Cluster upgrade/migration issue advice.

Hey all,

We have a simple two-node x86 failover cluster attached to a SAN on which SQL Server 2005 runs. We recently bought two new x64 boxes to upgrade the cluster. My original plan was to just add the new nodes to the existing cluster and then remove the old nodes from the cluster, but I just found out that you can't mix architecture types in a cluster.

So far, it seems our choices are:

1) Install x86 Windows 2003 Server on the new nodes, losing performance.
2) Make a new cluster and migrate the data, possibly imposing downtime.

Anyone have any suggestions?You may be able to "swing" the LUNs from one cluster to the other, without much trouble. This depends on a number of factors, so you should contact your SAN vendor to see if it is feasible. If it is, then you build the 64-bit cluster, swing the LUNs over, attach all the DBs to the 64-bit instance of SQL Server, and then change all the applications that pointed to the old cluster. One caution, though, you should definitely take a real nice backup of all the databases, before you do the LUN switch, since you could potentially lose all of your databases to an inadvertent FORMAT command.|||Yeah, I think that's going to be the option we go with, since we can attach the new servers to the old LUNs, but that will involve some downtime.

I suppose we could replicate the dbs to a third server, update the important connections to point to the replicated server, do the move, point the connections to the new cluster.

Ugh.

Cluster Upgrade SP2 2005

Have recently performed an in-place upgrade of a 2 instance sql cluster from 2000 to 2005. The upgrade process went relatively smoothly. However, I am running into problems installed sp2. The first problem that I run into is that I have resrcmon.exe locked. I can click next, which is fine, but once I get past that point I get stuck during the installation process. I am updating DatabaseServices and Integration Services. It gets stuck on 'Awaiting first complete passive cluster node SQL-Test'. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
TimFor what it's worth I'm experiencing the same issue as described above. I'm using VMWare Server and have a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition cluster with SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition clustered on top. This works well but in trying to apply SP2 it is stuck "Awaiting first complete passive cluster node". Slight difference from that described above, I had no locked files.

Any info that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian
|||Unbelievable. Typically just as I finish writing the above, the process moved on. However it failed at the "Database Services" product. Everything else seemed to go okay but I'll have to check and will come back with any info I find.

Cheers,

Ian
|||I got my issue resolved...after talking to MS Support for half of a day. There are a lot of things that you have to make sure is just right. For example, when you install the services, it is easier to have the first node control both instances. From there, make sure you install the client tools on the default instance first. You also cannot have remote connections to the 2nd node in the cluster (will cause it to fail). Mine failed on installed the database services as well. Another thing we had to change was that when the network guys setup the cluster, the distributed transaction coordinator wasn't created as a clustered resource...it needs to be. let me know if this helps any.
Tim|||Tim,

Did you manage to continue with resrcmon.exe locked or did you find a way to stop it (it's part of the cluster so, short of stopping the cluster services I wasn't sure how else to stop it)?

We've got the DTC in place in our production cluster but I forgot to add it with my virtual one. I've done this now and will give it another go shortly.

Cheers,

Ian
|||At first I seen that resrcmon.exe was locked, and it did concern me. However, I don't think that it really matters if it is locked or not. If it is locked, you can still go through with the install, but it will prompt you to reboot later in the process. Try to kill all remote connections to either cluster node, place both instances on one node, and try to install that way. That will likely unlock resrcmon.|||I actually only have one instance, it is on the node from which I'm running the SP. WRT remote connections, I can't see anything apart from the clustering services that would be connecting remotely to the second node.

That said, I've only got resrcmon.exe locked now so am gonna proceed with the SP and see where I get - beauty of VMs is that I can just roll 'em back any time I like :-)
|||

I had the exact same issue. Installing the client tools on both nodes, and then moving the inst1 over to the passive node and running the SP2 from there seemed to do the trick.

|||I've finally had some level of success with this on my virtual cluster. But it was kinda forceful. I basically downed node 2, installed the SP onto node 1 (twice as it had "reboot required" on the SQL Server engine the first time). Then brought up node 2, failed over and downed node 1. Did the same to node 2 (twice) and brought node 1 back up. Testing seems to confirm this has gone okay. However, as we're in the process of trying to get a test cluster (for exactly this kind of thing - good as VMWare is, it's not the real thing) I'm not going to apply this to production until that's happened.

