Pause or Resume a Node in a Failover Cluster

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

When you pause a node, existing groups and resources stay online, but additional groups and resources cannot be brought online on the node. The usual reason to pause a node is so that you can apply software updates to the node.

If you need to perform extensive diagnosis or maintenance on a cluster node, it might not be workable to simply pause the node. In that case, you can stop the Cluster service on that node. For more information, see Start or Stop the Cluster Service on a Cluster Node.

Membership in the local Administrators group on each clustered server, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Also, the account you use must be a domain account. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

Pausing or resuming a node in a failover cluster

  • Using the Windows interface

  • Using a Command Prompt window

To pause or resume a node in a failover cluster by using the Windows interface

  1. In the Failover Cluster Management snap-in, if the cluster you want to manage is not displayed, in the console tree, right-click Failover Cluster Management, click Manage a Cluster, and select or specify the cluster you want.

  2. If the console tree is collapsed, expand the tree under the cluster you want to manage.

  3. Expand the console tree under Nodes.

  4. Right-click the node you want to pause or resume, and then either click Pause or Resume.

Additional considerations

  • To open the failover cluster snap-in, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Failover Cluster Management. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.

Additional references

To pause or resume a node in a failover cluster by using a Command Prompt window

  1. To open a Command Prompt window, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then either click Run as administrator or click Open.

  2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.

  3. Type one of the following commands:

    • To pause a node, type:

      CLUSTER [cluster-name] NODE node-name /PAUSE

    • To resume a node, type:

      CLUSTER [cluster-name] NODE node-name /RESUME

Value Description

cluster-name

The name of the cluster that you want to affect.

node-name

The name of the node that you want to affect.

To view the complete syntax for this command, at a command prompt, type:

CLUSTER NODE /?

Additional considerations

  • To view the status of a given node, type:

    CLUSTER [cluster-name] NODE node-name /STATUS

Additional references