Dell 4200 manual Upgrading to a Cluster Configuration, Checking Your Existing Hardware

Appendix A

Upgrading to a Cluster Configuration

This appendix provides instructions for upgrading your noncluster system to a PowerEdge Cluster if components of the cluster hardware are already present. To properly upgrade your system to a PowerEdge Cluster, you must ensure that your existing hardware components meet the minimum configuration required for clustering and acquire the additional hardware and software clustering components as needed.

NOTES: Dell certifies only PowerEdge Cluster systems that are configured with the Dell products described in this Installation and Troubleshooting Guide (see Chapter 1 for a description of the PowerEdge Cluster components).

Dell also supports only the certification of Dell Power- Edge Cluster systems that are configured according to the instructions provided in this guide. Configurations using non-Dell products, such as server systems, rack cabinets, and storage systems, have not been approved by any safety agencies. It is the responsibility of the cus- tomer to have such systems evaluated for suitability by a certified safety agency.

After installing the necessary upgrade hardware, such as redundant array of inexpensive disk (RAID) controllers and network interface controllers (NICs), you can begin to set up and cable the system hardware. When the cluster hardware has been set up, firmware for the Dell Power- Edge 4200 systems and the PowerEdge Scalable Disk System 100 (SDS 100) storage system(s) must be updated for clustering functionality. The final phase of a PowerEdge Cluster upgrade is the installation and con- figuration of the Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition operating system and Cluster Server software.

Checking Your Existing

Hardware

Before you can upgrade your system, you must ensure that your existing hardware meets the minimum configu- ration requirements for the Dell PowerEdge Cluster. See Chapter 1, “Getting Started,” for a list of the components and minimum system configuration required for the PowerEdge Cluster. Contact Dell for information on acquiring the related hardware components and customer kits that you need for the upgrade.

Chapter 1 also provides an overview of the cluster instal- lation procedure. Refer to this chapter for the proper order of installation steps.

Adding Expansion Cards for a Cluster Upgrade

The cluster-enabled PowerEdge Expandable RAID Con- troller for the shared storage subsystem must be placed in Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slot 7 of your PowerEdge server. If you have a second shared storage subsystem and plan to use a second cluster-enabled PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller, install that RAID controller in PCI slot 5. Thus, two cluster-enabled RAID controllers in a cluster node occupy PCI slot 7 for the first cluster-enabled RAID controller and slot 5 for the second cluster-enabled RAID controller.

After the cluster-enabled RAID controller(s) are installed, you must disable the basic input/output system (BIOS) for these controllers. See the “Disabling a RAID Controller BIOS” in Chapter 3 for instructions.

Upgrading to a Cluster Configuration A-1