Hello,

I am having a difficult time finding a direct answer online about whether or not my specific scenario warrants the use of an SOFS cluster, or just a traditional File Server cluster. 

SCENARIO:

• Roughly 30 Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Web servers running IIS 8.X
• Approximately 600 websites all running ASP.NET 4.0 applications
• Each website requires 5 different Virtual Directories. 
• Each Website is actually a radio station, and their content is very heavy on streaming media, pictures, and dynamic live content including streaming live radio broadcasts.
• The Cluster is connected to a SAN via 8Gbps redundant (MPIO) Fiber Channel for the source of shared storage
• We have 3 physical hosts in the Windows cluster that will accommodate either the SOFS or the traditional File Server

So basically here's my quandary.  I've set this up a number of times, and never got it to a point where I could put any sort of load on the platform to see a difference.  I fully grasp the concepts of both, but the problem is, I see very little documentation out there regarding others using SOFS technology for IIS Virtual Directories.  I do see that there are posts stating that it's actually part of it's core function aside from Hyper-V and SQL as well. 

So, anyone out there using this in a real world scenario?  Any recommendations on whether I should or should NOT be deploying an SOFS based on the information above?  If yes, or no, then why in either direction? 

I'm really looking to put a nail in the coffin on this question.  I actually have an advisory case opened up right now too, and even the first guy I talked to couldn't answer the question.  He said he'd have to get back to me.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!  Have a good one!

Dear All,

We have Windows 2008 Enterprise Failover cluster environment, I want to know do I need to take quorum drive backup and is it safe to take backup while servers are online. can anyone please tell me how can I take Quorum drive backup, can I use windows backup or Symantec backupexec utility or manual copy all folders?

Thanks

Agha

Been having some issues with nodes basically dropping out of clusters config.
Error showing was

"Cluster Shared Volume 'Volume1' ('Data') has entered a paused state because of '(c000020c)'. All I/O will temporarily be queued until a path to the volume is reestablished."

All nodes (Poweredge 420) connected a Dell MD3200 shared SAS storage.

Nodes point to Virtual 2012 R2 DC's

Upon running validation with just two nodes, get the same errors over and over again.

Bemused!

----------------

List Software Updates
Description: List software updates that have been applied on each node.
An error occurred while executing the test.
An error occurred while getting information about the software updates installed on the nodes.

One or more errors occurred.

Creating an instance of the COM component with CLSID {4142DD5D-3472-4370-8641-DE7856431FB0} from the IClassFactory failed due to the following error: 80070005 Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)).


and

List Disks
Description: List all disks visible to one or more nodes. If a subset of disks is specified for validation, list only disks in the subset.
An error occurred while executing the test.
Storage cannot be validated at this time. Node 'zhyperv2.KISLNET.LOCAL' could not be initialized for validation testing. Possible causes for this are that another validation test is being run from another management client, or a previous validation test was unexpectedly terminated. If a previous validation test was unexpectedly terminated, the best corrective action is to restart the node and try again.

Access is denied

-----------

The event viewer on one of the hosts shows
-------------
Cluster node 'zhyperv2' lost communication with cluster node 'zhyperv1'.  Network communication was reestablished. This could be due to communication temporarily being blocked by a firewall or connection security policy update. If the problem persists and network communication are not reestablished, the cluster service on one or more nodes will stop.  If that happens, run the Validate a Configuration wizard to check your network configuration. Additionally, check for hardware or software errors related to the network adapters on this node, and check for failures in any other network components to which the node is connected such as hubs, switches, or bridges.

The Cluster service is shutting down because quorum was lost. This could be due to the loss of network connectivity between some or all nodes in the cluster, or a failover of the witness disk.
Run the Validate a Configuration wizard to check your network configuration. If the condition persists, check for hardware or software errors related to the network adapter. Also check for failures in any other network components to which the node is connected such as hubs, switches, or bridges.

