Hardware - Multiple Instances of SQL in a cluster

Can anyone advise as to the best practices for installing mulitple instances
of SQL into a cluster? Specifically as to the harddrive quantity and
configuration.
I already have 1 instance in a cluster and need to add more to it. So, my
cluster already has a drive for OS (Mirrored), a drive for MSDTC (Mirrored),
a drive for the quorum (Mirrored) and a drive for the database and
transaction logs (Raid5) (these are not high usage, so 1 drive for db and
logs should be more than sufficient).
I obviously need to add more hard drives to the cluster, but how many per
instance? I assume that I don't need more drives for MSDTC? Howabout the
quorum - is that one per instance? or is it just the databses ?
Thanks
Setesh
You should think of each virtual server as a separate real server. Decide
the disk layout as you would any stand-alone server. It takes at least one
physical disk to 'anchor' the virtual server.
You only need one Quorum disk and one MSDTC instance per cluster.
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
"Setesh" <setesh@.nospam.NO> wrote in message
news:e177C7fZFHA.2076@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Can anyone advise as to the best practices for installing mulitple
> instances of SQL into a cluster? Specifically as to the harddrive
> quantity and configuration.
> I already have 1 instance in a cluster and need to add more to it. So, my
> cluster already has a drive for OS (Mirrored), a drive for MSDTC
> (Mirrored), a drive for the quorum (Mirrored) and a drive for the database
> and transaction logs (Raid5) (these are not high usage, so 1 drive for db
> and logs should be more than sufficient).
> I obviously need to add more hard drives to the cluster, but how many per
> instance? I assume that I don't need more drives for MSDTC? Howabout the
> quorum - is that one per instance? or is it just the databses ?
> Thanks
> Setesh
>
|||Setesh
Here is some good information on SQL Clustering and Instances. In short you
will need additional disks only for SQL. The cluster quorum is a single
resource that is created when you install the cluster. You also have to plan
for each node to be able to scale to acceptable performance if a node has to
run more than one instance if their is a failure.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ar_cs_9i5u.asp
Also if your installing a Named instance of SQL 2000 on a Windows 2003
cluster you will need to follow this article, setup will fail everytime until
you do. I had to learn this the hard way , my loss is your gain...good
luck!
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=815431
Regards
CT
"Setesh" wrote:

> Can anyone advise as to the best practices for installing mulitple instances
> of SQL into a cluster? Specifically as to the harddrive quantity and
> configuration.
> I already have 1 instance in a cluster and need to add more to it. So, my
> cluster already has a drive for OS (Mirrored), a drive for MSDTC (Mirrored),
> a drive for the quorum (Mirrored) and a drive for the database and
> transaction logs (Raid5) (these are not high usage, so 1 drive for db and
> logs should be more than sufficient).
> I obviously need to add more hard drives to the cluster, but how many per
> instance? I assume that I don't need more drives for MSDTC? Howabout the
> quorum - is that one per instance? or is it just the databses ?
> Thanks
> Setesh
>
>
|||Thanks for the info guys, especially the info on installing a named instance
on a 2003 cluster - thats probably saved me hours of work
Cheers
S.
"Charles Tolento" <CharlesTolento@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:F696B9E9-FCB9-481A-8541-5CD4FFE666B7@.microsoft.com...[vbcol=seagreen]
> Setesh
> Here is some good information on SQL Clustering and Instances. In short
> you
> will need additional disks only for SQL. The cluster quorum is a single
> resource that is created when you install the cluster. You also have to
> plan
> for each node to be able to scale to acceptable performance if a node has
> to
> run more than one instance if their is a failure.
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ar_cs_9i5u.asp
> Also if your installing a Named instance of SQL 2000 on a Windows 2003
> cluster you will need to follow this article, setup will fail everytime
> until
> you do. I had to learn this the hard way , my loss is your gain...good
> luck!
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=815431
> Regards
> CT
> "Setesh" wrote: