November 13, 2008 at 6:15 am
Our architect is proposing the following SQL Server configuration:
- 3-node cluster: Active/Active/Failover
- Install 3 instances of SQL 2000
- Install 3 instances of SQL 2005
Technically - we may run into an issue w/ the number of Drive Letters available to our implementation. (each instance requires dedicated drive letters) For SQL 2005, we're considering the use of Mounted drives which should accomodate the drive letter limitation.
The following MS KB is interesting: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/819546 --- here's an excerpt:
On a clustered instance of SQL Server 2000, data storage on mounted drives or on NTFS junction points is not supported. This applies to Windows 2000 and to Windows Server 2003. The installation of SQL Server 2000 is not supported on a clustered configuration that has mounted drives even if the mounted drives are not intended to be used with SQL Server. That is, if a configuration already has some mounted drives for file shares, you cannot install SQL Server on that configuration, even if you are not using the mounted drives for SQL Server.
How should I interpret this? Will the SQL 2000 instances operate even though I have SQL 2005 mounted drives?
November 14, 2008 at 7:46 am
You interpret it just the way it reads... NO (emphatically!) it will not work. You need to find a new architect. SQL Server 2000 is shaky in a clustered environment in any setup. Adding a complication that MS says won't work is a recipe for total disaster. Microsoft may not always tell you that something won't work because it makes them look bad, but when they do so, you can bet it really will not work.
SQL Server 2005 instances will work just fine when clustered. I am the senior DBA for multiple major SQL Server installations on various servers. Each of the 10 servers is a unique setup, with most being SQL Server 2005, but still a few on SQL Server 2000. One of these is a very large enterprise-level HP clustered Itanium setup with SQL Server 2005 on multi-terabyte mounted drives. We had to migrate to SQL Server 2005 from SQL Server 2000 to get this clustered setup to work properly. The migration to 2005 is not that hard. Why not migrate the SQL Server 2000 instances before you tackle the clustering issue?
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