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HOW TO SET UP A SQL
CLUSTER WITH DELL
HARDWARE
Contents
About This Document ................................................................................................................................... 3
1
Hardware - Description ........................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 Dell PowerEdge R710 ......................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Dell PERC H800 ................................................................................................................................... 6
1.3 Dell PowerVault MD1220 ................................................................................................................... 7
1.3.1 Operating System Support .......................................................................................................... 7
1.3.2 Management Software Support ................................................................................................. 7
1.3.3 Physical Structure........................................................................................................................ 8
1.3.4 Drive Support .............................................................................................................................. 9
1.3.5 Back Panel for MD1220 ............................................................................................................. 10
2
Hardware – Connection ...................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 How to connect MD1220 ................................................................................................................. 13
3
Configuration of Virtual Disks - OpenManage Server Administrator................................................. 17
3.1 How to Add a Virtual Disk under H800 Adapter .............................................................................. 17
3.2 How to Implement Hot Spare Protection Policy .............................................................................. 23
4
Installing Windows Server 2003 Clustering Services .......................................................................... 24
5
Installing SQL Server 2005 Cluster ...................................................................................................... 30
2
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
This document describes the step-by-step setting up a SQL cluster using Dell hardware,
Windows Server 2003 server clustering services and SQL Server 2005 clusters.
Note the following:
1) Chapter 1 provides the Dell hardware description.
2) Chapter 2 provides the necessary connection required for the clustering.
3) Chapter 3 provides how to use OpenManage Server Administrator application.
4) Chapter 4 provides how to install Windows Server 2003 clustering services.
5) Chapter 5 provides how to install SQL server 2005 cluster.
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1 HARDWARE - DESCRIPTION
This document considers PowerEdge Rack Server server R710 that can accommodate
an external RAID controller PERC H800. Three MD1220 enclosures are connected with
the PERC H800. See Chapter 2.
1.1 Dell PowerEdge R710
The Dell PowerEdge R710 is designed to be the building block of today’s virtualized
enterprise. It is a 2U rack server created to address any virtualized business application
efficiently. The R710 features the high-performing Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series,
a large memory capacity, and I/O bandwidth. Other features are:
 More Memory 18 DIMMS and up to 192GB
 Robust I/O (input/output) 4 Integrated NIC Ports and 4 PCIe Gen 2
 Embedded Systems Management for complete lifecycle management .
Dell’s R710 provides a graphical and interactive LCD for system health monitoring,
alerting and control of basic management configuration right in the front of the server.
Customers have an AC power meter and ambient temperature thermometer built into
the server which they can monitor on this display without any software tools.
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For the purpose of this document, the following diagram only indicates PCIe slots in the
back plane:
Note that: Item 4 is similar to Item 3.
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1.2 Dell PERC H800
The Dell PERC or Power Edge Raid Controller H800 (external) is the next generation
DELL RAID Controller for use in PowerEdge 11th generation servers. It has has
incorporated 6 Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0) interface.
You can use PERC H800 external host-RAID product with the Dell 11th Generation
PowerEdge Servers for expanding storage using Dell PowerVault MD 1220 6 Gb/s SAS
enclosures.
The PERC H800 Adapter has two x4 external mini-SAS ports that supports PCIe 2.0 x8
host interface. It supports RAID level support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. It also
has transportable battery backup unit. The PERC H800 adapter is installed in a PCIe
slot of the server.
The key features of the PERC H800:
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 6Gb/s SAS (SAS 2.0)
 Enables daisy-chaining up to 8 enclosures (4 per port) - up to 192 drives on onehost RAID controller.
 Enables 2.5-inch enclosures in the same daisy-chain
 Enables Redundant Path with Automatic I/O load balancing
 Supports Self-Encrypting Drive (SED)
1.3 Dell PowerVault MD1220
Dell PowerVault MD1220 enclosures support SAS hot-pluggable HDDs (hard-disk
drives) up to 6 Gb/s. MD1220 allows only 24 2.5-inch form factor drives.
Note:




SATA interface drives are not supported.
6Gb/s SAS interface HDDs are configured in MD1220, from Dell’s factory,
MD 1220 plans to use SSDs (solid-state drives). However, it is not available as
on July 2010.
The front bezel of the system contains a lock. A locked bezel secures the system
hard drives.
1.3.1 Operating System Support
The Dell PowerVault MD1220 enclosures, via PERC H800, support all major enterprise
server operating systems consistent with the Dell 11G PowerEdge servers and Dell
OpenManage Storage Management (minimum version 6.2) software. This includes
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008, Red Hat Linux 4 and 5, and SUSE Linux 10
and 11.
In this document, Windows version is considered.
1.3.2 Management Software Support
The Dell PowerVault MD1220 enclosures are managed via the management software
provided for the PERC H800. The Dell PERC H800 is supported and managed via
OpenManage Storage/Server Management (minimum version 6.2) application.
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1.3.3 Physical Structure
The PowerVault MD1220 enclosures use a rack mount 2U chassis.
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1.3.4 Drive Support
9
1.3.5 Back Panel for MD1220
10
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2 HARDWARE – CONNECTION
2.1 How to connect MD1220
For appropriate connection, you need cables as shown in the following illustration:
You can connect the PowerVault MD1220 enclosures using cables in either a unifiedmode configuration or in a split-mode configuration.
EMM Cabling - Unified Mode Configuration
In a unified-mode configuration the enclosure is connected to one host, for example, a
server with a controller card. The enclosure can be one of up to four enclosures daisychained to a single port on the controller card in the host server.
