Manageability and Deployment
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Q. Do Server clusters provide a single image view for administration?
A. Yes, Server clusters provide administrators with a graphical interface (Cluster Administrator) and a command line tool (Cluster.exe available on Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003) from which they can monitor and manage all of the resources in a cluster as if it was a single system. The administrator can:
monitor the status of all servers and applications in the cluster
setup new applications, file shares, print queues, etc. for high availability
administer the recovery policies for applications and resources
take applications offline, bring them back online, and move them from one server to another
The ability to graphically move workload from one server to another with only a momentary pause in service (typically less than a minute), means administrators can easily unload servers for planned maintenance without taking important data and applications offline for long periods of time.
Q. Can Server clusters be managed remotely?
A. Yes, an authorized cluster administrator can run Cluster Administrator from any Windows NT or Windows 2000 Workstation or Server, any Windows XP machine or any Windows Server 2003 on the network. The cluster.exe command line tool can be run remotely from any Windows 2000 Workstation or Server, any Windows XP machine or any Windows Server 2003 on the network.
Q. Can Server clusters be setup and configured remotely?
A. Yes, with Windows Server 2003, Cluster administrator and the cluster.exe command line tool can also be used to remotely setup and configure a Server cluster (e.g., create a new cluster, add a new server to an existing cluster or remove servers from a cluster).
Q. Is the server cluster software installed by default?
A. On Windows NT and Windows 2000, the Server cluster software is not installed by default. On Windows NT you must install the Enterprise Edition CD. With Windows 2000, you must install the Server cluster software using the optional component management tool.
With Windows Server 2003, the Server cluster software is installed by default on Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition. The cluster software is NOT configured by default and will not start until the server is either used to create a new cluster or the server is added to an existing cluster. In Windows Server 2003, you must use Cluster Administrator or the Cluster.exe command line tool to configure a cluster.
Q. Can a Server cluster be installed and configured using unattended installs?
A. Yes, to perform an unattended installation for a Windows 2000 Cluster using an Uttend.txt file, please consult the Windows 2000 Deployment Guide located on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM in the following location: %CDROM%\SUPPORT\TOOLS\DEPLOY.CAB\Unattend.doc
Additional information can be found in article 176507 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=67745).
Q. Do applications have to be installed separately on all the cluster servers?
A. It depends on the application. Each application that can be failed over between servers in a cluster must be available on all servers in the cluster. Historically, application setup has not been cluster-aware and therefore the application must be installed separately on each server.
With more recent versions of some applications, for example SQL Server 2000, the application setup is aware of Server clusters. In the case of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 setup, the appropriate files are copied to all servers and registry settings and other SQL Server configuration is done just once.
Q. How can I take advantage of extensibility features of ISA Server?
A. A number of third-party vendors offer solutions such as virus detection, content filtering, site categorization, reporting, and administration. Customers and developers also have the ability to create their own extensions to ISA Server. ISA Server includes a comprehensive software development kit for developing tools that build on ISA Server firewall, caching, and management features.
Q. Are cluster management operations scriptable?
A. Yes, there are a number of options for scripting management operations:
The Cluster.exe command line tool allows command files to be built that can change the state of cluster resources, move resources around etc.. For more information about the command line, see the online help or type cluster at the command line on a server that has Server clusters installed or has the Windows server admin pack installed.
In Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, there is a scriptable COM interface to the Server cluster APIs. This allows VBScript or any other scripting language supported by Windows to call the cluster APIs. These APIs provide a way to change the state of the cluster as well as return data about the resources or applications in a cluster. For more information about the cluster server APIs, see the Platform SDK, it has comprehensive documentation for the cluster APIs and the COM (automation server) APIs.
In Windows Server 2003, there is a WMI provider for Server clusters that allows WMI scripts to manage the cluster. For more information about the cluster server WMI schema, see the Platform SDK.
Q. Can command line tools be used to manage a cluster?
A. Yes, Server clusters have a command line tool cluster.exe that can be used to manage the cluster. With Windows Server 2003, this command line tool can also be used to create new clusters, add servers to existing clusters and remove servers from clusters. Almost all of the functionality provided by Cluster Administrator is available through cluster.exe in Windows Server 2003.
Q. Is WMI supported for managing a cluster?
A. Yes, in Windows Server 2003, there is a WMI provider that allows a Server cluster to be managed. In addition, all the Server cluster events (such as server up and server down, resource online, offline, failed etc.) are available through WMI events.
Q. Does Server clusters support WMI eventing?
A. Yes, in Windows Server 2003, all of the Server cluster events (such as server up and server down, resource online, offline, failed etc.) are available through WMI events.
Q. Can Group Policy be used on cluster servers?
A. You can apply Group Policy to cluster servers. There are a few things to remember. Applications failover from one server to another in a cluster and will typically expect the same policies to be in effect no matter where they are hosted. You should ensure that all cluster servers have the same set of group policies applied to them.
With Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 SP3 onwards, virtual servers can be published in active directory. You should NOT apply group policies to a virtual server computer object. The policy will only be applied to the server that is currently hosting the virtual server and all policy settings may be lost if the application fails over.
Q. Is Systems Management Server (SMS) supported for deploying applications in a Server cluster?
A. No, at this time, SMS is not supported for deploying applications across a cluster.
Q. Is Application Center 2000 supported on a Server cluster?
A. No, Application Center 2000 provides a set of features that are intended for managing servers hosting web server front-end and middle-tier business logic. Server clusters are typically deployed to ensure high availability of the back-end database engine.
Q. Are MOM management packs available for monitoring Server clusters?
A. No, at this time, there are no server-aware MOM management packs.
Q. How do server clusters help administrators perform rolling upgrades?
A. With Server clusters, server administrators no longer have to do all of their maintenance within those rare windows of opportunity when no users are online. Instead, they can simply wait until a convenient off-peak time when one of the servers in the cluster can be removed for maintenance and the workload distributed across the other cluster servers. By pointing-and-clicking in Cluster Administrator (or using scripts) to move all of the workload onto other servers, one of the servers in the cluster can be upgraded. Once the upgrade is complete and tested, that server can be rebooted where it will automatically re-join the cluster, ready for work. When convenient, the administrator repeats the process to perform maintenance on the other servers in the cluster. This ability to keep applications and data online while performing server maintenance is often referred to as doing "rolling upgrades" to your servers.
Server clusters allows rolling upgrades for a new release and the previous version.
Q. What combination of Windows versions supports rolling upgrades?
A. Server clusters allow rolling upgrades for a new release and the previous version. The following rolling upgrades are supported:
Windows NT Enterprise Edition to Windows 2000
Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003
Q. Can I manage different versions of Server cluster from a single Cluster Administrator tool?
A. Yes, the Server cluster tools allow a mixed version cluster to be managed from a single point. During a rolling upgrade, a cluster may contain different versions of the operating system. As an example Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 can co-exist in the same cluster. The administration tools provided with Windows Server 2003 allow such a mixed-version cluster to be managed.
Q. Are there other manageability benefits with Server clusters?
A. Server clusters allow administrators to quickly inspect the status of all cluster resources, and move workload around onto different servers within the cluster. This is useful for manual load balancing, and to perform "rolling updates" on the servers without taking important data and applications offline.