Windows 2008 R2 Multi-Site (geo) Cluster File Server

We need to come up with a new HA file server (user drive data) solution complete with DR. It needs to be 2008 R2, cater for about 25TB of data, and be suitable for 500 users (nothing high end on I/O). I don't want to rely on DFS for any form of resilience
due to its limitations for open files. We have two active-active data centers (a third can be used for file share quorum).
We could entertain:
1)
Site1 - 2 x HP ProLiants with MSA storage, replicating with something like DoubleTake to a third HP Proliant at site 2 for DR.
2)
Site1 - 2 x HP ProLiants with local storage and VSA or HP StoreVirtual array (aka LeftHand), using SAN replication to site 2 where we could have a one or two node config of the same setup.
Ideally I would like all 3/4 nodes in these configurations to be part of the same multi-site cluster to ensure resources like file shares are in sync. With two pieces of storage across this single cluster (either a DoubleTake or SAN replication to local
disks in DR) will this work? How will the cluster/SAN fail over the storage?
We do have VMWare 5.0/1 (not 5.5 yet). We don't have Hyper-V yet either. Any thoughts on the above, and possible alternatives welcome. HA failover RTO we'd like in seconds. DR longer, perhaps 30 mins.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and guidance.

For automated failover between sites, the storage replication needs to have a way to script the failover so you can have a custom resource that performs the failover at the SAN level before the disks come online.
DoubleTake has GeoCluster which should accomplish this. I'm not sure about how automated Lefthand's solution is for multi-site clusters.
VMware has Site Recovery Manager, though this is really an assisted failover and not really an automatic site failover solution. It's automated so that you can failover between sites at the push of a button, but this would need to be a planned failover.
RTO of seconds might be difficult to accomplish as you need to give the storage replication enough time to reverse direction while giving the MS cluster enough time to bring cluster applications online.
When planning your multi-site cluster, I'd recommend going with 2 nodes on each site and then use the file share witness quorum on your 3rd site. If you only had one node on the remote site, the primary site would never be able to failover to the remote
site without manually overriding the quorum as 1 node isn't enough to gain enough votes for quorum. With 2 nodes on each site and a FSW, each site has the opportunity to gain enough votes to maintain quorum should one of the sites go down.
Hope this helps.
Visit my blog about multi-site clustering

Similar Messages

Windows Multi Site/Geo Cluster

Hi,
I am looking for a Multi Site Cluster solution for File Server and SQL DB. Could you pls help with any case study of solution approach for building the Multi Site cluster using Windows 2012 ?
What is recommended for Replication
Which all Application/DB are compatible for Multi Site
Are there any implementation documents
pls suggest
Regards:Mahesh

Hi,
I am looking for a Multi Site Cluster solution for File Server and SQL DB. Could you pls help with any case study of solution approach for building the Multi Site cluster using Windows 2012 ?
What is recommended for Replication
Which all Application/DB are compatible for Multi Site
Are there any implementation documents
pls suggest
General suggestion: if possible use async replication rather then sync. Sync mirror puts high stress on WAN and lack of reliable channels can lead to cluster either non-operational (all WAN links down so cluster node w/o quorum kills itself) or brain split
issue (all WAN links down so separated cluster nodes continue working AS IS damaging data). For async replication you may look @ DFS-(R) as a file server, see:
Distributed File System
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753479(v=ws.10).aspx
For SQL Server look at AlwaysOn in async way, see:
AlwaysOn for SQL Server
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877884.aspx
Availability Modes
The availability mode is a property of each availability replica. The availability mode determines whether the primary replica waits to commit transactions on a database until a given secondary replica has written the transaction log records to disk (hardened
the log). AlwaysOn Availability Groups supports two availability modes—asynchronous-commit mode and synchronous-commit mode.
Asynchronous-commit mode
An availability replica that uses this availability mode is known as an asynchronous-commit replica. Under asynchronous-commit mode, the primary replica commits transactions without waiting for acknowledgement that
an asynchronous-commit secondary replica has hardened the log. Asynchronous-commit mode minimizes transaction latency on the secondary databases but allows them to lag behind the primary databases, making some data loss possible.
Of course it's possible to configure SMB 3.0 failover file share on geo-separated sites and use Failover Cluster Instances for SQL Server in the same scenario. Just make sure you configure reliable witness (you'll have to do it for SQL Server AlwaysOn either
way...) on some third location. For file server I'd suggest to use some sort of a software replication in sync way instead of a geo-distributed physical shared storage. That one is for SQL Server and SteelEye Data Keeper but you can use any Windows-native
(preferred) software as well. See:
SQL Server Geo-Cluster with software shared storage
http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2009/10/07/step-by-step-configuring-a-2-node-multi-site-cluster-on-windows-server-2008-r2-–-part-3/
Good luck! :)
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

2008 R2 Multi-Site Cluster Possible without Third Party Software?

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!

