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Cluster Disks Reconfiguration in Windows 2003
Cluster Disks Reconfiguration in Windows 2003
- HiWe are planning to install Veritas Volume manager 5.1 in an existing Windows 2003 cluster that has 10 TB of data. The storage is NetApp and configured with 2 TB Luns with NTFS file system with basic as the hard disk type. We use this server as archive server. Can anyone explain us the precautions we have to take before we go ahead and how can we keep all the existing cluster configurations. Veritas Volume manager won't delete any existing data.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Lal
Server Engineer
Answers
Can we use the utility Cluster Recovery if we face any issues with Cluster signatures?
See this is now exactly one of the reasons why you should not use VVM in a cluster, unless there are technical reasons to do so.
Once you install VVM, you go to Veritas for all your cluster problems and questions.
As management has decided you have to go VVM, you probably have a good service contract with Veritas, so this is a good time to call them
sorry for the canned answer, but unfortunately this is the truth.
(disclamer: I am not an expert in VVM)
rgds,
edwin.- Marked As Answer byTim Quan - MSFTMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 06, 2009 1:59 AM
Actually our management decided to go for VVM, but we won't convert the disks to dynamic.
Then it is truly pointless to have this software on your server. Quite frankly, your management is wasting money on VVM licensing if you are not using it for the feature the software is designed for.
Also FYI, if you do not have any Dynamic Disks on the server, you should be able to uninstall VVM without issue.
Visit my blog about multi-site clustering - http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner- Marked As Answer byTim Quan - MSFTMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 06, 2009 1:59 AM
All Replies
- Hi,
the thing you have to take care of are the disk ids of your cluster disk resources. As far as I know Volume Manger can handle that during an import of a cluster resource.
Hope that help
ThorstenWujek - Hi Thorsten
Thanks for your support.
Disk Id means the number associated with each disk in Disk management?
Also SQL database is running on cluster. After the VM import do we loose any cluster disk or quorum information, if so how can we rebuild it?
Also can you provide me any links?
Thanks in advance
Regards
Lal
Server Engineer - Hi,
what do you mean with VM import. I was not aware, that you are trying to virtualize.
Can you describe in detail what you are planning to do and what you want to achive ?
Bye
ThorstenWujek - If you have the option, I'd recommend against using Veritas Volume Manager on a Windows cluster. There really is no need for dynamic disks in a cluster if you've got a SAN that allows you to expand storage on the back end. I'm guessing that you didn't make your disks GPT so now you're looking to get past the 2TB barrier. Migrate to a larger GPT disks would be my recommendation rather than introducing a software solution.
As a support engineer that troubleshoots storage issues on clusters for a living, I will just state that I always cringe when I see a cluster with VxVM installed. Any issue involving a cluster with VxVM installed will almost always require assistance from Veritas/Symantec in order to get resolved because they use a proprietary logging system and do not share the tools necessary to review these logs with other vendors. Their error codes are not standard Win32 errors so these need to be translated by Veritas. Very frustrating.
Anyway to answer your question, you can install VxVM without destroying your cluster. You can convert a volume to Dynamic without data loss, but cannot go back to basic disks should you realize the mistake you've made in going with a volume manager.
Visit my blog about multi-site clustering - http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner - HI Thorsten
The storage is NetApp, So we wanted to use DMP for the multipathing. That is the reason we are going to install VVM in these nodes
REgards
Lal
Server Engineer - Hi I agree with john,
so what is the reason not to use only 2003 mpio + netapp dsm ?
ThorstenWujek VVM would convert the basic disks to dynamic and in win 2003 i don't think dynamic disks are supported
Run cluster MPS reports, this will save all the cluster configuration along with disk signatures
Even if VVM breaks the disk signatures, you can use tools to re-write the signature of the disk
use DMdiag to get the signatures
If you have the option, I'd recommend against using Veritas Volume Manager on a Windows cluster. There really is no need for dynamic disks in a cluster if you've got a SAN that allows you to expand storage on the back end. I'm guessing that you didn't make your disks GPT so now you're looking to get past the 2TB barrier. Migrate to a larger GPT disks would be my recommendation rather than introducing a software solution.
I fully agree with John T.
also, you can still run DMP (which is multipathing from Veritas) without VVM
Rgds,
Edwin.- Dynamic disks are supported in a cluster with VVM...that's pretty much the only reason to use VVM on a Windows host.
With VVM installed, DMdiag command no longer works.
Visit my blog about multi-site clustering - http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner - Hi
Thanks for your comments and valuable suggestions.
Actually our management decided to go for VVM, but we won't convert the disks to dynamic.
We run DMdiag and received error "A format error was found in private region of disk", but mpsrpt_cluster generated all cluster related information. Can we use the utility Cluster Recovery if we face any issues with Cluster signatures? How can we use Cluster Recovery and how to utilize the report generated by mpsrpt_cluster.
Regards
Lal
Server Engineer Can we use the utility Cluster Recovery if we face any issues with Cluster signatures?
See this is now exactly one of the reasons why you should not use VVM in a cluster, unless there are technical reasons to do so.
Once you install VVM, you go to Veritas for all your cluster problems and questions.
As management has decided you have to go VVM, you probably have a good service contract with Veritas, so this is a good time to call them
sorry for the canned answer, but unfortunately this is the truth.
(disclamer: I am not an expert in VVM)
rgds,
edwin.- Marked As Answer byTim Quan - MSFTMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 06, 2009 1:59 AM
Actually our management decided to go for VVM, but we won't convert the disks to dynamic.
Then it is truly pointless to have this software on your server. Quite frankly, your management is wasting money on VVM licensing if you are not using it for the feature the software is designed for.
Also FYI, if you do not have any Dynamic Disks on the server, you should be able to uninstall VVM without issue.
Visit my blog about multi-site clustering - http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner- Marked As Answer byTim Quan - MSFTMSFT, ModeratorFriday, November 06, 2009 1:59 AM
