Achieve 99.999% Uptime (Continued)

Base your product integration or consolidation project on the following rules:

1. Any product or component that is compatible with the Server Cluster Service inherent in Windows Server 2003, or any component that is server cluster aware, can reside on the same server or on the same server cluster node. This means you could create a Datacenter cluster running any one of the following with few compatibility issues:

• BizTalk 2004 Server State and Message Box Servers
• Distributed File System
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and Windows Internet Naming Service
• Distributed Transaction Coordinator
• Exchange Server Message Stores
• File Sharing
• Identity Integration Server
• Microsoft Message Queuing
• Print Services
• Systems Management Server 2003
• SQL Server 2000 (and therefore any of the other product's database components)
• Terminal Services Licensing and the Session Directory Server

2. The same applies to any component supporting the Network Load Balancing Service. This means that your Network Load Balancing (NLB) cluster hosts could run any one of the following:

• BizTalk 2004 non-message processes
• Commerce Server Web components
• Content Management Server 2002 front-end and authoring servers
• Exchange Server 2003 front end and/or Outlook Web Access
• Internet Information Services 6.0
• Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004
• Project Server 2003 Web Access and base services
• SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Web front-end servers, indexing and search, job servers
• Speech Server 2004
• Windows SharePoint Services
• Terminal Services sessions

3. Conversely, you should not run anything that is cluster independent on a cluster. Most products or technologies that are cluster independent are so because they include their own strategy for failover and availability. Active Directory is a prime example.

4. You should never try to combine the Microsoft Cluster Service with the Network Load Balancing Service.

5. You should always take the security aspects of any product combination in consideration, especially for NLB clusters. For example, though you can run it with other products, you should isolate Internet Security and Acceleration Server from any other products or components because of its very nature.

This makes a very strong case for product integration into a single coherent datacenter. Of course, you should test every single combination you want to implement thoroughly and then test it again to make sure you will get the availability levels you are looking for.

Choose Your Datacenter Server
Buying a Datacenter Server is not a simple process. First you have to find the right partner, and then choose the right class of hardware—the latter is not too complex because most OEM partners only offer Datacenter on one or two classes of machines. However, that's only the start of the process. Once you've selected your partner and your hardware, you need to determine which services or applications you plan to migrate to the Datacenter Server. Most OEM partners have a specific process and special tools to help you do this. They are designed to take a complete inventory of all of your Windows systems and outline the system's utilization over time. One major justification for the move to Datacenter is server consolidation. If you have a number of smaller class machines all operating at less than their potential resources, you could stand to gain much by migrating them to a single Windows mainframe. The key here is to ensure your partner gives you a proper return-on-investment analysis before you make the leap.

A second key factor is determining which applications you intend to run on the Datacenter. Because availability and uptime are the core reasons for moving to a Datacenter Server, you want to make sure your system won't be struck down by a misbehaving application. That's why you need to select applications that have passed the test—the Veritest test in this case (see Resources)—and are certified to run properly on the Datacenter Edition of Windows Server 2003. There are still few applications that have made the grade; Microsoft itself only has five members of the Windows Server System approved for Datacenter: BizTalk Server 2004, Exchange Server 2003, Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Operations Manager 2001 with Service Pack 1, and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. More are coming, but testing is rigorous and time-consuming. That's why most Datacenter customers begin with core applications that are either based on Exchange or SQL Server.