For this particular configuration, three MD1220s are used, as shown below.
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EMM Cabling - Unified Mode Configuration, Redundant Path
Dell recommends this type of connection.
The enclosure can also be connected in a redundant path mode with two connections
to single host server. Redundant path is recommended since it provides cable
redundancy and better performance with automatic I/O load balancing. See the
illustration below.
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EMM Cabling – Split-Mode Configuration
In a split-mode configuration, you can connect the enclosure is to either two host
controllers or two ports on a single host controller. The enclosure can be connected to
two different host servers in a split mode configuration. Each server sees the enclosure
as an independent device with half of the total enclosure slot capacity. See the following
diagram for a cabling diagram of a split-mode configuration
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3 CONFIGURATION OF VIRTUAL DISKS OPENMANAGE SERVER ADMINISTRATOR
The Dell PERC H800 is supported and managed via OpenManage Server
Management (minimum version 6.2) tool. You can create a virtual disk under H800
using this application. You can also implement hot spare protection policy.
3.1 How to Add a Virtual Disk under H800 Adapter
1) Use Dell OpenManage Server Administrator.
2) Click on the Storage section of the tree (as shown).
3) Notice that there is no virtual disk under PERC H800 Adapter.
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4) Create Virtual Disk: Choose the appropriate option from the menu bar and then
click the execute button.
5) Select “Go to Advanced Wizard” for more detailed selections.
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6) Choose your selection of RAID. Click the continue button.
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7) First, notice the available disks.
8) Select appropriate disks and click the “continue” button.
9) Enable Disk Cache policy and then click continue button.
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10) Display the attributes for virtual disk.
11) Click finish. Virtual disk is created. Warning for dedicated hot spare may pop up!
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12) A virtual disk is created under Dell PERC H800.
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3.2 How to Implement Hot Spare Protection Policy
1) Go to Storage Dashboard.
2) Enable hot spare policy
3) Select minimum number of disks
4) Apply changes.
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4 INSTALLING WINDOWS SERVER 2003
CLUSTERING SERVICES
In order to install SQL Server clustering, you should first install Windows Server 2003
clustering services. Before doing that please ensure that all the hardware and drivers
are installed properly.
To begin, you must start the Microsoft Windows 2003 Clustering Wizard from one of the
nodes.
1) First, to begin your installation, open Cluster Administrator. If this is the first
cluster, then you will be presented with the following window.
2) From the Action drop-down box, select Create New Cluster and click OK.
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3) You need to click Next to begin the wizard.
4) Enter the details as follows:
Domain: Enter the domain the cluster will be in.
Cluster name: Name that you assign for the virtual cluster.
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Once the above are entered, please click Next.
5) Now, provide a physical name of the node – so the wizard knows where to install
clustering on.
6) Click on the Advanced button.
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7) You can now choose between a Typical and an Advanced configuration. In
almost all cases, the Typical configuration will work fine.
8) Cluster Wizard verifies everything is in place before it begins the actual
installation of the cluster service on the node.
9) Once successful, green bar under Tasks completed appear.
10) Once you are ready to proceed, click Next.
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11) Enter the IP address of our virtual cluster. The IP address must be on the same
subnet as all of the nodes in the cluster. Click Next.
12) Enter the name of the domain account you want to use as the cluster service
account.
13) In the Proposed Cluster Configuration, you must click on the Quorum button and
check which drive the Cluster Wizard has selected for the Quorum.
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14) Click OK to accept.
15) If no potential problem is found, Clicking Next completes the installation for the
first node.
16) The above screenshot shows all the installed nodes.
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5 INSTALLING SQL SERVER 2005
CLUSTER
1) You need the SQL Server 2005 setup program to install on to a cluster.
2) Make sure that all the prerequisite components have been successfully installed.
Once this is verified, the SQL Server Installation Wizard launches.
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3) Click Next on the above screen.
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4) SQL Server Installation Wizard checks the System Configuration. Once you
complete the necessary information for registration, you must select the SQL
Server 2005 components you need to install.
5) You must enter the instance name. Choose Default.
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6) Select the name of the instance to be installed.
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7) Enter the name of the virtual SQL Server 2005 instance you are currently
installing (see below). This is the name that clients will use to connect to this
instance.
8) Enter the virtual IP address for this instance of SQL Server 2005. Like the cluster
virtual name, it is used by clients to connect to this instance of SQL Server 2005.
The IP address must belong to the same subnet as the IP addresses used by all
of the nodes.
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9) Click on Add, so that the information you just selected is in the Selected networks
and IP addresses box.
10) In the dialog box below, select the SQL Server Group as the group where you
want to create the SQL Server resources. In addition, be sure that the Data files
will be created on the correct logical drive of the shared array using the folder
name you choose. Click Next to proceed.
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11) You specify which nodes you want to install this instance of SQL Server on.
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12) In the dialog box (below), select an account (with password) that has
administrative rights on all of the nodes where we want to install this instance of
SQL Server 2005. This can be any domain account that is a local administrator of
all the nodes.
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13) When you install SQL Server 2005 on a non-cluster and it is configured the same
(see below). Click Next to proceed.
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14) After you have completed these steps, you see the following dialog box. Note
that the installation process will take some time as it is installing the binaries on
both nodes of the cluster, and installing the system data files on the shared array.
The Setup Progress step shows the status of the first node's install.
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15) Once an instance of SQL Server 2005 clustering is installed, you can view its
cluster resources by going to Cluster Administrator and opening up the SQL
Server Group resource, as shown below.
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