This document summarizes new features in Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering. Key points include: increased scalability up to 4,000 Hyper-V VMs per cluster; easier cluster management through Server Manager; automated cluster-aware updating to reduce downtime during updates; and more flexible quorum management and task scheduling. The majority of changes improve flexibility and management of large Hyper-V virtual environments.

1. Windows Server 2012
Failover Clustering
New Features
Joe D’Antoni
Philadelphia SQL Server Users Group
13 February 2013

2. @jdanton
Joedantoni.wordpress.com
About Me jdanton1@yahoo.com

3. Easier Management
Overview of
Changes
Increase Scailability—Hyper V
Greater Flexibility

4. Windows
Server 2012

5. Cluster Virtual NameInstanceName
Failover SQL
Instance
Cluster
Instances Node A Node B
Windows Failover Cluster

6. Scalability
Limits
16 Nodes 64 Nodes
Windows Server 2008R2
Windows Server 2012

7.  Search, filtering, and custom views. Administrators can manage
and navigate large numbers of clustered virtual machines or other
clustered roles.
 Multiselect. Administrators can select a specific collection of
virtual machines and then perform any needed operation (such as
Failover live migration, save, shutdown, or start).
Cluster
Management  Simplified live migration and quick migration of virtual
machines and virtual machine storage. Live migration and quick
(Hyper-V) migration are easier to perform.

Support for Hyper-V Replica. Hyper-V Replica provides point-in-
time replication of virtual machines between storage
systems, clusters, and data centers for disaster recovery.

8.  4000 Hyper V VMs per cluster
Server
 Server Manager will show all nodes, including the name of the
Manager cluster and any VMs in the cluster

9.  All Nodes can be
seen from Server
Manager
 This can be done
Server either remotely or
Manager locally on the cluster

10.  When creating a new cluster, the cluster object will be
created in the Organizational Unit (OU) where the
node(s) resides
 This action will use the account of logged on user—not
a system account
New AD  If needed this can be specified at cluster creation
Integration
Features

11.  Automated repair of cluster virtual computer
objects (VCOs) if they are deleted accidentally
 Cluster access only to Read-only domain
controllers
AD New  Ability of the cluster to start with no AD DS
Features dependencies
 Failover clusters do not support group
Managed Service Accounts
 However services running on a cluster (e.g. SQL
Server) do

12. Quorum

13. Windows Cluster
Q
Node 1 Node 2
Quorum
Node Majority Mode
Node and Disk Majority
In Node/Disk Majority Mode
Cluster sustain node failure

14.  Dynamic quorum model is now the default when creating cluster
 Nodes and also be manually removed from voting (for example—a
SQL Availability Group node used exclusively for reporting)
Quorum
Management

15. Washington Philadelphia
Node1 Node2 Node3 Node4
Dynamic
Node 4 is now not a
Quorum voting member of
the cluster
Quorum File
Share

16.  Storage Tests will run significantly faster
 Tests are now integrated with WMI
Cluster  New Checks are Included for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) for
Validation Hyper-V and its VMs
 Tests check to see if networking is optimal so live migrations can
function as expected

17. Node A goes down while
being updated, service
move to Node B
Cluster Aware
Updating
Cluster Aware Node B then goes down
for update, and is
Updating Cluster Node A Cluster Node B restarted
Quorum Disk
Windows Cluster Node B doesn’t begin
its updates until Node
A has come back up

18.  Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) is an automated feature that allows
you to update clustered servers with little or no loss in availability
during the update process. During an Updating Run, CAU
transparently performs the following tasks:
 Puts each node of the cluster into node maintenance mode
Moves the clustered roles off the node
 Installs the updates and any dependent updates
Cluster Aware
 Performs a restart if necessary
Updating
 Brings the node out of maintenance mode
 Restores the clustered roles on the node
 Moves to update the next node

19.  For services like SQL Server—there is a minimal amount of
downtime
 With Hyper-V Virtuals Machines, no downtime is needed
 This can also be used to apply SQL Service Packs and Cumulative
Cluster Aware Updates
Updating  Different CAU run profiles can be applied to different sets of
Failover Clusters
 Can be run on Server Core
 Operated remotely

20.  By using the updated Migrate a Cluster Wizard in Windows Server
2012, administrators can migrate the configuration settings for
clustered roles (formerly called clustered services and
applications) from clusters that are running Windows Server
2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2008.
Migration enhancements in Windows Server 2012 include:
Cluster
Upgrade and  Export and reimport Hyper-V virtual machines.
Migration  Migrate to CSV disks.
 Map storage and virtual networks.
Reuse existing storage.

21.  The task scheduler in a cluster is now cluster aware
 Tasks can be run in three ways:
 Cluster-wide. The task is scheduled on all cluster nodes.
Task Scheduler
Integration  Any node. The task is scheduled on a single, random node.
 Resource specific. The task is scheduled only on a node that owns a
specified cluster resource.

22.  Cluster.exe commands are marked as deprecated—still in
PowerShell Windows, but will be going away
 All cluster functions can be managed through PowerShell cmdlets
Support

23.  Majority of changes are designed for increase flexibility for Hyper-
V virtual environments
 Cluster Aware Updating is the feature we will use most frequently
Summary
 Flexible quorum allows for easier cluster repair in an emergency

24. Questions