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* How to set up and manage a Hyper-V Failover Cluster, Step by step
HOW TO SET UP AND MANAGE A HYPER-V FAILOVER CLUSTER, STEP BY STEP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What is Microsoft Failover Clustering?
2. What is Failover Cluster Manager?
3. How to Access Failover Cluster Manager
4. Introducing the Failover Cluster Manager Interface
5. How to Use Failover Cluster Manager to Validate a Cluster
6. How to Use Failover Cluster Manager to Create a Cluster
7. How to Connect to an Existing Cluster
8. How to Manage the Hyper-V Cluster
9. Shut Down Cluster
10. Destroy Cluster
11. Cluster Properties
12. Continuing into Advanced Cluster Configuration
Hyper-V is inherently a host-bound service. It controls all of the resources
that belong to the physical machine, but that is the extent of its reach. This
is where Microsoft Failover Clustering comes in.
Failover Clustering works alongside Hyper-V to protect virtual machines, but it
is a separate technology. As a result, it uses its own management interface,
aptly named “Failover Cluster Manager”.
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This portion of our series will introduce you to clustering technology and take
you on a tour through the entire Failover Cluster Manager interface, much like
our sections on Hyper-V Manager. As with those sections, this is intended to be
an interface guide only. The constituent concepts of failover clustering will be
explained in other articles in this series.
WHAT IS MICROSOFT FAILOVER CLUSTERING?
Microsoft Failover Clustering is a cooperative system component that enables
applications, services, and even scripts to increase their availability without
human intervention. Between one and sixty-four physical hosts are combined into
a single unit, called a Failover Cluster.
These hosts share one or more common networks and at least one shared storage
location. One or more of the previously listed items running on these physical
hosts are presented to Microsoft Failover Clustering as roles. The cluster can
move these roles from one host to another very quickly in response to commands
or environmental events. The cluster itself is represented in the network by at
least one logical entity known as a Cluster Name Object.
Many roles, including Hyper-V virtual machines, can be intentionally moved in
without any service interruption. All roles can be quickly and automatically
moved to a surviving node in the event of a node failure. For these reasons,
clusters are called high availability technology because they can decrease –and
potentially eliminate – the amount of time that a service is unreachable outside
of its own scheduled maintenance windows.
Microsoft Failover Clustering is always in an active/passive configuration. This
means that any single role can only operate on a single cluster node at any
given time. A cluster can operate multiple roles simultaneously, however.
Depending on the role type, it may be possible for roles to operate
independently on separate hosts. As this specifically applies to Hyper-V, an
individual virtual machine is considered a role, not the entire Hyper-V service.
Therefore, a single virtual machine can only run on one Hyper-V host at any
given time, but each host can run multiple virtual machines simultaneously.
If a host crashes, all of its virtual machines will also crash, but they will be
automatically restarted on another cluster host. Because a virtual machine
cannot run on two hosts simultaneously, Hyper-V virtual machines are not
considered fault tolerant.
WHAT IS FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER?
Just as Hyper-V has Hyper-V Manager, Failover Clustering has Failover Cluster
Manager. This tool is used to create and maintain failover clustering. It deals
with roles, nodes, storage, and networking for the cluster. The tool itself is
not specific to Hyper-V, but it does share much of the same functionality for
controlling virtual machines.
As with Hyper-V Manager, this is a Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe)
snap-in. It is very small and has no particular hardware or software
requirements except for a dependency upon components of Windows Explorer.
Because of that, it cannot run directly on Hyper-V Server or Windows Server Core
installations. It can be used to remotely control such hosts, however.
HOW TO ACCESS FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER
If you haven’t yet installed the feature, it is a component of the Remote Server
Administration Tools. Installation and activation of that toolset was covered in
section 2.3. Once activated, the icon for Failover Cluster Manager appears in
the Administrative Tools group in Control Panel and on the Start menu/screen.