Cheers,

Ian
|||

Hi Ian,

Please help - when you downed the one node - was it shutdown or did you stop cluster service on the node or did you pause the node?

Thanks in advance :-)

|||

Hi there,

Basically I did the following.

Node 1 was up, node 2 was shutdown completely. I upgraded node 1 to SP2, then brought node 2 back online and failed over by shutting down node 1. I then upgraded node 2 to SP2, brought node 1 back online, failed over manually to confirm all as expected and left it at that. Bear in mind this was on virtual machines so is not a perfect test. I've yet to do this on our production cluster and am currently trying to get a proper physical test cluster in place to run through this for real.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ian

Cluster Upgrade SP2 2005

Have recently performed an in-place upgrade of a 2 instance sql cluster from 2000 to 2005. The upgrade process went relatively smoothly. However, I am running into problems installed sp2. The first problem that I run into is that I have resrcmon.exe locked. I can click next, which is fine, but once I get past that point I get stuck during the installation process. I am updating DatabaseServices and Integration Services. It gets stuck on 'Awaiting first complete passive cluster node SQL-Test'. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
TimFor what it's worth I'm experiencing the same issue as described above. I'm using VMWare Server and have a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition cluster with SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition clustered on top. This works well but in trying to apply SP2 it is stuck "Awaiting first complete passive cluster node". Slight difference from that described above, I had no locked files.

Any info that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian
|||Unbelievable. Typically just as I finish writing the above, the process moved on. However it failed at the "Database Services" product. Everything else seemed to go okay but I'll have to check and will come back with any info I find.

Cheers,

Ian
|||I got my issue resolved...after talking to MS Support for half of a day. There are a lot of things that you have to make sure is just right. For example, when you install the services, it is easier to have the first node control both instances. From there, make sure you install the client tools on the default instance first. You also cannot have remote connections to the 2nd node in the cluster (will cause it to fail). Mine failed on installed the database services as well. Another thing we had to change was that when the network guys setup the cluster, the distributed transaction coordinator wasn't created as a clustered resource...it needs to be. let me know if this helps any.
Tim|||Tim,

Did you manage to continue with resrcmon.exe locked or did you find a way to stop it (it's part of the cluster so, short of stopping the cluster services I wasn't sure how else to stop it)?

We've got the DTC in place in our production cluster but I forgot to add it with my virtual one. I've done this now and will give it another go shortly.

Cheers,

Ian
|||At first I seen that resrcmon.exe was locked, and it did concern me. However, I don't think that it really matters if it is locked or not. If it is locked, you can still go through with the install, but it will prompt you to reboot later in the process. Try to kill all remote connections to either cluster node, place both instances on one node, and try to install that way. That will likely unlock resrcmon.|||I actually only have one instance, it is on the node from which I'm running the SP. WRT remote connections, I can't see anything apart from the clustering services that would be connecting remotely to the second node.

That said, I've only got resrcmon.exe locked now so am gonna proceed with the SP and see where I get - beauty of VMs is that I can just roll 'em back any time I like :-)
|||

I had the exact same issue. Installing the client tools on both nodes, and then moving the inst1 over to the passive node and running the SP2 from there seemed to do the trick.

|||I've finally had some level of success with this on my virtual cluster. But it was kinda forceful. I basically downed node 2, installed the SP onto node 1 (twice as it had "reboot required" on the SQL Server engine the first time). Then brought up node 2, failed over and downed node 1. Did the same to node 2 (twice) and brought node 1 back up. Testing seems to confirm this has gone okay. However, as we're in the process of trying to get a test cluster (for exactly this kind of thing - good as VMWare is, it's not the real thing) I'm not going to apply this to production until that's happened.

Cheers,

Ian
|||

Hi Ian,

Please help - when you downed the one node - was it shutdown or did you stop cluster service on the node or did you pause the node?

Thanks in advance :-)

|||

Hi there,

Basically I did the following.