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!
To have this working reliably you need to have 1) redundant and pretty fatty pipes between your sites (Primary and Disaster Recovery) and 2) your storage (Compellent in your case) being placed in third location. If you'll have both conditions met you'll
have decent performance and would avoid brain split issue when both sites would be up and uplink between sites is down. Good links on geo clustering:
Geo Cluster for Windows
http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2009/09/15/step-by-step-configuring-a-2-node-multi-site-cluster-on-windows-server-2008-r2-%E2%80%93-part-1/
Geo
Cluster for Windows 2008
http://blogs.technet.com/b/johnbaker/archive/2008/03/28/windows-server-2008-geo-clustering-multi-site-clustering.aspx
Geographically Dispersed Clustering
http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner/
Hope this helped :)
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

Windows 2012 Failover Cluster - File server role (vCO)

Hi,
I wonder if anybody can shed some light on a query i have.
A windows 2012 failover cluster will be built in AD domain example.uk. Cluster File server roles will be created and will reside in this domain also.
We also have a requirement to run a cluster file server role in the child domain off secure.example.uk. Is this possible? or do the file server roles and related vCO's have to reside in the same domain as the cluster (CNO).
I know the CNO can be used to create the VCO but could a prestage a VCO in the child domain of secure.example.uk.
Mark

Hi Mark,
By default CNO will create
VCO automatically in default domain computer OU, we generally use the
KISS principle to place the CNO and VCO to the same OU, and as far as I know there no known design document indicate the VCO can be placed in different domain, therefore I suggest you place the CNO and V CO at same OU.
More information:
When Creating a New Resource or Role in Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Cluster, the Network Name Fails to Come Online or Failed to Create Associated Computer Object in Domain
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2014/11/17/when-creating-a-new-resource-or-role-in-windows-server-2012-r2-failover-cluster-the-network-name-fails-to-come-online-or-failed-to-create-associated-computer-object-in-domain.aspx
CNO Blog Series: Increasing Awareness around the Cluster Name Object (CNO)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/09/25/cno-blog-series-increasing-awareness-around-the-cluster-name-object-cno.aspx
How to Create a Cluster in a Restrictive Active Directory Environment
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/03/30/10289577.aspx
Prestage Cluster Computer Objects in Active Directory Domain Services
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn466519.aspx
I’m glad to be of help to you!
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Migrating single file server to failover cluster file server

Hi,
Currently we have one file server which is our Domain controller also. File Server data stored in SAN storage lun. Users home folders also resides at file server.Now we want to create 2 node failover cluster file server.
Questions:
1)Can we assign same storage lun to failover cluster?
2)Do we need to assign all permissions and storage quota again?
What is the best option to achieve this goal.

Hi,
if you attach the same LUN to the failover cluster the NTFS permission (security tab) are retained because they are stored in the LUN itself
Share permission are lost because they are stored in the registry of the file server. If you have few share with a simple share permission structure, simply recreate them in the cluster. If you have a lot of shares and complex permission tree, you have to
export registry hives related to lanmanserver\shares

Cluster File Server Migration

Dears,
I have my source cluster based on WIndows 2008 R2 with SP1, and my new target cluster is Windows 2012 R2.
when I run the copy wizard it validate if I can migrate the file server, however, it is giving me those in yellow mark:
File Server IP Address is not eligible to be copied. (Failed to read 'EnableDhcp' property)
FileServer01 is not eligible to be copied.
Is this normal?
How to continue migrating file server role?

