System-Level Fault Tolerance (Clustering/Network Load Balancing) - Adding Additional Nodes to a Cluster
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A cluster in Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition can support up to four nodes. After the first server is installed in a cluster, additional nodes can be added to the cluster.
To add more nodes to a cluster, do the following:
Log on to the desired cluster node using an account that has Local Administrator privileges.
Click Start, Administrative Tools, Cluster Administrator.
When the Cluster Administrator opens, choose Add Nodes to a Cluster and type the name of the cluster in the Cluster Name text box. Click OK to continue.
When the Add Nodes Wizard appears, click Next to continue.
Type in the server name of the next node and click Add.
Repeat the preceding steps until you've entered all the additional nodes you want in the Selected Computer text box. Click Next to continue. The cluster analyzer will then analyze the additional nodes for functionality and cluster requirements.
Review the log and make changes as necessary; then click Re-analyze or click Next to continue.
Enter the Cluster Service account password and click Next to continue.
Review the configuration on the Proposed Cluster Configuration page and click Next to configure the cluster.
After the cluster is configured, click Next and then click Finish to complete adding additional nodes to the cluster.
Select File, Close to exit the Cluster Administrator.
Managing Clusters
To manage a cluster effectively, an administrator must be familiar with managing cluster groups and resources using one or more cluster management applications. Microsoft provided two cluster management applications for Cluster Service: one GUI-based and one command line–based.
Cluster Administrator
The Cluster Administrator, shown in Figure 31.8, gives an administrator a GUI-based tool for managing clusters. This tool can be used to manage local and remote clusters, including tasks such as creating new clusters, adding nodes to existing clusters, and creating cluster resource groups or resources. This tool can also be used to remove (evict) nodes from a cluster and perform manual failovers of cluster groups.
Figure 31.8 Sample Cluster Administrator tool screen.
The Cluster.exe Utility
Cluster.exe is a command-line utility that can be used to manage a local or remote cluster from a command line or a shell. This tool can be used to access a cluster when the GUI-based Cluster Administrator will not open. Additionally, this tool can be used in a script to remotely deploy or change cluster configurations.
Cluster Automation Server
The Cluster Automation server provides a mechanism for software developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to create custom cluster-management applications to enhance or provide administration of clusters. The Cluster Automation server provides a set of Component Object Model (COM) objects to allow developers to create scripts to automate the management of their clusters.
Configuring Failover and Failback
Clusters that contain two or more nodes automatically have failover configured for each defined cluster group when the second node and following nodes join the cluster. By manually adding additional nodes to existing cluster groups, the administrator can add failover functionality to every node in the cluster on a group-by-group basis. Failback is never configured by default and needs to be manually configured for each cluster group if desired. Failback allows a designated preferred server to always run a particular cluster group when it is available.
 This chapter is from Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Unleashed, by Rand Morimoto, et al. (Sams Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0672326671). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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