Windows Server 2008 R2 w/ SQL 2008 Cluster Failover to passive node

  • Currently I have a Windows Server 2008 R2 failover cluster with SQL Server 2008 installed on it but I am not sure how to move the services over to the passive node from the active node properly without any down time. In SQL 2005 on a Windows 2003 server it was as simple as right clicking on the service and selecting "Move Services" but on Server 2008 R2 clustering if I move the SQL service none of my systems are able to see the SQL DB's because the "passive node" is the server that has the SQL service running on it. The only way I know to properly move all the services to the passive node is to reboot the active node so that the passive node becomes the active node.

    How is it possible to move the SQL service to the passive node and make that the active node properly?

  • whatever system when moving the services you will incur downtime!

    On the Windows 2008 system, please confirm you carried out new cluster install on the first node then ran the add cluster node install on the second

    Unlike SQL Server 2005 SQL server 2008 does not install all nodes at the same time!

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • @perry

    Correctly said.

    In SQL 2008, you have to do SQL Installation on each node.

  • ?

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • I did select SQL Cluster when using the SQL installer. And I have a failover cluster up and running and perfectly. I just wanted to know how I could move the SQL service to the Passive node and have the cluster name for the Windows 2008 server change at the same time, It used to do this in SQL 2005/Windows 2003 Cluster.

    In my SQL 2005 Cluster on a Windows Server 2003 Failover cluster if I move the SQL 2005 service to the passive node the passive node would automatically become the active node and the Cluster name for Windows would point to the new active node instead of the old active node.

    With my SQL 2008/Windows 2008 cluster I have to reboot the active node to get the services and the cluster name to move to the passive node.

    Is that confusing?

  • bsegermeister, the process hasn't changed in Windows 2008 except we now use Failover Cluster Management instead of Cluster Administrator. Locate your cluster group in there after adding the cluster and then right click on the cluster group and select "Move this service or application to another node" option. That's how you fail it over. It's the same process in Windows 2003, they just changed the tool and names. Since we use a VIP and not the physical node name, nothing needs to be changed on the application side.

    There is downtime when performing a failover. Make sure your number of VLFs is small so that crash recovery is fast.

    Tara Kizer
    Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
    Ramblings of a DBA (My SQL Server Blog)[/url]
    Subscribe to my blog

  • @bsegermeister,

    You do not have to reboot the active node to failover the services ( sql instance).

    THis is better explained by Tara Kizer.

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