following tasks:

Puts each node of the cluster into node maintenance modeMoves the clustered roles off the node

Installs the updates and any dependent updates

Performs a restart if necessary

Brings the node out of maintenance mode

Restores the clustered roles on the node

Moves to update the next node

Cluster Aware Updating

For services like SQL Server—there is a minimal amount of downtime

With Hyper-V Virtuals Machines, no downtime is needed

This can also be used to apply SQL Service Packs and Cumulative Updates

Different CAU run profiles can be applied to different sets of Failover Clusters

Can be run on Server Core

Operated remotely

Cluster Upgrade and Migration

By using the updated Migrate a Cluster Wizard in Windows Server 2012, administrators can migrate the configuration settings for clustered roles (formerly called clustered services and applications) from clusters that are running Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2008. Migration enhancements in Windows Server 2012 include:

Export and reimport Hyper-V virtual machines. 

Migrate to CSV disks.

Map storage and virtual networks.

Reuse existing storage.

Task Scheduler Integration

The task scheduler in a cluster is now cluster aware

Tasks can be run in three ways:

Cluster-wide. The task is scheduled on all cluster nodes.

Any node. The task is scheduled on a single, random node.

Resource specific. The task is scheduled only on a node that owns a specified cluster resource.

PowerShell Support

Cluster.exe commands are marked as deprecated—still in Windows, but will be going away

All cluster functions can be managed through PowerShell cmdlets

Summary

Majority of changes are designed for increase flexibility for Hyper-V virtual environments

Cluster Aware Updating is the feature we will use most frequently

Flexible quorum allows for easier cluster repair in an emergency

Questions