SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster Setup

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster Setup

This tutorial will guide you through how to create a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster. This tutorial follows on from the Microsoft Windows Cluster Setup Tutorials located by click here

SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster Setup

1. Launch the Setup for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and we will be selecting System Configuration Checker.

2. The SQL Server System Configuration Checker begins

3. The Configuration Checker is ran against the server and all test Passed. We have a healthy server to begin our SQL Cluster Setup. Click Ok.

4. Click on Installation on the left hand side. We will be clicking on New SQL Server failover cluster installation.

5. A few more checks are run against the server. All 7 test have passed successfully. Click Ok.

6. Enter in the SQL Server Product Key or you can Specify a free edition and run the evaluation version. Click Next.

7. Select the license terms and click Next.

8. The wizard will now install the Setup Support Files. Click Next.

9. Setup support rules have been installed and completed successfully. Click Next.

10. Select the options that you would like to install. Click Next.

11. Specify a Network Name for the SQL Server Failover Cluster and whether you would like to use the Default Instance or a Named Instance. Click Next.

12. A Disk Space Summary is displayed. Click Next.

13. Specify a name for the SQL Server Cluster resource group name. In this example I will simply use the name SQL Cluster. Click Next.

14. In this step we will select the shared disks used for the SQL Server Cluster install and for the Volume Mount Point Base. Click Next.

15. Specify the static IP that will be used for the failover cluster.

16. For Cluster Security Policy I will use the recommended service SIDs option. Click Next.

17. I have created an sqlservice Windows Active Directory account that I will be using for the SQL Server Agent and SQL Server Database Engine services. My sqlservice account is a Domain User and belongs to the Administrators group of the local SQL Servers. Click Next.

18. Click the Collation tab. Latin1_General_CI_AS is the default. Click Customize if you need to change it. Click Next.

19. Select the Authentication Mode you would like to use, Windows authentication mode or Mixed Mode.

20. Under Specify SQL Server administrators, click Add and select a user that will have admin access to the SQL Management Console. In this tutorial I will simply add the Windows Domain Administrator account.

21. Click Data Directories. I will change the directories to sit in the shared drives that we allocated in step 14. I: is the SQL Install Volume and V: is the Volume Mount Root Directory. Within V: I have created 2 mount points, Mount1 and Mount2. Mount1 will be used for the User Database Directory and Mount2 will be used for the User database log directory. Click Next.

22. If you would like to send Error Reports to Microsoft select this option or simply click Next.

23. Cluster rules are running to check for any installation errors of the Cluster once we proceed. Click Next.

24. A Summary is displayed of your SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster setup. Click Install.

25. The installation is now complete. Click Close.

26. Open up Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Select the Server Cluster Name, Windows Authentication and click Connect. You will be connected into the SQL Server Cluster Resource.

27. If we open up Failover Cluster Manager, we can see the Shared Disk Drives are all online, along with the SQL Cluster Resource.

Disclaimer:
All the tutorials included on this site are performed in a lab environment to simulate a real world production scenario. As everything is done to provide the most accurate steps to date, we take no responsibility if you implement any of these steps in a production environment.