How To Build a Windows Cluster with Virtual PC and iSCSI - Part III
In the third and final article of this series we will look at installing the Windows Cluster service and creating a 2-node cluster using two virtual machines running in Virtual PC 2007. If you haven’t done so already I would recommend that you look at the previous two articles in this series which cover the pre-requisites for building a cluster under Virtual PC. You can find them here (http://www.iisadmin.co.uk/?p=91) and here (http://www.iisadmin.co.uk/?p=215)
The Windows Cluster service requires a domain account in order to function correctly so start by creating a new domain account on your domain controller and make it a member of the Domain Users group. The account should also be made a member of the local Administrators group on each of the two nodes.
As mentioned previously, ensure that only one node is powered up at any one time until after the Cluster service has been installed. To begin the cluster installation log on to the first node using a domain account which is a member of the local administrators group and then launch the Cluster Administrator snap-in. Select the option to Create a new cluster from the drop-down and click OK
This will invoke the New Server Cluster Wizard. Click next to continue
On the Cluster name and Domain screen enter the domain name and the name of your cluster for your environment and click Next
On the Select Computer screen enter the name of the machine on which your are installing the Cluster service and click Next
The Cluster Wizard will analyze your setup to determine that the necessary requirements are in place for a successful installation. If it is successful you will see a green bar. In this example we can see that the wizard has flagged up a warning. This is due to the fact that my cluster nodes only have one network interface configured. In a production environment you should have separate network interfaces for the public and private networks but we can safely ignore the warning for the purposes of this test environment. Click Next to continue