Only other warning is because the 4 nic ports in each node server are teamed on one ip address split over two switches - I am not concernd about this and could if required split then pairs, I think this is a red herring????

hello,

i need to temporally exclude a node from an nlb.

May happen that a server is up and working but the web application i'm balancing is out of sinch with the same application in the others nodes.

Eg. some static variables are not the same of the same static variables of other nodes, because of a timeout, a write error and so on but the server is still working.

in this case i need to stop the server from nlb because the information in the web application is not in sinch with other nodes.

I need to prevent users from being serverd from this out to date server, untill it will became updated, but i need to do this programmatically

how can i do it?

Hi. We're getting error with event it 6237 (source FailoverClustering-WMIProvider) on a 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V cluster.

There was an older thread http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bae84aea-5a80-4637-989b-c31bbc1aa55a/event-id-6237-failover-cluster-wmi-provider-detected-an-invalid-character?forum=windowsserver2008r2highavailability which suggest installing KB974930, but that update is not applicable on my nodes (probably part of SP1?).

How do we solve this issue?

My message is concerning different property (PreviousOfflineAction - which I failed to find using either GUI, PSH or cluster.exe):

Failover Cluster WMI Provider detected an invalid character. The private property name 'PreviousOfflineAction' had an invalid character but the provider failed to change it to a valid property name. Property names must start with A-Z or a-z, and valid characters for WMI property names are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and '_'.

This message is repeated 6x every 15 minutes.

We have a Microsoft cluster running on 2 Server Enterprise 2008R2 Servers with the FileServices Roles (including DFS roles).  We have 3 Standalone DFS namespaces (roots) which have been up and running for a couple of months.  Users were complaining about performance so we added the DfsDnsConfig registry entry to force the FQDN format in the namespace (KB244380). 

Although it doesn't say to do so in the KB Article, I found several threads that said you also need to delete and recreate the namespaces afterwards.  This is where I got into the problem.

I deleted one of my namespaces from the Failover Cluster Manager utility.  I then recreated the namespace.  While it works, the share was empty.  This is because by default it placed the namespace in DFSRoots and we have our namespaces in DFSroot (no trailing "s").

So I am trying to delete the new namespace in DFSRoots and create it in the DFSRoot folder, but I get the error listed in the title.  This is what I've tried so far to resolve this:

1. dfsutil to remove the namespace and it fails saying the command is not supported in a cluster environment.  Fair enough.

2. I tried to delete the share (using "Share and "), but it fails saying the shared folder is a DFS namespace root.

3. I tried to find an option to add the namespace to the resource group (using "Failover Cluster Manager") but I can't find the appropriate option.  Maybe it cant be done from the "Failover Cluster Manager" unless you are created a new one, I think.

4. Of course I tried to delete the namespace (using the "DFS Management" utility) and that's where I get the error in the Title of this post.

5. I deleted the registry entry for the namespace under hklm\software\Microsoft\dfs\roots\standalone.  I did this on both Fileserver nodes in the cluster.  However then all the utilities complained that they couldn't find the namespace and I couldn't do anything with the specific namespace.  So I put the registry key back in.

At this point I don't know what else to try to delete this namespace properly.  Any assistance is appreciated.

hi,

I have two 2012R2 hosts running in a cluster. Hardware is exactly the same. I created a Virtual Network on both Hyper-V managers. Live migration is correctly working.

However i was testing one of the new features "Protected Network" where the VM would failover to the other node when the virtual network fails. When i try it and disconnect the cables on the node where the VM is running i see it going to error state but nothing happens (other then the VM being not available anymore). I've waited for hours but no failover.

Am i missing something?

Hello all,

Expecting better performance and stability, we  cretaed a new failover cluster in windows 2012 R2 with 3 hp BL460 G8 servers and SAN storage. But  it seems that even a folder movement or delete file operation causes the server un-responsive and hangs for hours.  Even it will not neatly sign out the current user, eventually leading to soft reboot.