Hi Jean M,
Could you try to manually configure the IPs by referring to the previous 2008 R2 node, then and bring the new file-servers online?
More related information:
Best practices for migration of cluster windows 2008 R2 / 2012 - As melhores Praticas para migrar um Cluster de Windows 2008 para Windows 2012
http://blogs.technet.com/b/hugofe/archive/2012/12/06/best-practices-for-migration-of-cluster-windows-2008-r2-2012-as-melhores-praticas-para-migrar-um-cluster-de-windows-2008-para-windows-2012.aspx
How to Move Highly Available (Clustered) VMs to Windows Server 2012 with the Cluster Migration Wizard
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2012/06/25/10323434.aspx
Migration Paths for Migrating to a Failover Cluster Running Windows Server 2012 R2
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn530781.aspx
I’m glad to be of help to you!
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Failover cluster File Server role best practices

We recently implemented a Hyper-V Server Core 2012 R2 cluster with the sole purpose to run our server environment. I started with our file servers and decided to create multiple file servers and put them in a cluster for high
availability. So now I have a cluster of VMs, which I have now learned is called a guest cluster, and I added the File Server role to this cluster. It then struck me that I could have just as easily created the File Server role under my Hyper-V
Server cluster and removed this extra virtual layer.
I'm reaching out to this community to see if there are any best practices on using the File Server role. Are there any benefits to having a guest cluster provide file shares? Or am I making things overly complicated for no reason?
Just to be clear, I'm just trying to make a simple Windows file server with folder shares that have security enabled on them for users to access internally. I'm using Hyper-V Core server 2012 R2 on my physical servers and right now I have Windows
Server Standard 2012 R2 on the VMs in the guest cluster.
Thanks for any information you can provide.

Hi,
Generally with Hyper-V VMs available, we will install all roles into virtual machines as that will be easy for management purpose.
In your situation the host system is a server core, so it seems that manage file shares with a GUI is much better.
I cannot find an article specifically regarding "best practices of setting up failover cluster". Here are 2 articles regarding build guest cluster (you have already done) and steps to create a file server cluster.
Hyper-V Guest Clustering Step-by-Step Guide
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mghazai/archive/2009/12/12/hyper-v-guest-clustering-step-by-step-guide.aspx
Failover Cluster Step-by-Step Guide: Configuring a Two-Node File Server Failover Cluster
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731844(v=ws.10).aspx
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and un-mark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Windows 2008 Standard SP1 will Support MS SQL Server 2008R2 Enterprise Edition ?

Dear ,
Currently we are running MSSQL Server Enterprise 2008 Edition on Windows 2008 Standard Edition 64Bit (.Net 3.0). Now we are upgrading the MSSQL Server to 2008R2 Enterprise with SP2. Will it support to upgrade on the same OS or do we need still upgrade
OS also to Windows 2008 R2?
1. Do we need to upgrade OS from 2008 to 2008R2 Sp2.?
2. MSSQL 2008/2008R2 Enterprise on Windows Standard is compatible ?
Need your help on above details.
Thanks

Hello
Check support matrix:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506%28v=sql.105%29.aspx#EEx64
need only sp2 if not have to OS.
and check your sql version upgrade path:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393%28v=sql.105%29.aspx
sorry my english

Accessing Windows 2008 File Service Cluster with Windows 2012R2 File Services Cluster using same SAN

I am in the process on converting my existing Windows 2008 host servers (2 host cluster) to a Windows 2012 R2 (2 host cluster).
All 4 servers will be accessing the same SAN via ISCSI.
Currently the Windows 2008 host servers are running both File server roles and Hyper-V in clustered environment.
How can I transfer the File Server roles from 2008 to 2012R2 will still keeping access to the same SAN and LUNS?
Thanks
--Steven B.

You would have a short outage, but all it takes is to set up the 2012R2 cluster with the appropriate roles. Then remove the LUNs from the 2008 cluster and present them to 2012R2 cluster. You could initially build the 2012R2 cluster with just
its witness disk sitting on the iSCSI SAN, then move the other LUNs over at your leisure.
.:|:.:|:. tim

Windows 2008 R2 users allow to install some apps

Dear ALL,
We have windows 2008 R2 as domain controller and file server with more than 500 users. all domain users don't have any rights to install any software or application without administrator rights.
All users having reliance data card for accessing all our servers form home or remote are any where in India.
my problem:
without administrator rights they are not able to re-install reliance software and we need to re install if dongle is not work. as remote are if dongle is not work then we are not able to install and uninstall remotely because they have no connectivity.
is there any way that all domain users having rights to install or uninstall only specific programs like reliance data card software.
if it done then its great and biggest solution for me to provide users support.
please help me all ms masters.
Sunil
SUNIL PATEL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

No, its not possible to do it. But, you can use some 3rd party tool like Avecto. It provides restricted admin rights to the users.
Arnav Sharma | http://arnavsharma.net/ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading
the thread.

