SQL second node cluster instance install Part 3

Part 3 – Add a SQL node to the Clustered instance and test failover

So we are at the final part of this article focusing on installing a failover clustered SQL instance hence a SQL second node. In case you have missed the first two articles these can found here:

Part 1 – Create a Windows Cluster

Part 2 – Install the first SQL node of the clustered SQL instance

Part 3 – Add a node to the SQL clustered instance and test failover

Adding a SQL node to the existing cluster is a very easy operation. Before proceeding, it would be nice to check:

• Naming resolution Forward/ Reverse is working as expected for the VIP cluster names and SQL Servers
• All the required iSCSI drives are mounted and “Online” on the server we’re adding

So we run the setup again, and we choose the Add node to a SQL Server failover cluster option.

The installation steps are pretty much straightforward and is just the case of reviewing the actual options and add a few details. So off we go.

Let’s run the main SQL setup binary and let’s choose the option to add a SQL node.

Let’s enter the Product key and continue.

We need to accept the License Terms and continue.

At his point the wizard is detecting the actual configuration and will propose the pertinent options to configure. As per previous article in this case we can ignore clustering the MSDTC service as not strictly required.

We need to select the name of the SQL Cluster instance. As per previous article is “SharePoint” in this case.

The install wizard will automatically detect settings and propose them in the GUI for further changes if required to adapt the SQL node. This shouldn’t be the case but let’s review them just in case.

Of course we need to specify the account(s) to use with different services along with passwords.

The setup wizard has now all the information to add a SQL node to the Cluster. Once ready we can click on “Install”.

The install now progresses as per screenshot below.

And a final screen that shows the successful status of the installation.

This pretty much concludes the installation of the SQL node to the cluster.

But what if we want to test a failover?

It couldn’t get any easier! From the cluster manager it is sufficient to select the clustered Role of SQL Server (SharePoint) in my case right click and choose the “move” option. Then select the node name to failover to. And in matter of seconds the SQL node will become the owner of the clustered role as per screenshots below.

Should this not work let’s make sure the intended nodes are selected as the owners from the SQL Role properties. From this screen we can now choose the SQL node to run the SQL role:

SQL node now owns the Clustered Role along with all associated resources.

This concludes the article about installing a clustered SQL instance which offers redundancy of the SQL Server application. Next step will be to install Databases (SharePoint in my case) and create Availability Groups with Always-On which would be part of my next articles.