SUMMARY
The administration of failover clusters has been improved
so that a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 failover cluster is easy to install,
configure, and maintain. The improvements in setup, maintenance, and disaster
recoverability are substantial.
For additional information about SQL Server
2000 installations, click the article number below to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
243218 INF: Installation Order for SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition on Microsoft Cluster Server
With SQL Server 2000 clustering, there are
tremendous gains in recoverability. Through the SQL Server 2000 setup, you are
given the ability to add or remove a node as a virtual SQL Server owner, and
the ability to reinstall or rebuild a clustered instance on any node in the
cluster without affecting the other clustered SQL Server instances.
Similarly, the SQL Server 2000 utilities and administration tools have been
enhanced to work with failover clusters. The administration tools include:
- Full-Text Search/Queries
- SQL Server Enterprise Manager
- SQL Server Service Control Manager
- SQL Server Profiler
- SQL Server Query Analyzer
For more information about the functionality of these tools,
refer to the following topics in SQL Server 2000 Books Online:
- "Failover Clustering Support"
- "Using SQL Server Tools with Failover Clustering"
Due to the improved functionality and recoverability with SQL
Server 2000 cluster implementations, Microsoft recommends that companies
upgrade all currently clustered SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 7.0 clustered
servers to SQL Server 2000 as soon as possible. A SQL Server cluster upgrade
may not be possible on computers that have legacy applications running as a
production environment with the SQL Server cluster. If that is the case, please
contact your application vendor for assistance or requirements to upgrade.