Deploying Clustered File Servers

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

The cluster installation method you choose depends on whether you have existing clustered file servers. If you do have existing clustered file servers, you have several options when upgrading server clusters:

  • Perform a new installation of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, and configure the cluster at the same time.

  • Upgrade a cluster that is running Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition.

  • Upgrade a cluster that is running Windows 2000, possibly through a rolling upgrade.

There are two major advantages to a rolling upgrade. First, there is minimal interruption of service to clients. (However, server response time might decrease during the phases in which fewer nodes handle the work of the entire cluster.) Second, you do not have to recreate your cluster configuration. The configuration remains intact during the upgrade process.

Caution

  • Do not make DFS configuration changes (for example, adding new links, new link targets, and so on) while operating a mixed-version cluster, because all DFS changes are lost upon failover.

You cannot perform a rolling upgrade directly from Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition. Instead you have two options:

  • You can maintain cluster availability by performing an upgrade to Windows 2000 first (as specified in the Windows 2000 documentation), and then upgrade to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition.

  • You can perform a nonrolling upgrade directly from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition. Note that a nonrolling upgrade does not allow you to maintain cluster availability.

For comprehensive information about choosing the cluster installation method and performing the actual installation, see "Designing and Deploying Server Clusters" in this book and see "Installing and upgrading on cluster nodes" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition.

Regardless of the installation type, evaluate your cluster hardware for compatibility with Windows Server 2003. For more information about choosing cluster hardware, see "Designing and Deploying Server Clusters" in this book.

After you have installed Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition and configured the server cluster, use the following sections for information about creating mounted drives and File Share resources on server clusters.

Creating Mounted Drives on Server Clusters

If you assign drive letters to the cluster storage devices, Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, limit the total number of such devices to 23. Mounted drives are not subject to this limit; you can use mounted drives to access more than 23 cluster storage devices in your server cluster.

When using NTFS mounted drives with server clusters, follow these recommendations:

  • Make sure that you create unique mounted drives so that they do not conflict with existing local drives on any node in the cluster.

  • Do not create mounted drives between disks on the cluster storage device (cluster disks) and local disks.

  • Do not create mounted drives from the cluster disk that contains the quorum resource (the quorum disk). You can, however, create a mounted drive from the quorum disk to a clustered disk.

  • Mounted drives from one cluster disk to another must be in the same cluster resource group, and they must be dependent on the root disk.

  • Use Event Viewer to check the system log for any Cluster service errors or warnings indicating mount point failures. These errors are listed as ClusSvc in the Source column and as Physical Disk Resource in the Category column.

For more information about creating mounted drives, see "Create a mounted drive" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.

Creating File Share Resources

After you choose the cluster installation method and create the server cluster, migrate existing data on existing file servers, if necessary, and then create one or more File Share resources by using the Cluster Administrator snap-in or by creating scripts. For more information about creating a cluster-managed file share, see "Create a cluster-managed file share" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.

If you prefer to use scripts to create File Share resources, see article Q284838, "How to Create a Server Cluster File Share with Cluster.exe" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. To find this article, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. For more information, see "Managing a Server Cluster from the Command Line" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.

After you create the File Share resources, you can enable shadow copies on cluster storage. For more information about enabling shadow copies on server clusters, see "Enable Shadow Copies for Shared Folders in a cluster" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.