How can I setup and configure Failover clustering in Windows Server 2008

If you havn't already installed Failover Cluster Management Features, then do so now, you'll need to install the Failover Clustering Feature and theFailover Clustering tools (from Remote Server Administration tools). 

Once done you can access the Failover Cluster Management gui via Start/Administrative Tools, Failover Cluster Management


Step 1. Validate

You must login with a domain User account if you want the full functionality of the Failover Cluster Management, and if you forget you will be reminded.



Login with a domain user account and start the Failover Cluster Management gui

In the Management Pane, click on Validate a Configuration



The validate a configuration Wizard will appear, click on Next.



when the Select Servers or a cluster window appears, enter the Server name to validate or click browse and browse the network for the server





click next when ready

You will now be on the Testing Options window,



click on Next to let the wizard run all tests, please note that the hardware being tested must be marked as 'Certified for Windows Server 2008'.



You'll get a confirmation screen showing the options you chose, click next to run the tests...



After a while, you'll get a Failover Cluster Validation report, click View Report to view the results and Finish to continue



the report itself is rather lengthy so worth looking through (please note I ran this test on some standard desktop/laptop/hyper V hardware so as expected SAN info was nowhere to be seen and the hardware did not meet Microsoft's recommended configuration standards...


Step 2. Create Cluster

In the Failover Cluster Management gui, click on Create a Cluster in the Management pane



after reading the recommendations, click next and enter the name of a server to include in the cluster in the Select Servers window



Type the name you want to use when administering the cluster (netbios name limited to 15 characters)



you'll get a confirmation screen listing your details of the cluster



and clicking next will create the new cluster



once it is complete, you'll see a summary



click finish.

note that in my example, the Failover Cluster Management gui now has some warnings about the Node Majority.

 



Step 3. Manage the Cluster

In the Failover cluster Management gui, click on Action, then Manage a cluster



In the drop down menu, select a cluster to manage,



when the Failover cluster management cluster appears, click on Add Node in the right pane,



when the Add node wizard appears, click next



When the select server window appears, select the server name you are running this from by clicking on browse, advanced and then find now



in this example i choose 'no' to run the validation tests, click on next to continue *you should click yes to the tests*



review the confirmation



click next...

review the summary



you can now click on the nodes section of Failover cluster management to review your two nodes in the cluster.




Step 4. Add High Availability Application or Service

In the Failover cluster Management gui, click on Configure a Service or Application in the right pane



review the Before you begin details in the High Availability wizard and click next...



In this example the high availability application we will add is (wait for it) Firefox, of course you can choose whatever app/service you wish but to keep this howto simple, I am choosing Firefox as we know it is already installed on both nodes.



choose Generic Application from the list in Select Service or Application window.

click next and paste in the path to your Mozilla Firefox application



eg:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\Firefox.exe

click next and give the client access point a name for this service or application, I chose FirefoxHA for high availability...



select your storage (san... i don't have one, if you want to donate one to Windows-noob.com i'll make sure your product gets named again and again.... )



add in your Registry settings for replication...



review the confirmation



click next and it will configure high availability

review the summary



and checkout the application itself in the Cluster Services and Applications node



(offline at the moment, will fix soon)

in addition to the above, I added another Generic Application for Internet Explorer.... and it worked first time

see screenshot...