Overview Windows Server Failover Clustering has always monitored the running state of virtual machines and the health state of clustered network and clustered storage. We are furthering the failure detection to include monitoring of the virtual machine...

This blog will discuss the proper process for shutting down an individual node in a Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Cluster or the entire cluster with all the nodes. Note: While the steps outlined will be specific to Windows Server 2012 R2, the process...

Overview Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) has many new features in Windows Server 2012 that will deliver the most resilient and highest performance storage infrastructure for your private cloud. One of those new features is the CSV Cache. CSV Cache...

If you were not able to make it to TechEd 2013 this year, you can still watch the sessions and learn about the new enhancements coming. Here’s links to the recorded cluster sessions at TechEd 2013: Continuous Availability: Deploying and Managing...

I have seen questions from customers who get a warning in the results of their failover cluster validation that indicates the storage doesn’t support persistent reservations for Storage Spaces. They want to know why they got the warning, what it...

Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) is a clustered file system available in Windows Server 2012 where all nodes in a Windows Server Failover Cluster can simultaneously access a common shared NTFS volume. CSV has a distributed backup infrastructure which enables...

After using the Get-ClusterLog cmdlet to generate the Cluster.log, you may notice the following errors in the cluster log: ERR [RHS] s_RhsRpcCreateResType: ERROR_NOT_READY(21)' because of 'Startup routine for ResType MSMQ returned 21.' WARN [RCM] Failed...

Introducing some concepts: Windows Server 2012 introduced the ability to drain a node, which is sometimes also referred to as Node Maintenance Mode. When you drain a node, the Windows Server Failover Cluster will Pause the node to prevent any new VMs...

In this blog I will discuss how Failover Clustering communicates with cluster resources, along with how clustering detects and recovers when something goes wrong. For the sake of simplicity I will use a Virtual Machine as an example throughout this blog...

In Windows Server 2012, a Failover Cluster can be created in an environment that has access only to a Read Only Domain Controller (RODC) but not a Read Write Domain Controller (RWDC). This deployment model can be useful in a branch office with unreliable...

Windows Server Failover Clustering is a high availability platform that is constantly monitoring the network connections and health of the nodes in a cluster. If a node is not reachable over the network, then recovery action is taken to recover and bring...

BUILD 2012 wrapped up last week. In case you were not able to make it, the sessions are now posted that you can watch. Here is a link to the cluster session. Session: 3-051 Title: Designing applications for highly-availability with Windows Server...

In a previous blog post I explained how VM Monitoring can be configured in Window Server 2012. In this blog I will answer the three most frequently asked questions related to the VM Monitoring feature. 1) Why can I no longer make my Print Server role...

Windows Server 2012 introduces the ability to encrypt Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) using BitLocker®. You can learn more about BitLocker in Windows Server 2012 here . Data on a lost or stolen storage is vulnerable to unauthorized access, either...

The Windows Server 2012 Cluster Migration Wizard is a powerful and time-saving tool that copies cluster roles from a source cluster to a target cluster. Although the Cluster Migration Wizard can move almost any clustered workload to Windows Server 2012...

There were several exciting sessions at the sold-out TechEd Orlando from June 10-14 th on Failover Clustering! If you didn’t get a chance to attend the conference in-person, the sessions are now posted online so you can watch on-demand! Here are...

This blog outlines the sequence of steps to configure a Clustered Storage Space in Windows Server 2012 using the Failover Cluster Manager or Windows PowerShell®. You can learn more about Storage Spaces here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012...

Many customers use the Windows Task Scheduler to perform regularly scheduled maintenance tasks on their servers, to run audit checks, generate reports, and even updating application data caches. A task in the Windows Task Scheduler performs an action...

In this blog, I will outline the steps to troubleshoot “Create Cluster” failures. Steps when Troubleshooting “Create Cluster” Failures Step 1: Run the Cluster Validation Tool The cluster validation tool runs a suite of...

Creating a cluster on Windows Server 2012 is easy experience! After installing the Failover Clustering feature, and validating a configuration, the next step is to create a new cluster. There are some minor changes in the create cluster experience...

Storage migration is a new feature in Windows 8 Server that allows moving the files for a virtual machine (VM) to a new location while the VM is running. For example, suppose your VM’s files are currently on a SAN volume, but the SAN storage...

Overview Do you have a large number of virtualized workloads in your cluster? Have you been looking for a solution that allows you to detect if any of the virtualized workloads in your cluster are behaving abnormally? Would you like the cluster service...

The Microsoft Virtual Academy, our public online training portal, has just released several new courses on SQL HA: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Security enhancements Microsoft SQL Server 2012 High Availability and Disaster Recovery Design Patterns...

Starting with Windows Server 2008, SMB file shares on a Failover Cluster are scoped so that they are only accessible by valid UNC paths associated with the network name they are bound to. See this blog for more information: http://blogs.technet.com/b...

The installation procedure for Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 is very similar to that found in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In this blog we will discuss the changes in Windows Server 2012 as well as the different options...