Virtual Host Clustering With Virtual Server 2005 R2 Part VIII

The previous articles in this series have outlined the first four steps that you need to complete when implementing virtual host clustering. This final article will described the remaining steps that must be completed.

Step 5 - Create a Virtual Machine
You are now ready to create the first virtual machine. The important thing to remember here is that the configuration files must reside on the shared storage device where it will be accessible to both cluster nodes. The exact steps are described below.

1. Open the Virtual Server Administration site.
2. In the navigation pane, under Virtual Machines, click Create.
3. In Virtual machine name, type a name for the virtual machine and specify the fully qualified path to the shared storage where you want to create the virtual machine.
4. In Virtual machine memory, specify the amount of RAM (in megabytes) used by the virtual machine.
5. In Virtual hard disk, do one of the following:
   • Select Create a new virtual hard disk. Next, to set the size of the virtual hard disk, specify a value in Size, and then select either MB for megabytes or GB for gigabytes.
   • Under Virtual network adapter, in Connected to, select the virtual network you created in the previous section.
   • Click Create.

Once you complete these steps, the virtual machine is configured in a way that lets it failover to the second node.

Step 6 - Complete the Configuration
Now you need to switch your attention to the second cluster node and configure it to support the virtual machine you just created. First you need to create the Virtual Network on this node and then add a virtual machine.

Within the Cluster Administrator tool, move the resource group you created in step 3 to the second cluster node. Open the Virtual Server Administration site on this node and add a Virtual Network. Type in the path to the existing virtual network configuration file that is stored on the shared drive. Next, add a new virtual machine, specifying the fully qualified path to vmc file on the shared drive.

Step 7 - Create the Generic Script Resource
A script is available from Microsoft that ensures your guest operating systems function correctly within a clustered environment. The script lets the guest operating system operate as a cluster-aware application. To use the script, copy the script text (available on Microsoft’s Web site) to into Notepad and save it as Havm.vbs. On each cluster node, copy the script to the systemroot\Cluster folder and execute it.

The script is implemented as a Generic Script resource type inside of the resource group you created in the previous section. When you create the resource type, be sure to make it dependent on the physical disk resource type and enter the correct path to the script (%windir%\Cluster\Havm.vbs).

See Generic Script resource type for more information.

Step 8 - Install a Guest Operating System
Finally, your last step will be to proceed with the installation of the guest operating system.

You can test the failover of your guest operating system to the second cluster node using the steps that are described below:

1. Open the Cluster Administrator tool. Verify that resource group is online.
2. Right click the group and select the Move Group option. You should see the Owner for the group change to the other node.

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