High-Level Software Configuration

High-Level Software

Configuration

When the SCSI drives and RAID levels have been set up, Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition can be installed and configured. A number of operating system configura- tions must be set during the installation to enable clustering. These configuration requirements are described in the Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition Administrator’s Guide and Release Notes . The following subsections briefly discuss these configurations.

Installing Intel LANDesk®Server

Manager

After installing the Windows NT Enterprise Edition oper- ating system, install LANDesk prior to applying the Service Pack to your system. Refer to the LANDesk Server Manager Setup Guide for installation instructions.

Choosing a Domain Model

Cluster nodes can be set up in three possible configura- tions: as two stand-alone member servers, as two backup domain controllers (BDC), or as a primary domain con- troller (PDC) and a BDC. The first two configurations require an existing domain for the servers to join. The PDC/BDC configuration establishes a new domain of which the one server is the primary domain controller and the other server is the backup domain controller. Any of the three configurations can be chosen for clustering, but the recommended default is having each cluster server as a member server in an existing domain. This relieves the cluster nodes from the processing overhead involved in authenticating the user logon.

Static IP Addresses

The Microsoft Cluster Server software requires one static Internet Protocol (IP) address for the cluster and one static IP address for each disk resource group. A static IP address is an Internet address that a network administra- tor assigns exclusively to a system or a resource. The address assignment remains in effect until the network administrator changes it.

IPs and Subnet Masks

For the node-to-node network interface controller (NIC) connection on the PowerEdge Cluster, the default IP address 10.0.0.1 is assigned to the first node and the sec- ond node is assigned the default address 10.0.0.2. The default subnet mask is 255.0.0.0.

Configuring Separate Networks on a Cluster

Two network interconnects are strongly recommended for a cluster configuration to eliminate any single point of failure that could disrupt intracluster communication.

Separate networks can be configured on a cluster by redefining the network segment of the IP address assigned to the NICs residing in the cluster nodes.

For example, two NICs reside in two cluster nodes. The NICs in the first node have the following IP addresses and configuration:

NIC1:
IP address:	143.166.110.2
Default gateway:	143.166.111.3
NIC2
IP address:	143.166.111.3
Default gateway:	143.166.110.2

The NICs in the second node have the following IP addresses and configuration:

NIC1:
IP address:	143.166.110.4
Default gateway:	143.166.111.5
NIC2
IP address:	143.166.111.5
Default gateway:	143.166.110.4

IP routing is enabled and the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 on all NICs.

The NIC1s of two machines establish one network seg- ment, and the NIC2s create another. In each system, one NIC is defined to be the default gateway for the other NIC.

Configuring the Cluster Software

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