INTRODUCING THE FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER INTERFACE
The following screenshot shows Failover Cluster Manager as you see it when it is
opened for the first time:
As with Hyper-V Manager, it is divided into three panes. The left pane is
currently empty, but attached clusters will appear underneath the Failover
Cluster Manager root node, in much the same fashion as Hyper-V Manager’ host
display. The tools differ in that the clusters will have their own sub-nodes for
the various elements of failover clustering.
The center pane’s default view contains a great deal of textual information and
hyperlinks. Its contents will change based on what is selected in the left pane.
Returning to this initial set of informational blocks can be done at any time by
selecting the root Failover Cluster Manager node. In some views, the center pane
will be divided in half with the lower section displaying information about the
currently selected item.
The right pane is a context menu just as it is in Hyper-V Manager. Its upper
area contents will change depending upon what is selected in the left pane. If
an item is selected in the center pane, an additional section will be added to
the right pane that is the context menu for that selected object.
HOW TO USE FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER TO VALIDATE A CLUSTER
One of the most useful capabilities provided by failover clustering is its
ability to scan existing and potential cluster nodes to determine their
suitability for clustering. This process should be undertaken prior to building
any cluster and before adding any new nodes to an existing cluster. The primary
reason is that it can help you to detect problems before they even occur. The
secondary reason is that Microsoft support could potentially refuse to provide
assistance for a cluster that has not been validated. A cluster that has passed
all validation tests is considered fully supportable even if its components have
not been specifically certified.
To help ensure that your validation is successful, perform necessary steps to
prepare your nodes to be clustered. A quick synopsis is given in the next
section on using Failover Cluster Manager to create a cluster. This isn’t
strictly necessary as the validation wizard will alert you to most problems, but
it will save time.
To begin, simply select any of the Validate Configuration items. One is found on
the context menu of the Failover Cluster Manager root node in the left pane and
another is in the center pane when that root node is selected. Once you’ve done
so, the Validate a Configuration Wizard appears. The wizard contain the
following series of screens:
1. The first page of the dialog is merely informational. You can optionally
select to never have that page appear again if you like. When ready, click
Next.
2. The second page asks you to select the hosts or the cluster to be validated.
If a host is already part of a cluster, selecting it will automatically
include all nodes of the cluster. You can use the Browse button to scan
Active Directory for computer names. You can also just type the short name,
fully-qualified domain name, or IP address of a computer and click Add to
have Failover Cluster Manager search for it. Once all hosts to be validated
for a single cluster have been selected, press Next.
1. The following screen provides two choices. The first specifies that you wish
to run all available tests. This is the most thorough, and this is the
validation that Microsoft expects for complete support. However, some tests
do require shared storage to be taken offline temporarily, so this may not
be appropriate for an existing cluster. The second option allows you to
specify a subset of available tests.
1. If you opted to run only selected tests, the next screen will ask you to
specify which tests to run. You can click the plus icon next to any
top-level item to see sub-tests for that category. Deselect the Storage
category if you are working on a live cluster and interruption is not
acceptable.
1. After test selection, you’ll be taken to a confirmation screen that lists
the selected nodes and tests that will be run on them. Verify that all is as
expected and click Next when ready.
2. The tests will begin and their progress will be displayed. The overall test
battery can take quite some time to complete.
1. When the tests complete, you will automatically be brought to the Summary
page. Here, you can click View Report to see a detailed list of all tests
and their outcomes. You can check the box Create the cluster now using the
validated nodes in order to start the cluster creation wizard immediately
upon clicking Finish.
There are three possible outcomes for the validation process. If the wizard
doesn’t find any problems, it will mark your cluster as validated. If it finds
any concerns that don’t prevent clustering from working but will result in a
suboptimal configuration (such as multiple IPs on the same host in the same
subnet), it will mark the cluster as validated but with warnings. The final
possibility is that the wizard will find one or more problems that are known to
prevent clustering from operating properly and will indicate that the
configuration is not suitable for clustering.
The generated report is an HTML page that can be viewed in any modern web
browser. It contains a set of hyperlinks near the top that jump to the specific
item that contains more details. Warning text will be highlighted in yellow and
error text will be highlighted in red.
