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Configuring the Cluster Software 3-3
H
igh-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.