Hi all. Wondered if someone can advise:-

I have two separate clusters. One is running Windows Server 2000 (Advanced of course), the other is running Windows Server 2003 Adv.

The hardware for each cluster is identical - a two-node set up of HP DL380s connected to MSA5000 clustered storage via SCSI. The DL380s have two NICs. For each one, one (NIC#1) is linked to the main LAN and the other (NIC#2) is a crossover cable linking each to each other to provide heartbeat. See attached sketch...

Now node 1 has control of the cluster. If we disble both NICs, the cluster fails over to node 2. If we shut down the server, the cluster fails over to node 2. The ultimate test was to just pull the network cables out to simulate a failure (without pulling the mains out). Whilst this works fine (fails over) with 2003, it does NOT fail over for the 2000 cluster. Is this normal?

A colleague thinks it is under the basis that node 1 which has control sees the heartbeat go away so does not think node 2 could take control and hence doesn't release it. My argument is that the connection to the LAN has also been lost (NIC1) so there wouldn't be any clients available to connect to the cluster anyway, so it might as well release control to node 2.

I suppose technically, it can still hold the node under control because the SCSI connection to the storage is still alive so node 2 cannot take control of the data on the storage.

Is this the case and WS2003 is just smarter than WS2000 for failing over?

Thoughts?

Cheers

We have a 2003 cluster, and it works as you described. I dont have any experience of 2000 though.

No worries Manny. thanks for checking out.

In the end, we did the hard test of pulling the power out :eek:

Fortunately, w2k failed over ok

I posted about it on Hexus too, and had some thoughts, but everybody seems to be running on 2k3 now so have nothing to compare it to!