Moving an Active/Passive cluster to Active/Active

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Moving an Active/Passive cluster to Active/Active

edgar.lanting

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August 31, 2011 at 5:04 am

#390312

Hi all,
I'd like to know if it would be possible to reconfigure an existing Active/Passive SQL Server 2008 R2 cluster to an Active/Active cluster in an easy way and if not..in a less than easy way.
Thanks in advance!
Kind regards,
-Edgar

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Satya(SQLMaster) SSC Eights! Points: 872 More actions · Answer 1

How many SQL instances are running on the current cluster?

You need to change the preferred node owner for each SQL instance

Just a note on Active/Active that you need to bear more licensing costs.

-Satya SK Jayanty
SQL Server MVP (Follow me @sqlmaster)
Author of SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration CookBook
SQL Server Knowledge Sharing network

edgar.lanting SSC Enthusiast Points: 196 More actions · Answer 2

We're running a two node active/passive cluster and are indeed aware of the additional licence costs.

At the moment the active/passive environment is hosting more than 1 db, but we need to split that up between multiple servers, hence the choice for an active/active environment

thanks

Ignacio A. Salom Rangel SSC-Insane Points: 20443 More actions · Answer 3

edgar.lanting (8/31/2011)
We're running a two node active/passive cluster and are indeed aware of the additional licence costs.
At the moment the active/passive environment is hosting more than 1 db, but we need to split that up between multiple servers, hence the choice for an active/active environment
thanks

How many SQL Server instances you have on your cluster? If you already installed the SQL Server instances you can just move the cluster group from one node to the other. IT is very simple. Otherwise this may help.

My blog

Jeffrey Williams SSC Guru Points: 90343 More actions Follow · Answer 4

I wouldn't call it an active/active cluster. It is really a multi-instance cluster in the Windows/SQL Server world.

To create a multi-instance cluster, you need to create separate resources for the new instance. That is, you will need an IP address/name, separate disk drives and a new group in the cluster.

Once you have all of those, you just install SQL Server and select those new resources for the new instance. After the install is completed - move the group to the node you want to be 'active' and you now have your active/active cluster.

Jeffrey Williams
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Satya(SQLMaster) SSC Eights! Points: 872 More actions · Answer 5

....+ you need to ensure that current hardware is capable of hosting multipel instances (active) when the cluster is split up as per your requriement.

The process is not a problem the other issue might be the databases you wanted to seperate between the instances, and use cross-database queries if its needed by your application (address those issues).

-Satya SK Jayanty
SQL Server MVP (Follow me @sqlmaster)
Author of SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration CookBook
SQL Server Knowledge Sharing network

Ignacio A. Salom Rangel SSC-Insane Points: 20443 More actions · Answer 6

Jeffrey Williams-493691 (8/31/2011)
I wouldn't call it an active/active cluster. It is really a multi-instance cluster in the Windows/SQL Server world.
To create a multi-instance cluster, you need to create separate resources for the new instance. That is, you will need an IP address/name, separate disk drives and a new group in the cluster.
Once you have all of those, you just install SQL Server and select those new resources for the new instance. After the install is completed - move the group to the node you want to be 'active' and you now have your active/active cluster.

I agree with most of what you said, I only don't really get what "wouldn't you call an active/active cluster". If he puts a resource group on the other node then he already have an active/active cluster. Since he wants to put some "databases"( I think he means SQL Server instances) on the other node to split the load then I think that he may already have multiple SQL Server instances, if that is not the case he will need to create one. The tips you and Satya gave him are very good. I still would like to know if he has multiple instances on that cluster.

My blog

Perry Whittle SSC Guru Points: 234040 More actions · Answer 7

Jeffrey Williams-493691 (8/31/2011)
To create a multi-instance cluster, you need to create separate resources for the new instance. That is, you will need an IP address/name, separate disk drives and a new group in the cluster.
Once you have all of those, you just install SQL Server and select those new resources for the new instance. After the install is completed - move the group to the node you want to be 'active' and you now have your active/active cluster.

this is all detailed in my 3 part guide which can be found on this site

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

marrowyung-701823 SSC Journeyman Points: 81 More actions · Answer 8

Jeffrey William.

hi, usually the CPU core and RAM for each SQL instance should be half than before as we have to take care the failover of BOTH instance TOGETHER to the SAME nodes, right?

so finally we end up with probably even worse activities as both instance now just have 1/2 CPU and RAM power for each instance?

so overall what is the actually benefit by using active/active cluster?

Moving an Active/Passive cluster to Active/Active

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