The first step in the process is to install the Failover Cluster feature. To do this, select the roles of additional control and functionality in the Tools menu of the Server Manager. Then work your way through the wizard to add features and functions to achieve the Features page of the wizard. Select the function failover cluster, as shown in Figure 1. If you are asked to implement additional features, click Add Features. Now click next, followed by Install to complete the installation process. You must install the failover cluster on each node in the cluster.
You must install the failover cluster on each node in the cluster.
Figure 1.
Once the Failover Clustering feature has been installed onto each cluster node, you can build your cluster. To do so, choose the Failover Cluster Manager command from the Server Manager's Tools menu.
The first thing that you will have to do is to validate your hardware configuration to make sure that it meets the requirements for building a failover cluster. To do so, click on the Validate Configuration option, found in the Actions pane. This will cause Windows to launch the Validate a Configuration Wizard.
Click Next to bypass the wizard's Welcome screen. You must then add the names of the servers that you want to cluster to the Selected Servers list, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Click Next, and then tell Windows that you would like to run all tests. Click Next two more times and the testing process will begin. The length of time that the tests take to complete varies depending on the number of servers in your cluster and on your hardware's performance. In my experience the validation tests usually complete within five minutes. It is normal for the validation report to contain warnings, as shown in Figure 3, but it should not contain any errors.
Figure 3
The validation report should not contain any errors.
When you click Finish, Windows will launch the Create Cluster Wizard. Click Next to bypass the wizard's Welcome screen and then you will be prompted to enter a name for the cluster. The cluster name works similarly to a computer name in that it identifies the cluster on the network. You must enter a unique name and it must adhere to NetBIOS naming conventions. While you are on this screen, you must also enter an IP address for the cluster, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4
Click Next and you will see a confirmation screen outlining the cluster configuration. There is a checkbox on this screen that allows you to add all eligible storage to the cluster. You will need to deselect this check box if you wish to avoid having storage claimed by the cluster.
Click Next and the cluster will be created. This process usually takes less than a minute to complete. Upon completion, you should see a summary screen indicating that the cluster has been created successfully. You can see what this screen looks like in Figure 5. Click Finish to complete the process.
Figure 5
Now that the failover cluster has been created, you will see it listed in the Failover Cluster Manager. The Roles container lists your clustered roles. No roles are clustered by default, so this container will be empty.
The Nodes container lists the cluster nodes and their status, as shown in Figure 6. This is also where you would go to add additional nodes to the cluster. As you can see in the figure, the Actions pane contains an Add Node link.
Figure 6
Keep in mind that even though the cluster is not using shared storage, it still needs to have some storage available to it. Otherwise, you won't be able to fail over storage dependent resources (such as virtual machines). You can add storage by selecting the Disks container and then clicking on the Add Disks link.
As you can see, it is relatively easy to set up failover clustering. The entire process can usually be completed in less than fifteen minutes.
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