Overview
Sometimes we need to load balance Windows Servers and don’t have access to an enterprise grade load balancer, or just don’t need all the bells and whistles (and expense) that comes along with it. For this post, we are going to install and configure the Windows Server Failover Clustering feature.
Install the Feature
Install the feature on all the servers that need to be load balanced. Keep in mind that while Microsoft supports up to 64 nodes in a cluster, VMware only supports five with shared VMDK. (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/79616)
Create a Failover Cluster
Open the Failover Cluster Manager.
Select Create Cluster from the Actions menu.
Click Browse… and type the beginning of the servers to add to the cluster. For this post, I am going to cluster SQL Servers, so I using sql-.
Click Check Names to get a list of servers from Active Directory. Choose the servers to add to the cluster.
We are returned to the Select Computers window and we can verify the servers we want to add to the cluster are selected. Click OK to continue.
We are returned to the Create Cluster Wizard. Click Next to continue.
Choose the Yes option to run validation tests.
Click Next to continue.
Click Next to continue. Choose the Run all tests (recommended) option.
The validation window opens and shows what is going to be validated. Click Next to start the validation.
After a few moments, the Summary of the validation opens. Be sure to review the report for any warnings or failures. Click Finish to continue.
The next part of the wizard will ask for a Cluster Name. This will require an available IP address in the same subnet as all the nodes being added to the cluster. The name that is chosen will also create a computer object in Active Directory and also register the name in DNS. Be mindful of the name; make sure the name is under 15 characters.
The Confirmation window displays prior to actually building the cluster. Click Next to start creating the cluster.
After a few moments, the Summary of the cluster configuration will display.
At this point, the cluster name (NY-SQL-CLUSTER) and IPv4 address (192.168.92.16), in my case, should be able to be tested with ICMP.