Cluster validation doesn't produce any errors, another issue from windows 2012 R2 after solving NIC teaming problems.

Windows server 2012 R2 is still not stable????

Thanks

Mohammed Uwaiz A

2008 R2 Multi-Site Cluster Possible without Third Party Software?  I know it has been asked, but I haven't seen a specific answer.  We are using Dell Compellent Storage and I created several read only replicated volumes at our DR site.  I am having issues failing over to the volumes after I use cluster cli to mount the read only volumes.

Any help would be appreciated greatly!

Hi,

I have come across a confusing question

One of our customer environment is having only one Windows 2008 Domain Controller in entrire FOrest and Domain. We know that its design problem which need to be corrected on priority. But i got struct in answering some of the questions as

1) If i am running Windows 2008 Failover Cluster for SQL DB, what is the level of dependency on my Domain/Domain Controller.

2) If Single Domain Controller which is there in environment is failed due to hardware or OS problem then Failover Cluster Server will get impacted immediately or it will run some time? If it run some time and fail later then what is the stage it will get failed actually.

Pls suggest if you know any of these points, its good discussion point as well.

Regards:Mahesh

Events from Cluster Admin

Event ID 1230

cluster resource 'FileServer-(MSCS3)(Cluster Disk 4- Database)' (resource type '', DLL 'clusres.dll') either crashed or deadlocked. The Resource Hosting Subsystem (RHS) process will now attempt to terminate, and the resource will be marked to run in a separate monitor.

Event2

EventID 1146

the cluster resource host subsystem (RHS) stopped unexpectedly. An attempt will be made to restart it. This is usually due to a problem in a resource DLL. Please determine which resource DLL is causing the issue and report the problem to the resource vendor.

Event 3

EventID 1069

Cluster resource 'FileServer-(MSCS3)(Cluster Disk 4- Database)' in clustered service or application 'SQL Server (SQLPRODA)' failed.

Event 4

Event ID 1205

The Cluster service failed to bring clustered service or application 'SQL Server (SQLPRODA)' completely online or offline. One or more resources may be in a failed state. This may impact the availability of the clustered service or application.

Hello,

I have a 3 node cluster that is setup as active, active, passive.  Two of the nodes report the following error when trying to connect to the cluster:

One of the active nodes is successfully able to connect the "Cluster" while the other two are not.  The objects do exists in AD and the virtual cluster name has full rights of itself.  I turned on DNS Client events logging and receive the following messages on nodes that are able to connect to the cluster:

1. DNS FQDN Query operation for the name "ClusterNodeC" and for the type 28 is completed with result 0x251D
2. DNS Cache lookup operation for the name "ClusterNodeC" and for the type 28 is completed with result 0x251D
3. DNS Cache lookup is initiated for the name"ClusterNodeC" and for the type 28 with query options 0x40026010

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
zWindows

Hi,

We have a two node Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster, which is experiencing issues on failover. Everything is currently running on Node 2, however we are no longer able to failover to Node 1. In the logs I see the following messages:

The cluster then attempts to restart the resource, brings the network name online and encounters the following errors:

Finally the cluster attempts to start SQL Server, which fails, and the cluster fails back to Node 2 successfully.

The cluster was previously running successfully on Node 1, and to my knowledge there have been no changes to the server or cluster configuration. 

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can provide.

-Daniel

I have run into a networking problem on my cluster, and I cannot figure out what changed.

I had a cluster configured and working.  Its access network is 192.168.10.0/24.  I have other networks, including a node management network on 10.29.130.0/24.  The access network is private to my lab; it's here I have my AD defined.  The management network is a 'lab' network that has a gateway available so we can access the lab from our corporate network with no issues.  In other words, the access network is only routed within my private lab, but the management network can be routed to corporate access.

But, as you know, Windows simply doesn't like creating two different networks with default gateways.  So before building the cluster, I removed the gateway from the management network, ensuring there was only a single gateway configured on each host.  Ran the validation and it came through fine (typical network warnings about non-routed networks not able to reach other networks, but that is expected and presents no problems).  Built the cluster.

