Windows 2008 R2 includes a failoverclusters PowerShell module, but you’ll probably find normal usage limiting for several reasons:
- Only works on Windows 2008 R2 clusters
- Requires the cluster service which in effect makes it difficult to run remotely except via PSRemoting
- Implements specialized data types instead of using WMI
Although I like seeing PowerShell coverage of products, the failoverclusters module seems like a step backwards from Windows 2003 cluster.exe. In Windows 2003 every server installation had a cluster management MMC as well as the command-line utility cluster.exe. The cool thing is you could go to any Windows 2003 machine or Windows XP machine and as long as the admin tools were installed you could manage a cluster remotely from the command-line.
If you’re managing a mixed environment which includes Windows 2003 or you want more flexibility in managing Windows 2008 R2 clusters there’s good coverage in the Failover Clusters WMI provider. All that is needed is to create a few simple functions are the WMI classes. The script LibraryMSCS.ps1 posted on PoshCode provides some core functions for retrieving or modifying cluster configurations. Here’s some sample output below…
PS C:\users\public\bin> . .\LibraryMSCS.ps1 PS C:\users\public\bin> get-cluster CLUMPXM Name : CLUMPXM PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clustername CLUMPXM CLUMPXM PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clusternode CLUMPXM Cluster : CLUMPXM ... Name : CLUMP2XP Cluster : CLUMPXM ... Name : CLUMP1XP PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clusternode CLUMPXM | select cluster,Name Cluster Name ------- ---- CLUMPXM CLUMP2XP CLUMPXM CLUMP1XP PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clustersqlvirtual CLUMPXM Cluster : CLUMPXM Name : SQL Server (SQLPROD2) State : 2 VirtualServerName : CANARY InstanceName : SQLPROD2 ServerInstance : CANARY\SQLPROD2 Node : CLUMP2XP PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clusternetworkname CLUMPXM Cluster : CLUMPXM Name : SQL Network Name (CANARY) State : 2 NetworkName : CANARY Node : CLUMP2XP Cluster : CLUMPXM Name : Cluster Name State : 2 NetworkName : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP Cluster : CLUMPXM Name : DOVE State : 2 NetworkName : DOVE Node : CLUMP2XP PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clusterGroup CLUMPXM Cluster : CLUMPXM ... Node : CLUMP2XP PreferredNodes : CLUMP1XP ... Name : SQL CANARY .. State : 0 Status : Cluster : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP PreferredNodes : {} ... Name : New Drives ... State : 0 Cluster : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP PreferredNodes : {} ... Name : Cluster Group ... State : 0 Status : Cluster : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP PreferredNodes : {} ... Name : MSDTC ... State : 0 PS C:\users\public\bin> get-clusterresource CLUMPXM | where {$_.Name -like "*SQL*CANARY*"} Cluster : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP Group : SQL CANARY ... Name : SQL Network Name (CANARY) ... Type : Network Name Cluster : CLUMPXM Node : CLUMP2XP Group : SQL CANARY ... Name : SQL IP Address 1 (CANARY) ... Type : IP Address
