Thanks for the follow-up, Patrick
*ASB **http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* <http://xeeme.com/AndrewBaker>* **Providing Virtual CIO Services (IT Operations & Information Security) for the SMB market…*** On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 12:39 PM, Patrick Hasenjager <[email protected]>wrote: > I was able to resolve my original problem, which was no being able to add > file shares to a clustered "file server." The thread linked here solved > the problem for me. > > > http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserver8gen/thread/9807a799-bea3-46ad-92a5-732779135f98 > > >>> On 12/6/2012 at 11:03 AM, Steven Peck <[email protected]> wrote: > > While I like your summary for the most part, evidently my experience with > MS Clusters while admittedly dated, windows2003 era mostly Exchange and > SQL, we didn't experience them as fragile. Complex yes, but most issues > were the result of shooting ourselves in the foot rather then the cluster > technology itself. With the Best Practice Analyzers this is easier to avoid > now. > But we're back to what is meant/desired goal of the original post. 'VMware > clusters' provide for resilience and reduced downtime. If hardware fails, > all guests on that node are dead. True, the remaining live nodes will > usually bring them up quickly but they are still dead until then and if > there were dependencies, etc. the various services may still need manual > intervention. > So, if you need a service availability then you need to look at your SLA > and match them with the various options.. > So, this thread started with one thing and then wandered afar into various > technologies.... What needs to be solved? > > On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Ken Cornetet <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Patrick, I am sorry if I came across as attacking your choices. My > intention was to steer you toward a path that will lead to a happier future > for you. > > The purpose of clustering is to protect against downtime in case something > fails, or is intentionally taken down for preventative maintenance. > > So here are some "somethings" that might happen: > > 1. Hardware failure. Both MS and VMWare clustering will protect against > this. > > 2. OS failure - the OS bluescreens. Both MS and VMWare protect against > this. VMWare detects missing vmware tools heartbeats and migrates the > server. > > 3. The application service crashes (stops). You don't need clustering to > protect against this, you set the service to auto-restart. > > 4. The application service gets lost in space and stops working (but is > still running). Neither MS or VMWare can protect against this without you > hitching on some sort of monitoring system. > > 5. Patching or other PM. This is where MS clustering can *theoretically* > reduce (not eliminate) downtime if you have an active/passive cluster. In > an active/passive cluster, you patch the passive system, reboot, fail over > to it, then patch and reboot the original active server. However, there is > still down time as the service is stopped on one node and restarted on the > other. The only thing that MS clustering eliminates is the time of the > server reboot. In VMWare, virtuals boot so fast that this only saves you > less than a minute. > > MS clusters have some disadvantages: > > 1. Most every service that you run clustered has limitations and caveats > when running clustered. > 2. Backing up the data requires a cluster aware backup agent. > 3. You application settings have to be replicated between nodes - usually > manually. This can lead to problems when they aren't in sync. > 4. MS clusters are "fragile". In the old days (windows 2000) clusters > would go toes up for little or no reason and you'd have to spend hours > tweaking registry settings and disk signatures to get it back up. This > improved vastly with Server 2003 - clusters stop failing for no reason, but > even at Server 2008 R2, clusters are a pain to do disaster recovery with. > > In contrast, VMWare clusters just work, and work seamlessly. You don't > need to take anything special into account on your protected virtuals. > Normal application settings, normal backups, etc. There is no extra > complexity to manage. > > Admittedly, I've not looked at Server 2012's clustering because we've been > migrating away from MS clusters. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Patrick Hasenjager [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2012 9:16 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: File Services Clustering in Server 2012 > > If that is not the purpose of failover clustering, what would your > definition be? Maybe I need to go another route to resolve this, as it > seems that all people want to do is attack the choices we have made for our > institution. > > >>> Ken Cornetet <[email protected]> 12/6/2012 7:46 AM >>> > Maybe I'm missing something. What it is you hope to protect against? I not > sure what you mean by "services" clustering. Are you thinking that if > somehow the server service gets hosed on one node of the cluster that MS > clustering will switch over to the other node? > > -----Original Message----- > From: Patrick Hasenjager [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 5:17 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: File Services Clustering in Server 2012 > > We want "services" clustering in addition to the hardware clustering > already in our ESXi environment. > > >>> Ken Cornetet <[email protected]> 12/5/2012 4:03 PM >>> > Why in the world would you use a Microsoft cluster when you have the > vastly superior and easier ESX clustering to provide failover? > > -----Original Message----- > From: Patrick Hasenjager [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 4:33 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: File Services Clustering in Server 2012 > > We are just getting into clustering services, now that we have been > allowed to purchase a SAN (we have only been asking for more years than I > can count!). I created a failover cluster in Server 2012 Standard and > attached 4 nodes to it (all virtuals with VMware ESXi 5.1 - the same > problem exists whether 1 node is connected or up to all 4). They are > connected to common LUNs on a NetApp appliance. > > Yesterday, everything went to hell. It started off that I could not access > one of the file shares and then two... then all 4 that we had configured. > Because this system was not yet being utilized for anyone other than > myself, I decided to just recreate it. Now that I have done that, I cannot > configure any file shares. > > When I click the "Add File Share" to the cluster role (File Server), the > "volumes" is blank and I cannot use the browse button. I can type a path, > but it states that it is not valid for the particular server. According to > the console, everything is "Running" and "Online." I also cannot access the > administrative share for the drive which is attached to the role. > > I am at a complete loss for ideas and Internet searches have turned up > absolutely nothing regarding the problem I am having. I'm sure I am missing > something simple, but cannot come up with what that is. Can anyone assist > me? Feel free to contact me off-list if it is more convenient. > > > > PATRICK HASENJAGER | Network Administrator Kansas City University of > Medicine and Biosciences | Information Technology phone 816.654.7712 > ( tel:816.654.7712) | fax 816.654.7701 > ( tel:816.654.7701) email [email protected] | www.kcumb.edu > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
