The installation procedure warns you that single-adapter configurations represent a single point of failure, as Screen 11 shows. This dialog box also appears if you have two adapters with their primary TCP/IP addresses on the same network.
Screen 12 shows how the Setup program prompts you for the IP address, subnet mask, and network you'll use to administer the cluster. Use the values from the cluster planning that you performed earlier, then select the network over which you'll administer the cluster. Click Next to go to the final screen of the installation process, and select Finish. When you click Finish, MSCS Setup will:
- Copy the necessary files
- Set clusdisk parameters
- Update the cluster network configuration
- Set MSCS security
- Synchronize NT Registry data
- Update network providers
- Start the Cluster Server disk driver
- Start the Cluster Server service
Installing MSCS on Node B. Installing MSCS on your next cluster node is easier than installing it on your first node. You simply type the name of the cluster you're joining and the password for the Cluster Service account. The new node automatically learns the cluster configuration information from Node A.
Confirm cluster network and SCSI connectivity. Now that the cluster is running on Node A, it's a good idea to test connectivity from Node B to the cluster address and name. Use ping and NBTSTAT as you did when you tested the connectivity between nodes before you installed MSCS. Next, start Disk Administrator to confirm that Node B sees the shared storage bus. Disk Administrator, as you see in Screen 13, shows the disks on the shared bus as offline. If you don't see the disks, check your connections. If you do see the disks, you're ready to add Node B to the cluster.
The NTS/E Installer is nothing more than a front end for individual setup programs, so it's easiest to exit NTS/E Installer and run the Cluster Setup program directly. Browse to the location of the MSCS files on the component CD-ROM and invoke setup.exe. Select Next at the welcome screen. Click I Agree to indicate that your hardware is compatible.
As Screen 14 shows, click Join an existing cluster, then enter the name of the cluster you formed with Node A. As before, I recommend accepting the default location for the MSCS files when you see the dialog box that Screen 15 shows.
Enter the password of the domain account the Cluster Service runs under. If you're installing on a member server, Setup will ask if you want to make this account a member of the local Administrators group. Click Next in the dialog box Screen 16 shows to go to the next to last window. Click Finish to complete the installation. If everything went well, you'll see a dialog box announcing the successful installation of MSCS on Node B and the need to reboot.
Uninstalling the Cluster Software
MSCS is a well-behaved NT application, and you can uninstall it from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs applet. You must reboot the node to complete the removal. Keep in mind that just uninstalling a node won't allow it to be reinstalled. You must use Cluster Administrator to evict the node before it, or any other node, can rejoin the cluster.
Cluster Administrator Program
To manage your cluster remotely, you can install Cluster Administrator on any NT 4.0 system running SP3. On systems running NTS/E, you install Cluster Administrator by following the directions in the MSCS installation program. Non-NTS/E systems still use the setup program for installation, but these systems only give you the option to install Cluster Administrator, not the form or join a cluster options. Once you install the administrator program on an Intel or Alpha platform, the program administers clusters running on either platform.
Moving On
I hope you agree that installing MSCS isn't painful. Now you're ready to administer your cluster, if it's a test environment. If you are building a production cluster and you want to receive support, you must validate your configuration. Both of these processes are more interesting than clicking dialog boxes, as you did to install MSCS.