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Build a Server Cluster
Use Microsoft Virtual Server to create server clusters
by Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest

September 27, 2005

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 is a powerful virtualization tool that can help you simulate almost any server or workstation environment. One of the best simulations you can create with it is a two-node, active-passive server cluster. Once the server cluster is created, you can then apply one of several additional scenarios such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, file servers, or even print servers. In fact, you can apply any clustering role that Windows Server 2003 itself supports.

To create your server cluster, you will need machines simulating these roles:

• Domain Controller: The domain controller role is important because server clusters must be part of a domain.
• Node A and Node B: Two nodes running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition are necessary. These nodes will be running the server clustering service.
• Shared Disks: Two shared disks are required to run the cluster. Virtual Server 2005 only supports two SCSI ports, so you can add only two nodes to the cluster. This limits scenarios to an active-passive cluster only.
• Service Accounts: You will need to create service accounts in Active Directory. One single account is required for the cluster itself. If additional services are installed into the cluster, you can then create additional accounts. Like all service accounts, this account needs these parameters: complex password; password never expires; user cannot change password; the log-on-as-a-service access right; the allow-log-on-locally right; the act-as-part-of-the-operating-system right; and be a member of the local administrators on both cluster nodes.

The beauty of creating a cluster on Virtual Server is that once it has been created, you can simply make a backup copy of the files making up the cluster to test the operation of Exchange, SQL Server, or any other clustering feature. This serves as a powerful learning tool.

(Here's a tip: Virtual Server uses a Web-based interface. To avoid being prompted every time you go to the Virtual Server administration site, add it to the Local Intranet zone in Internet Explorer.)

Here's how to create the cluster. The cluster will be running in Virtual Server, so you must perform a lot of preprocess operations in Virtual Server. The Cluster installation will use these settings:

Credentials: Local Administrator
Source:  Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition CD
             Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition CD
Service Pack: SP 1
Service Account:    ClusterService for the cluster
Folder Locations:    Defaults on C: drive for the cluster
                             Drive Q: for the cluster Quorum
                             Drive S: for Shared Data

Many of the operations for the preparation of the cluster require one or the other node to be turned off. This is vital because Windows supports only the shared-nothing clustering model. This means that only one node can address shared disks at a time. So make sure only one node is open at a time.

Virtual Server and Machine Preparation
Begin by preparing one new machine using Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. Once this has been created, promote this machine to a domain controller. For the purpose of demonstration, the domain used here is TandT.ms with a down-level domain name of TANDT.

Once the domain controller has been created, use Active Directory Users and Computers to create the service account. In this example, the service account is called ClusterService.

Next prepare two new machines running Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition—the cluster service will run only on the Enterprise Edition. They should have these characteristics:

• Machine name: ClusterOne and ClusterTwo
• Machine location: C:\VM Images\Cluster\MachineName
• Machine files: machinename.VMC and machinename.VHD
• RAM: 128 MB
• Network Cards: 2
• NIC 1 IP Address: 192.168.1.201 and 192.168.1.202
• NIC 2 IP Address: 10.1.1.4 and 10.1.1.5
• Disks: 1
• Original disk size: 8 GB, variable size
• IDE Connection: Primary Channel 0
• SCSI Adapters: 2 for ClusterOne at ID 7 and 2 for ClusterTwo at ID 6
• Shared Disk Location: C:\VM Images\Cluster\SharedDiskName
• Shared Disk One: 600 MB, fixed size
• Disk One Name: Cluster.vhd
• SCSI ID: SCSI 0 ID 0
• Shared Disk Two: 20 GB, fixed size
• Disk Two Name: SharedDisk.vhd
• SCSI ID: SCSI 1 ID 0

Make sure the IDE drive is connected to Primary Channel 0 otherwise the IDE disk will not be the boot disk. Also make sure you select "Share SCSI for clustering" when you create the SCSI adapters. Create the two SCSI channels (see Figure 1). SCSI adapters are created once the machine itself has been created. The result should be two machines in Virtual Server that are both connected to a single IDE drive and two SCSI drives.