This report will be automatically saved to “C:\Windows\Cluster\Reports” on each
one of the nodes. The file name will begin with “Validation Report”.
HOW TO USE FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER TO CREATE A CLUSTER
The surest way to be prepared to create a cluster is by having completely a
fully successful validation test as described above. A quick summary of the
required steps to have completed prior to creating the cluster:
* All nodes must have at least one IP address in the same subnet
* The Failover Clustering role must be installed on all hosts
* Management operating system on all nodes must be the same version
* All nodes must be in the same domain and organizational unit
* Your user account must have the correct privileges to create a computer
account in the organizational unit where the nodes reside or the computer
account must be pre-staged in that location
The recommended steps are:
* Cluster validation should have been completed successfully
* Shared storage should be prepared and connected (SMB 3 storage has no
particular “connection” step, but the node computer accounts should have Full
Control permissions on the NTFS and share level)
* One shared storage LUN or location should be set aside for quorum (regardless
of the number of nodes)
If you used the validation wizard’s option to create the cluster, you’ll be
automatically taken right to the Create Cluster Wizard. To open it directly, use
any of the Create Cluster links. They all in the same location as the Validate
Configuration links. The screens of this wizard are detailed below:
1. The first screen is informational. If you’d like, you can check the box to
never be shown this page when running the wizard in the future. Click Next
when ready
2. If you started the wizard directly without going through the validation
first, you’ll next be presented with a dialog requesting the names of the
host(s) to join together. This works the same way as the identical dialog
page in the validation wizard.
1. The next page asks you to create the administrative computer name and IP
address. This object and its IP address are not as important for a Hyper-V
cluster as they are for other cluster types because, unlike most other
clustered roles, virtual machines are not accessed through the cluster.
However, they are still required. In the Cluster Name text box, enter the
name to use for the computer account. The matching object that is created in
Active Directory is known as the cluster’s Computer Name Object (CNO). If
you are using a pre-staged account, ensure that you use identical spelling.
In the lower section, you’ll be asked to choose the network to create one or
more administrative access points on and to select an IP for it/them. The
networks that appear will be automatically selected by detecting adapters on
each node that have a gateway and are in common subnets across all nodes.
Preferably, there will only be one adapter per node that fits this
description. Enter the IP address that the computer account is to use.
1. Next, you’ll be brought to the Confirmation page. There is one option here
to change, and that is Add all eligible storage to the cluster. If checked,
any LUNs that have been attached to all nodes will be automatically added as
cluster disks, with one being selected for quorum. If you’d like to manually
control storage, uncheck this box before clicking Next.
2. The next dialog shows a progress bar as your cluster and is built. It will
automatically advance to the Summary page once it’s completed. There will be
a View Report button that opens a simple web page with a list of all the
steps that were taken during cluster creation. This can help you to
troubleshoot any errors that occur. As with the validation wizard, the
report is saved in C:\Windows\Cluster\Reports on all nodes. To close the
wizard, click Finish.
If the wizard successfully creates the cluster, it will be automatically
connected afterward.
HOW TO CONNECT TO AN EXISTING CLUSTER
If you’ve already got a cluster and just need to connect Failover Cluster
Manager to it, that’s a simple process. Find the Connect to Cluster link on the
context menu for the root Failover Cluster Manager item in the left pane or the
link in the center pane. That will open the Select Cluster dialog:
You can use the Browse button to select from a list of known clusters. Click OK
to connect. The cluster will appear in the left pane under the Failover Cluster
Manager root node. Each time you open this applet with your user account on this
computer, it will automatically reconnect to this cluster. To remove it, use the
Close Connection context menu item.
HOW TO MANAGE THE HYPER-V CLUSTER
Now that you’ve successfully created and connected to your cluster, you can use
the tree objects in the left pane to navigate through the sections to view and
manipulate the cluster’s components. The next few articles will dive into these
sections in greater detail. Before jumping into that, there are a number of
operations that become available for the cluster itself. All of these appear on
the cluster’s context menu, and many appear in the center pane when the cluster
object is selected in the left pane.