Node 1 was up, node 2 was shutdown completely. I upgraded node 1 to SP2, then brought node 2 back online and failed over by shutting down node 1. I then upgraded node 2 to SP2, brought node 1 back online, failed over manually to confirm all as expected and left it at that. Bear in mind this was on virtual machines so is not a perfect test. I've yet to do this on our production cluster and am currently trying to get a proper physical test cluster in place to run through this for real.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ian

sqlsql

Cluster Upgrade SP2 2005

Have recently performed an in-place upgrade of a 2 instance sql cluster from 2000 to 2005. The upgrade process went relatively smoothly. However, I am running into problems installed sp2. The first problem that I run into is that I have resrcmon.exe locked. I can click next, which is fine, but once I get past that point I get stuck during the installation process. I am updating DatabaseServices and Integration Services. It gets stuck on 'Awaiting first complete passive cluster node SQL-Test'. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
TimFor what it's worth I'm experiencing the same issue as described above. I'm using VMWare Server and have a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition cluster with SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition clustered on top. This works well but in trying to apply SP2 it is stuck "Awaiting first complete passive cluster node". Slight difference from that described above, I had no locked files.

Any info that anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian
|||Unbelievable. Typically just as I finish writing the above, the process moved on. However it failed at the "Database Services" product. Everything else seemed to go okay but I'll have to check and will come back with any info I find.

Cheers,

Ian
|||I got my issue resolved...after talking to MS Support for half of a day. There are a lot of things that you have to make sure is just right. For example, when you install the services, it is easier to have the first node control both instances. From there, make sure you install the client tools on the default instance first. You also cannot have remote connections to the 2nd node in the cluster (will cause it to fail). Mine failed on installed the database services as well. Another thing we had to change was that when the network guys setup the cluster, the distributed transaction coordinator wasn't created as a clustered resource...it needs to be. let me know if this helps any.
Tim|||Tim,

Did you manage to continue with resrcmon.exe locked or did you find a way to stop it (it's part of the cluster so, short of stopping the cluster services I wasn't sure how else to stop it)?

We've got the DTC in place in our production cluster but I forgot to add it with my virtual one. I've done this now and will give it another go shortly.

Cheers,

Ian
|||At first I seen that resrcmon.exe was locked, and it did concern me. However, I don't think that it really matters if it is locked or not. If it is locked, you can still go through with the install, but it will prompt you to reboot later in the process. Try to kill all remote connections to either cluster node, place both instances on one node, and try to install that way. That will likely unlock resrcmon.|||I actually only have one instance, it is on the node from which I'm running the SP. WRT remote connections, I can't see anything apart from the clustering services that would be connecting remotely to the second node.

That said, I've only got resrcmon.exe locked now so am gonna proceed with the SP and see where I get - beauty of VMs is that I can just roll 'em back any time I like :-)
|||

I had the exact same issue. Installing the client tools on both nodes, and then moving the inst1 over to the passive node and running the SP2 from there seemed to do the trick.

|||I've finally had some level of success with this on my virtual cluster. But it was kinda forceful. I basically downed node 2, installed the SP onto node 1 (twice as it had "reboot required" on the SQL Server engine the first time). Then brought up node 2, failed over and downed node 1. Did the same to node 2 (twice) and brought node 1 back up. Testing seems to confirm this has gone okay. However, as we're in the process of trying to get a test cluster (for exactly this kind of thing - good as VMWare is, it's not the real thing) I'm not going to apply this to production until that's happened.

Cheers,

Ian
|||

Hi Ian,

Please help - when you downed the one node - was it shutdown or did you stop cluster service on the node or did you pause the node?

Thanks in advance :-)

|||

Hi there,

Basically I did the following.