Windows 2008 Failover Cluster - Cannot add a generic service

Trying to add a generic service in a failover cluster.
Select the option Services and Application and it opens the wizard and then displays the error "An error was encountered while loading the list of services. QueryServiceConfig failed. The system cannot find the file specified"
The cluster validation wizard completes successfully. Permissions do not appear to be an issue as this account can seemly do everything else so I am at a loss to understand why this API is failing when it tries to query the server for services information.
Having searched the Internet the only thing I have found was someone posting a similar issue in the Greek language Technet forum(if I recall correctly) and their comment was they rebuild their cluster.
Windows 2008 (SP2) x64 two node cluster running a non-Microsoft database. We need to add a non-Microsoft Enterpirse backup solution and this is their documented method (adding it as a generic service) - both bits of software are from big vendors.
Symantec AV, but have tried with that disabled so don't think it has anything to do with that. Something is stopping the API from reporting back but I can't find what.
Really appreciate some help before we have to log a chargable call with Microsoft support
Thank you

Hi,
Have you tried the suggestion? I want to see if the information provided was helpful. Your feedback is
very useful for the further research. Please feel free to let me know if you have addition questions.
Best regards,
Vincent Hu

Quorum location for Failover cluster file share witness

So, I've done quite a bit of searching for what I'm about to propose and I've been able to find nothing.
I currently have a multi site failover cluster hosting separate 2-node SQL clusters at each site connected through an Availability Group. For the failover cluster I am using a file share witness hosted on a server at the primary site. Both sites
are built entirely on vSphere 5.5 and have full replication for the production servers. If the primary site goes down (disaster), I'll need to force quorum in the secondary site to a new file share witness.
Well, I got to thinking...
Why not just replicate the server hosting the file share? I completely understand the reasoning behind not putting the file share witness on DFS, but a replicated virtual server, why not? If the primary site fails, the replicated server hosting
the file share witness is brought online with the rest of the production servers in the DR site. In that case, the only thing that changes is the server IP address, but ultimately, the server name and share where quorum is hosted all stays the same.
Ultimately this prevents needing to find a 3rd geographical/cloud location to host a quorum/witness at. I can't imagine it's this "simple", but maybe it is. If this is possible, and there's not something I'm missing, this essentially
makes the quorum file share witness site agnostic, meaning it could live or be moved anywhere that replication is allowed.
Ideas, thoughts? Am I missing something?
Thanks!
Chris Miller

Most likely it would be better to put this question to the High Availability forum -
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=winserverClustering
But, might need a more complete definition of your environment. Are you saying that you have multiple 2-node clusters, each with one node in the primary and the second node in the DR site? And you have a single file share server located in primary that
is used to host the file share witnesses for all these clusters? You want to use VMware to replicate the file share server to the DR site so that it can be made available should the primary site fail?
It should work, but it will not be automatic. After all, the replicated VM will need to be brought online at the DR site so the SQL cluster will recognize it. That is not an automatic process. So the cluster will be down until
you bring the file share server online so it can be recognized. Not a whole lot different that simply forcing the DR SQL host to run without quorum.
. : | : . : | : . tim

Mac10.x client can't connect to File Server on Windows2008 Failover Cluster

Installation of a cluster was made according to the document "Failover Cluster Step-by-Step Guide: Configuring a Two-Node File Server Failover Cluster " http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731844.aspx.
My Mac OS X 10.5.2 and Mac OS X 10.4.11 clients be able to connect to a non-cluster file server on a Windows 2008 (the File Services role) and also to old file cluster on a Windows 2003.
Why Mac clients can't connect to Windows 2008 Failover Cluster?

Are you running a firewall on the Macs. If yes does it work with out the firewall? If it works with out the firewall that means you will have to create a custom ipf rule which includes the both the physical an virtual IP addresses of your cluster.

