I added the Failover feature to each node of the cluster. I started by creating a new cluster using just a single node. And then when I tried to add the 2nd node, the cluster validation wizard was showing failed checks related to the shared storage.
I should have taken a screen shot of the exact text. But the point is, while searching for what might be the cause of the problem, where should I find the answer? Why Greg Shields of course. The cause of the problem is that Windows Server clustering requires support of persistent reservations. How expensive is your downtime for an outage? If the cost of an outage justifies the cost of a decent SAN, buy it and don't penny pinch.
Otherwise, consider other failover models. If your downtime is not so valuable, you can probably tolerate a hot standby model where the database is replicated to another server with local disk. This takes longer to recover but does not need shared disk storage. If this works for you then you don't need a SAN and the local disk on the servers will probably be much cheaper. Another option would be the secondhand market.
You can get a re-certified second hand Clariion CX or CX which would probably do what you're after for just a few thousand dollars. Re-certified hardware qualifies for vendor support and can be purchased through various outfits such as www. Berkcom was recommended to me when I needed something that BLT didn't have.
It might not be the ideal high availability solution, but many people coming to this tread want to know about the solutions for running a Windows Server cluster with limited funds.
Low cost software solutions that will not work at the present time, but might soon. Most low cost hardware solutions such as Thecus, Qnap, NetGear etc. I can say only one thing: Starwind. Their free version offers all you need, limiting only in storage size - 2Tb. I like testing of my virtual machines so much, that our company bought it for implementing shared storage.
I used to work with Datacore and openfiler, but they are to complicated and bugful respectively. Don't let the off-brand name fool you, we've been using a variant in eSATA form for over 2 years with no failures, no hiccups, and no downtime that wasn't planned. The LIO-Target v3. They might be quick enough for you but I will say that they only have a single power-supply so that might count against it's 'production quality'. By the way, the MSAi is a pretty good unit for the case.
If your looking for something "non-production" ie. You set aside some hdd space, allocate it to the iscsi daemon, and configure and start up the daemon. Quick and easy, though I wouldn't do it for a production environment, too slow and too quirky. If you are going to the bother of making your servers redundant, shouldn't you consider making your storage redundant? Don't skimp on the storage. For Windows Server , you may want to consider using local attached disks and a host based replication solution that integrates with failover clustering such as SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition.
Database Mirroring that comes with SQL is also an option that works well with a limited number of databases. Clustering all works a treat. Its a 4 disk rack mount device. You can try to bring the resource online but it will fail anyway. This is because the iscsi disks does not provide persistent reservation. As you can see, OpenFiler or Freenas cannot be used as iscsi target for Windows Clusters because they do not provide persistent reservation. This feature might be available in the next release as more people will encounter the problem.
Starwind seems to be the only working solution so far. Another option might exists but will not be applicable for all users.
NetApp offer a simulator to their customers. This simulator can only be used in test environments. Netapp also support iscsi technology. If somebody has made the test with NetApp, let us know….
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