Node 1 was up, node 2 was shutdown completely. I upgraded node 1 to SP2, then brought node 2 back online and failed over by shutting down node 1. I then upgraded node 2 to SP2, brought node 1 back online, failed over manually to confirm all as expected and left it at that. Bear in mind this was on virtual machines so is not a perfect test. I've yet to do this on our production cluster and am currently trying to get a proper physical test cluster in place to run through this for real.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ian

Cluster Upgrade

Hi,
We have a cluster (2node, 8Way, 8GB) running windows 2000 Advanced. We would
like to upgrade to windows 2003 Enterprise Edition
Whats the easiest way to accmplish this ? what are the options ? are there
any links ?
The easiest way is to upgrade in place. I don't like that technique, so I
usually recommend a two-step upgrade. First, upgrade each node in place to
Windows 2003. Then uninstall SQL from one node, evict it, rebuild it, add
it back to the cluster, and finally re-install SQL and any hotfixes. Repeat
with the other node. That way, you get an upgraded cluster with newly
rebuilt nodes. You can even change the hardware nodes at this time by using
new ones when you replace the original nodes.
Geoff N. Hiten
Senior Database Administrator
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
"Seme Rollansa" <bukusu@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:OWfS9$6GGHA.3828@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> We have a cluster (2node, 8Way, 8GB) running windows 2000 Advanced. We
> would like to upgrade to windows 2003 Enterprise Edition
> Whats the easiest way to accmplish this ? what are the options ? are there
> any links ?
>

Cluster under sqlserver 2000

I would like to know if the clustering under sqlserver 2000 works fine.
Could you give some pointers in order to install a cluster under sqlserver ?
Best regardsorion30,
Yes SQL Server has fault tolerance capabilities which can be implemented with
the help of its clustering feature. SQL Server has two types of cluster
configuration ie Active/Active and Active/Passive cluster.
A cluster is a safeguard for fault tolerance for the servers, the operating
system, and the software. You can safeguard the data with the help of shared
disk arrays.
MS has a clustering feature to its operating system in Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise
Edition / WIN2K advanced & datacenter servers, this clustering feature is called
MSCS ie Microsoft Clustering Server. SQL Server's enterprise edition ships with
Clustering feature(Virtual Server).
For more information on cluster visit this url
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/clustering_intro1.asp
Also you can post your queries to more relevent newgroup
microsoft.public.sqlserver.clustering
-- Vishal
"orion30" <orion30@.ifrance.com> wrote in message
news:bri7f1$bvi$1@.news-reader5.wanadoo.fr...
> I would like to know if the clustering under sqlserver 2000 works fine.
> Could you give some pointers in order to install a cluster under sqlserver ?
> Best regards
>

Cluster training

Does anyone have suggestions for courses (offsite or CBT) to help my team come up to speed on clusters? My team members are DBAs.
Check out: www.solidqualitylearning.com
Tom
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server MVP
Columnist, SQL Server Professional
Toronto, ON Canada
www.pinnaclepublishing.com/sql
"Brenda Pingle" <Brenda Pingle@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:616748DE-D8DF-497F-8E9B-9B660CB0D786@.microsoft.com...
Does anyone have suggestions for courses (offsite or CBT) to help my team
come up to speed on clusters? My team members are DBAs.
|||Here is a link to Windows Clustering exam.
Exam 70-223: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Clustering Services by Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-223.asp
Implementing Microsoft Windows 2000 Clustering
Course 2087: Three days; Instructor-led
http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/s...2087aFINAL.ASP
I am not aware of any exam/course for SQL Server 2000 Clustering but the following books/whitepapers/webcast should be a good starting point
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability (MS Press)
ISBN 0-7356-1920-4
Microsoft Whitepaper - SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering
http://www.microsoft.com/SQL/techinf...vercluster.asp
SQL Server 2000 Pricing and Licensing
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobu...rlicensing.asp
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability Series
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/sqlhalp.mspx
Microsoft Webcasts
Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Clustering
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb051001.asp
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server: Things You Should Know
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb032602.asp
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server Basic Setup, Maintenance, and Service Pack http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb061002.asp
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering Disaster Recovery Procedures
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb101802.asp
Troubleshooting SQL 2000 Virtual Server and Service Pack Setups for Failover Clustering
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb020703.asp
Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
Q243218 INF: Installation Order for SQL 2000 Enterprise Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=243218
Q260758 - INF: Frequently Asked Questions - SQL Server 2000 - Failover Clustering
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260758
Best Regards,
Uttam Parui
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Are you secure? For information about the Strategic Technology Protection Program and to order your FREE Security Tool Kit, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/security.
Microsoft highly recommends that users with Internet access update their Microsoft software to better protect against viruses and security vulnerabilities. The easiest way to do this is to visit the following websites:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
http://www.microsoft.com/security/guidance/default.mspx
|||im a CTEC trainer, is their an efficient way to conduct this class course
2087 without purchasing an SCSI external hard drive for clustering? please
advise
"Uttam Parui[MS]" wrote:

> Here is a link to Windows Clustering exam.
> Exam 70-223: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Clustering Services by Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
> http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-223.asp
>
> Implementing Microsoft Windows 2000 Clustering
> Course 2087: Three days; Instructor-led
> http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/s...2087aFINAL.ASP
>
> I am not aware of any exam/course for SQL Server 2000 Clustering but the following books/whitepapers/webcast should be a good starting point
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability (MS Press)
> ISBN 0-7356-1920-4
> Microsoft Whitepaper - SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering
> http://www.microsoft.com/SQL/techinf...vercluster.asp
> SQL Server 2000 Pricing and Licensing
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobu...rlicensing.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability Series
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/sqlhalp.mspx
> Microsoft Webcasts
> Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Clustering
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb051001.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server: Things You Should Know
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb032602.asp
>
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server Basic Setup, Maintenance, and Service Pack http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb061002.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering Disaster Recovery Procedures
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb101802.asp
> Troubleshooting SQL 2000 Virtual Server and Service Pack Setups for Failover Clustering
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb020703.asp
>
> Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
>
> Q243218 INF: Installation Order for SQL 2000 Enterprise Edition
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=243218
> Q260758 - INF: Frequently Asked Questions - SQL Server 2000 - Failover Clustering
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260758
> Best Regards,
> Uttam Parui
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> Are you secure? For information about the Strategic Technology Protection Program and to order your FREE Security Tool Kit, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/security.
> Microsoft highly recommends that users with Internet access update their Microsoft software to better protect against viruses and security vulnerabilities. The easiest way to do this is to visit the following websites:
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
> http://www.microsoft.com/security/guidance/default.mspx
>
>
|||You can emulate clustering through VMWare.
Tom
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server MVP
Columnist, SQL Server Professional
Toronto, ON Canada
www.pinnaclepublishing.com/sql
"Benjsoft" <Benjsoft@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0E6D46CF-6410-4154-9EF0-FBDC1A9CAE54@.microsoft.com...
im a CTEC trainer, is their an efficient way to conduct this class course
2087 without purchasing an SCSI external hard drive for clustering? please
advise
"Uttam Parui[MS]" wrote:

> Here is a link to Windows Clustering exam.
> Exam 70-223: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft
Clustering Services by Using Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
> http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-223.asp
>
> Implementing Microsoft Windows 2000 Clustering
> Course 2087: Three days; Instructor-led
> http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/s...2087aFINAL.ASP
>
> I am not aware of any exam/course for SQL Server 2000 Clustering but the
following books/whitepapers/webcast should be a good starting point
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability (MS Press)
> ISBN 0-7356-1920-4
> Microsoft Whitepaper - SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering
>
http://www.microsoft.com/SQL/techinf...vercluster.asp
> SQL Server 2000 Pricing and Licensing
> http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobu...rlicensing.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability Series
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/sqlhalp.mspx
> Microsoft Webcasts
> Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Clustering
>
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb051001.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server: Things You Should Know
>
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb032602.asp
>
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server Basic Setup, Maintenance, and
Service Pack
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb061002.asp
> Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering Disaster Recovery Procedures
>
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb101802.asp
> Troubleshooting SQL 2000 Virtual Server and Service Pack Setups for
Failover Clustering
>
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb020703.asp
>
> Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles
>
> Q243218 INF: Installation Order for SQL 2000 Enterprise Edition
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=243218
> Q260758 - INF: Frequently Asked Questions - SQL Server 2000 - Failover
Clustering
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260758
> Best Regards,
> Uttam Parui
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
> Are you secure? For information about the Strategic Technology Protection
Program and to order your FREE Security Tool Kit, please visit
http://www.microsoft.com/security.
> Microsoft highly recommends that users with Internet access update their
Microsoft software to better protect against viruses and security
vulnerabilities. The easiest way to do this is to visit the following
websites:
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
> http://www.microsoft.com/security/guidance/default.mspx
>
>