The following items appear on the cluster’s context menu, and many appear in the
Configure section of the center pane.
* Configure Role opens the wizard with the same name. This is how you make an
existing virtual machine highly available. The process will be discussed in
the next chapter.
* Validate Cluster opens the cluster validation wizard for this node. Remember
to use this if you make changes to the cluster so that you always have an
up-to-date report.
* View Validation Report opens the last validation report in the default web
browser. This doesn’t work remotely.
* Add Node opens a wizard very similar to the cluster creation wizard that
allows you to add a node to the currently selected cluster. This wizard won’t
be shown here as it is not substantially different from the creation wizard.
* Close Connection permanently removes this cluster from the local Failover
Cluster Manager applet running under your account. You can use the Connect
option to reattach to it at any time.
* Reset Recent Events clears the notifications of recent cluster-related
events. These are viewable on the Cluster Events node which will be discussed
in a later chapter.
* More Actions opens a sub-menu that contains several additional wizards. Some
require a longer explanation and will be discussed individually below. The
items are:
* Configure Cluster Quorum Settings, which guides you through setting up how
the cluster determines the minimum number of nodes required to operate.
Find our detailed explanation and walkthrough at this link:
https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/quorum-microsoft-failover-clusters/
* Copy Cluster Roles opens the cluster migration wizard that allows you to
migrate roles from another cluster to the current cluster. Unfortunately,
resources were not available to demonstrate this process for this write-up.
* Shut Down Cluster performs the designated cluster-controlled offline action
on each role and then stops the cluster service on each node.
* Destroy Cluster removes all nodes from the cluster and disables the cluster
computer object in Active Directory. All configuration information is lost.
* Move Cluster Core Resources relocates the quorum disk and the cluster name
object to another node. You can allow Failover Clustering to select the
node or you can select it yourself.
* Cluster-Aware Updating opens the Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) interface.
This tool allows you to set up an automation routine to orderly patch all
the nodes in your cluster without imposing downtime upon the guests. This
is a large, complicated topic. Read more at our article series on the
subject starting at:
https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/cluster-aware-updating-hyper-v-basics/
* View brings you to a dialog where you can customize which columns are
displayed in the center pane.
* Refresh retrieves updated information from the cluster and displays it in the
center pane.
* Properties opens the cluster’s properties dialog with basic configuration
options.
* Help initiates the MMC help viewer with basic information about connecting
and troubleshooting Failover Cluster Manager.
SHUT DOWN CLUSTER
This option on the cluster’s More Actions menu is used to completely stop the
cluster. The interface itself is simple; you’re simply given a Yes/No dialog:
If you answer Yes, all of the cluster’s protected roles are subjected to the
Cluster-Controlled Offline Action configured for them (details in the next
chapter) and then the cluster service is stopped on all nodes. Once this
happens, the context menu and center pane for the cluster changes:
All of the management nodes for the cluster are removed with the exception of
Cluster Events and several of the context menu items are gone as well. Two new
items are added for this state.
* Start Cluster attempts an orderly startup of the cluster.
* Force Cluster Start force-starts the cluster service on as many nodes as
possible, even if they are insufficient to maintain quorum.
Because the cluster is down, you are not able to view any of the roles. If you
open Hyper-V Manager or use PowerShell, there are two things to expect. First,
all highly available virtual machines have completely disappeared. This is
because Failover Clustering unregistered them from the hosts they were assigned
to and did not register them anywhere else. In the event that the cluster
service cannot be restarted, you can use Hyper-V Manager’s or PowerShell’s
virtual machine import process to register them without any data or
configuration loss. The second thing to notice is that any virtual machine that
was not made highly available is still in the same state it was when the cluster
was shut down.
USING FAILOVER CLUSTER MANAGER TO REVIVE A DOWN CLUSTER
In the event that a cluster is shut down, your first attempt to bring it back
online should always begin with the Start Cluster option. After selecting this
option, you will need to wait a few moments. The interface should refresh
automatically once it detects that the nodes are online. If it doesn’t, you can
use the Refresh option. All roles will automatically be taken through the
designated virtual machine Automatic Start Action.
