Monitoring and Health Checking the Complete Cluster

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Your next step in completing the implementation of your new cluster is to enable monitoring and health checking on the entire cluster. In "Installing and Configuring the First Cluster Host" and "Installing and Configuring Additional Cluster Hosts" earlier in this chapter, you enabled monitoring and health checking on individual cluster hosts. However, in this step you are ensuring that the cluster is monitored as a complete unit. Enable monitoring and health checking on the cluster before allowing users to access the cluster in a pilot or production environment.

As clients begin to access the applications and services in your cluster, continue to provide monitoring and health checking as described in "Installing and Configuring the First Cluster Host" earlier in this chapter. Verify that the cluster performs as expected with live client traffic.

After the deployment process is complete, ensure that your operations staff continues the monitoring and health checking process in their long-term operations processes as part of your ongoing operations.