I wanted to try to create an environment that would allow me to access the physical hosts through the management network, so I tried issuing a route add command specific to the management network. 

route add 10.29.130.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.29.130.1 if 3

It didn't work as expected (I am by no means a networking expert, but I figured I would try it.)  Since it didn't work, I deleted it.

route delete 10.29.130.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.29.130.1 if 3

Came back and ran another validation wizard on the cluster and now the validation fails with the following error (to each of the other nodes in the cluster):

Network interfaces FT4-Infra01.VSPEX.COM - Mgmt and FT4-Infra03.VSPEX.COM - Mgmt are on the same cluster network, yet address 10.29.130.37 is not reachable from 10.29.130.35 using UDP on port 3343.

I check my firewall, and those ports are open on all node for all firewall profiles.  From FT4-Infra01 (the machine I was messing with), I can ping the other nodes of the cluster.  From the other nodes in the cluster, I cannot ping FT4-Infra01.  Yes, I know ping is a different rule, but I always go back to basics.  And the fact that it is not responding to pings after playing with the route is strange.

Does anybody have any ideas about what playing with the route command could have changed?  I am assuming that is the cause because everything worked fine before issuing the command and now these errors are there.  No other changes were made to the cluster or the nodes.

.:|:.:|:. tim

I have created a Hyper V failover Clustering between 2 nodes. 

On both nodes in C drive it created a folder ClusterStorage where i will store the Virtual Machine on. But i get an error that the user doesnt have access to the folder. 

Also noticed that the folder ClusterStorage has the security lock on it. 

Any ideas on how to give access to the administrator user? 

I need to update Multi-path drivers on my Windows server 2008 Standred 64bit Service Pack 2. I am installing netapp_windows_host_utilities_6.0.2_x64.msi on my server and it's giving me error:

{The following hotfixes are not available on the system:

1. Q2684681 - msiscsi.sys (Required: 6.0.6002.22814 / Installed: 6.0.6002.18005)

2. Q2754704 - mpio.sys (Required: 6.0.6002.22814 / Installed: 6.0.6002.18005)

Please install the hotfixes listed and retry the installation.}

Can anybody help me to solve this problem or provide me these hotfixex. I try a lot online search and try a lot of hotfixes but no result.

Thanks,

Ravinder Kumar.

2 Hyper-V hosts (2012 R2 DC) in Cluster config

Cluster got created BEFORE Hyper-V hosts AD Computer Objects got moved to a proper desired OU

Is there a way to move Hyper-V host AD objects now?

Will Cluster need to be re-created?

Thanks

Seb

I am having an issue with Cluster Aware Updating (CAU) on Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2. If I schedule self-updating and specify a time other than 03:00 (e.g. 07:00) in the wizard, when I get to the end of the wizard the confirmation page shows the schedule to be 03:00. if I click apply then the schedule does appear to be set to 03:00.The same behaviour occurs whether I am setting up CAU for the first time or editing an existing configuration. Thus it is not possible to schedule cluster aware updating for any time other than 03:00.

I am assuming that this is a bug, although I am open to suggestions if anyone else can think of a possible cause. I haven't found this mentioned anywhere online and I have been to MS Connect and Server 2012 is not listed as open for bugs. Has anybody else been able to reproduce this? Any idea how to report a bug if connect is closed?

OS Name    Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
Version    6.2.9200 Build 9200

OS Name    Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
Version    6.3.9600 Build 9600

I am happy to supply further details if anyone is willing to help.

Thanks

We have Windows 2008R2 Failover cluster as 2-node and majority disk configuration.   We have several SQL services set to Start/Manual.   When we perform a failover test, these services do not start.   Is that normal?

Also, we use CommVault to backup our Quorum database.   It creates GxClusPlugin instance in the Cluster.   This instance does not failover and fails.   Has anyone advice on this?

Thanks