Force Cluster Start is a tool of last resort. All responding nodes will be
forced online and quorum will be ignored. Roles will be positioned the best
ability of the cluster and those that can be started, will, in accordance with
their priority. Once quorum is re-established, the cluster will automatically
return to normal operations.
DESTROY CLUSTER
This option, also found on the cluster’s More Actions menu, is a final operation
that completely removes the cluster object from Active Directory and deletes the
cluster’s configuration from the nodes. Before you can take this option, you
must remove all roles (details in the next chapter). As with the Shut Down
Cluster command, there is only a single, simple dialog:
Upon responding Yes, a progress bar is displayed, after which the cluster is
destroyed and all remnants are removed from the interface.
CLUSTER PROPERTIES
The cluster’s Properties dialog can be reached through its context menu item. It
contains three tabs.
CLUSTER PROPERTIES – GENERAL
This is a very simple page with only two controls.
The stand-out item here is a check box that contains the name of the cluster
name object (CNO). This change can be quite disruptive, as indicated by the
confirmation dialog:
The other item on the dialog page is Manage Core Cluster Resource Group. This
group includes the CNO, its IP address, and the Quorum witness. Clicking the
link opens the following dialog:
While it is possible to use this dialog to rename the core cluster resource
group, it’s not recommended. The group might be identified in third party tools
by name. In the center of the dialog, you can check one or more nodes to
indicate that you prefer the cluster move the resources to those nodes when it
is automatically adjusting resources. The lower section of the dialog shows
which node currently owns these resources and what their status is.
The Failover tab of this dialog shows a dialog that is common to all
cluster-protected resources. It contains a number of settings that guide how the
cluster will treat a resource if a node it is on suffers a failure:
In the Failover box, you set limits to prevent a resource from flapping. This
occurs when a resource’s host fails and it tries to locate another but is
continuously unsuccessful and therefore is taken through repetitive failover
attempts. Use the first textbox to indicate how many times in a defined period
that you want the resource to attempt to fail over and use the second textbox to
define the length of that period.
In the Fallback section, you notify the cluster how to handle a case in which a
failover has occurred and the original owning node comes back online. The
default Prevent failback leaves the resource in its new location. Allow failback
opens up options to control how the resource will fail back to its source
location. The first option, Immediately, sends the resource back as soon as the
source becomes available. The second option allows you to establish a failback
window. The hours fields here set the beginning and ending of that window. 0
represents midnight and 23 represents 11 PM. So, if you want to allow the core
resource to fail back between 6 PM and 7 AM, set the top textbox to 18 and the
bottom textbox to 7.
CLUSTER PROPERTIES – RESOURCE TYPES
The primary purpose of the Resource Types is to establish health check intervals
for clustered resources. The dialog lists all the potential role types for your
cluster.
The item of primary interest is Virtual Machine. Highlight that role and click
the Properties button. Doing so will open the following dialog:
The purpose of this dialog is to establish the interval between health checks.
The controls are the same for all cluster resource types. In most cases, the
defaults should be adequate. You can reduce the interval if you want failures to
be detected more rapidly. If you have high latency inter-node communications or
known intermittent issues with your cluster, you can raise these thresholds to
reduce failover instances. You may also need to duplicate these settings for the
Virtual Machine Configuration resource as well.
CLUSTER PROPERTIES – CLUSTER PERMISSIONS
It is usually unnecessary make changes to the cluster permissions. For
administrative privileges, it’s better to use the local Administrators group on
the nodes to control access. If you choose to use this dialog, it is the
standard permissions dialog used by Windows. The only permissions available are
Read and Full Control.
CONTINUING INTO ADVANCED CLUSTER CONFIGURATION
This chapter has worked through all the basics of using Failover Cluster Manager
to set up, connect to, and configure your cluster. The following articles will
guide you through the additional cluster management components of this graphical
tool.
* Working with Failover Cluster Nodes and Storage
* Working with Roles in Failover Cluster Manager
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