Can anyone help me?Creating the shadow copies in the file server cluster ,there are some errors occured, OS version is WSS 2012

I construct a failover cluster(file server,AP module) for sharing files by WSS 2012,and I want to use the shadow copies to backup my data,but when making a shadow copies on the volume which is added to the cluster(not the CSV,just add
it to the cluster and use it to share files,it plays the role of file server),there are some errors occured, these errors result in the shadow copies failed,error likes the following pictures:
1: the disk F is added to the cluster,first I make the shadow copies by click the right key of mouse on the disk F,and chouse the configeration shadow copies,and click the settings, then click the schedule , and I wait just a few seconds, the error is appeared,like
this picture 1, the wait operation timed out,and then ,
I click the schedule button once again,a different error occured,like the following picture," the object already exists",if i don't set the schedule at first ,use the default shedule,and click the enable button also the same error must
accure
but the only diffrence is that, a shadow copy time point is created, also ,you can make the shadow copies by click " create now", that is creating the shadow copies manually. Although it can succesfully make the shadow copies, but when I select
a time point to revert, error occured, "A volume that contains operating system files or resides on a cluster shared disk cannot be reverted"
In a word,all the errors above make the shadow copies by schedulling failed,except making the shadow copies manually,but what makes me confused is that I have ever maked the shadow copies succesfully by schedul a policy,I don't know what makes it succesful,
it's small probability, most of time ,it's failed.No matter what kind of situation, revert must be failed.
I'm sorry for my pool english , it's the first time for me getting help in forum by english ,I don't know if I descripe my question clearly, also ,other method like the link
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784118(v=ws.10).aspx I have tried,but the same errors occured.Can anyone tell me How can I make the shadow copies in File Server
cluster（AP module）？And I make a mistake in operating？ Looking forward for your reply.Thanks!

Hi,
Please check the following 2 places:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Tasks
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks
First please compare permission settings of the folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks with a working computer. Correct permission settings if anything wrong. Specifically, confirm you current account do have permission on this folder.
As it said "object already exists", find the schedules you created before, backup and delete all these schedules in both registry key and folder.
Then test to create a new schedule to see if issue still exists.
Meanwhile what kind of storage device you are using? The issue could occur on specific storage device, so test to enable shadow copy on a local disk to see if that will work.
TechNet Subscriber Support in forum |If you have any feedback on our support, please contact [email protected]
Thank you for you reply.On the local volume,all of these errors will not occur, but the volume in the file server cluser.There is no value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Tasks. On local volume, everything goes well about the shadow copy, so I do not
think something is wrong about the permission settings of the folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks.Storage device is a SAN,we use RAID6 and provide the LUNs to the NAS engine, and the make the volume on these LUNs, Is Angthing wrong? Hope for you
reply~~

Windows 2008 x64 TS Printing - The data area passed to a system call is too small

Hi,
I have a Windows 2008 TS using Easy Print. The server has two quad core cpu's with 16Gb of ram and is running a light processing accounting program for 80 users. The machine and easy print both work fine until the server reaches about 5Gb of memory in use. Once this happens user's documents stop printing with event id's 6161 The data area passed to a system call is too small being logged. None of the hotfixes seem to be applicable to my scenario as I am not getting the common "Access Denied" error. I have increased received and transmit buffer sizes on both NIC's to the 2048 maximum, and set the Sizreqbuf setting in the registry - to no avail.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks

Hi,
Thanks for the post.
The Event error 6161 is caused by one of the following conditions:
The printer is not reachable on the network
Windows cannot allocate sufficient memory
There was invalid or incomplete data received by the print spooler
A driver upgrade failed
There is a bad printer device driver
For more information, please refer to the following article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773865(WS.10).aspx
In this case, I assume that this issue may be caused by the insufficient memory.
In Event Viewer, examine the event and look for the following text: "Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 8. Not enough storage is available to process this command".
If so, please collect system information for 60 seconds and generate a System Diagnostics Report:
Open an elevated Command Prompt window. (Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.)
At the command prompt, type perfmon /report and then press ENTER. Reliability and Performance Monitor will start collecting data to create the System Diagnostics Report.
When the report is ready for viewing, locate the Diagnostic Results section of the report, and then check for any warnings (indicated by Warnings in the report). You can follow links to additional help on resolving warnings from this section. In addition, you can expand each category in the Basic System Checks section to see more details about why warnings appear. Also, the Performance section provides process-level details about top consumers of resources. You might need to increase the size of the paging file or add physical memory.
Thanks,
Miles

Windows 2008 R2 Multi-Site (geo) Cluster File Server

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