There are eight high level steps that you need to complete to implement virtual host clustering. The previous installment outlined step one in more detail. Now we’ll move on and look at the next step in the process.

Step 2 - Install Virtual Server 2005 R2 on each cluster node.
In order for a guest operating system to potentially be able to run on either cluster node, both must be running Virtual Server 2005 R2. Before you perform the installation, make sure that you stop the Cluster Service. VS 2005 R2 installs its own network driver during setup that can cause conflicts with Cluster Service. The service can be restarted after the installation of VS2005 R2 is complete.

Assuming that the computer meets all the hardware and software requirements you can proceed with the installation steps that are described below. Completing these steps will install both the Virtual Server service and the Administration Web site.

1. Insert the Virtual Server CD-ROM to launch the Setup Wizard. The wizard can also be started manually using setup.exe.
2. Click through the wizard until you reach the Setup Type page.
3. Select Complete (or Custom if you don’t plan on installing the virtual server web application). This installs Virtual Server using the default configuration. Click Next.
4. On the Configure Components page, either accept the default Web site port of 1024 or type in a new port number. Click Next.
5. Accept the default option to Configure the Administration Web site to always run as the authenticated user, or select Configure the Administration Web site to always run as the Local System account. Click Next.
6. Click Enable Virtual Server exceptions in Windows Firewall if users will access the virtual server through Windows Firewall. Click Next.
7. Click Install.
8. Click Finish when the Setup Complete page appears.

Additional step-by-step instructions for installing Virtual Server 2005 R2 are available in the release notes.

Before going on to the next step, create a new folder on the shared cluster disk that will host the virtual machines files (VHD and VMC).

[tags]active directory server, virtual server 2005 r2, clustering server[/tags]