Building a SQL cluster in DR - Need some advise

  • I've been asked to build a DR cluster for a SQL 2008 R2 cluster that was built in production more than a year ago, but for some reason they never built the DR cluster before they started putting production databases on it... I now have the problem that the SQL installer throws and error when you try and enter the SQL Server Network Name saying that it already exists, which is correct as it does. I would like to know if there is a way to set up the DR cluster without taking down the production cluster while the installation is being done?

  • Can you not rename your DR Clustered environment to a different name?

    qh

    [font="Tahoma"]Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung.[/font]
  • I've actually found that by entering the DR ip address and instance name in to the hosts file allows the install process to go through because it's not hitting the ip address DNS currently assigns to the production server. It completes the installation but cannot fire up the cluster because it cannot register the object on the domain.

  • In shops that I have worked in that used clustering, DR involved some form of DNS rename. So you have ClusterA, SQLServerA in production, and create ClusterB, SQLServerB, etc. with their own IP addresses. During DR, the DNS records are changes so ClusterA, SQLServerA are pointing to the new IP addresses. Apparently, it is common for this to be done for web servers. I have worked in shops where this was done manually, with a product called Arrowpoint, and using WIDEIP (how that works exactly is beyond my understanding of networks).

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