Planning for High Availability

1. Planning for High Availability Lesson 7

2. Skills Matrix

3. Configuring Shadow Copies • Click Start, and then click All Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer. • In the Folders list, expand the Computer container. • Right-click a volume and, from the context menu, select Configure Shadow Copies. Lesson 7

4. Configuring Shadow Copies (cont.) • In the Select a volume box, choose the volume for which you want to enable Shadow Copies. • To modify the default parameters, click Settings. Lesson 7

5. Configuring Shadow Copies (cont.) • In the Storage area box, specify the volume where you want to store the shadow copies. • Specify the Maximum Size for the storage area, or choose the No Limit option. Lesson 7

6. Configuring Shadow Copies (cont.) • Click Schedule. • Click OK twice to close the Schedule and Settings dialog boxes. • Click Enable. Lesson 7

7. Validating a Failover Cluster Configuration • Click Start, and then click Administrative Tools > Failover Cluster Management. • In the detail (middle) pane in the Management box, click Validate a Configuration. • Click Next to bypass the Before You Begin page. Lesson 7

8. Validating a Failover Cluster Configuration (cont.) • Key or browse to the name of the first server you want to add to the cluster, and click Add. • Repeat the process to add the rest of the cluster servers to the Selected servers list. • Click Next. • Leave the Run all tests option selected, and click Next. Lesson 7

9. Validating a Failover Cluster Configuration (cont.) • Click Next. • Click View Report. • Click Finish. Lesson 7

10. Creating a Failover Cluster • Click Start, and then click Administrative Tools > Failover Cluster Management. • In the detail (middle) pane in the Management box, click Create a Cluster. • Click Next to bypass the Before You Begin page. Lesson 7

11. Creating a Failover Cluster (cont.) • Key or browse to the name of the first server you want to add to the cluster, and click Add. • Repeat the process to add the rest of the cluster servers to the Selected servers list. • Click Next. • In the Cluster Name text box, key a name for the cluster, and click Next. Lesson 7

12. Creating a Failover Cluster (cont.) • Click Next. • When the cluster creation process is completed, the Summary page appears. • Click Finish. Lesson 7

13. Creating an NLB Cluster • Click Start, and then click Administrative Tools > Network Load Balancing Manager. • In the scope (left) pane, right-click Network Load Balancing Clusters and, from the context menu, select New Cluster. • In the Host text box, key the name of the first server you want to add to the cluster, and click Connect. Lesson 7

14. Creating an NLB Cluster (cont.) • Select the interface over which the server will receive traffic destined for the clustered application, and click Next. • Configure the listed parameters. • Click Next. • Click Add. Lesson 7

15. Creating an NLB Cluster (cont.) • In the IPv4 address and Subnet Mask text boxes, specify the IP address you want to use for the NLB cluster and its subnet mask value. • This address must be different from the server’s own host address and unique on the network. • Click OK. • Click Next. Lesson 7

16. Creating an NLB Cluster (cont.) • In the Full Internet name text box, key the name you want to assign to the cluster, such as cluster.contoso.com. • In the Cluster operation mode box, specify whether you want the cluster’s network address to be a unicast or multicast address. • Click Next. Lesson 7

17. Creating an NLB Cluster (cont.) • Click Add. • Configure the listed parameters. • Click OK. • Click Finish. Lesson 7

18. Creating a Terminal Server Farm • Click Start, and then click Administrative Tools > Terminal Services > Terminal Services Configuration. • In the detail (middle) pane under TS Session Broker, double-click Member of farm in TS Session Broker. • Select the Join a farm in TS Session Broker checkbox. Lesson 7

19. Creating a Terminal Server Farm (cont.) • In the TS Session Broker server name or IP address text box, specify the name or address of the computer on which you installed the TS Session Broker role service. • In the Farm name in TS Session Broker text box, key the name of the server farm you want to use. Lesson 7

20. Creating a Terminal Server Farm (cont.) • Select the Participate in Session Broker Load-Balancing checkbox. • In the Relative weight of the server in the farm spin box, specify the priority of this terminal server in relation to the others in the farm. • If you use DNS Round Robin or Network Load Balancing redirection, leave the default Use IP address redirection checkbox selected. Lesson 7

21. Creating a Terminal Server Farm (cont.) • If the terminal server is connected to more than one network, select the checkbox for the IP address you want TS Session Broker to use when redirecting sessions to the server. • When the configuration is complete, click OK. Lesson 7

22. Configuring DNS Round Robin • Click Start, and then click Administrative Tools > DNS. • Expand the server node and the Forward Lookup Zones folder. • Right-click the zone in which you want to create the resource records and, from the context menu, select New Host (A or AAAA). Lesson 7

23. Configuring DNS Round Robin (cont.) • In the Name text box, key the name you want your clients to use when connecting to the server cluster. • In the IP address text box, key the address of the first server in the cluster, and then click Add Host. • Repeat the previous steps to create additional resource records, each using the same Name value and a different IP Address value. Lesson 7

24. Configuring DNS Round Robin (cont.) • Click Done. • Right-click the server node and, from the content menu, select Properties. • The server’s Properties sheet appears. Lesson 7

25. Configuring DNS Round Robin (cont.) • Click the Advanced tab. • To control the DNS Round Robin functionality of the server, select or clear the listed checkboxes. • Click OK. Lesson 7

26. You Learned • In computer networking, high availability refers to technologies that enable users to continue accessing a resource despite the occurrence of a disastrous hardware or software failure. • Shadow Copies is a mechanism that automatically retains copies of files on a server volume in multiple versions from specific points in time. When users accidentally overwrite or delete files, they can access the shadow copies to restore earlier versions. Lesson 7

27. You Learned (cont.) • Offline Files works by copying server-based folders that users select for offline use to a workstation’s local drive. The users then work with the copies, which remain accessible whether the workstation can access the server or not. Lesson 7

28. You Learned (cont.) • When you plan for high availability, you must balance three factors: fault tolerance, performance, and expense. The more fault tolerance you require for your data, the more you must spend to achieve it, and the more likely you are to suffer degraded performance as a result of it. Lesson 7

29. You Learned (cont.) • Disk mirroring is the simplest form of disk redundancy and typically does not have a negative effect on performance as long as you use a disk technology, such as SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) or serial ATA (SATA), that enables the computer to write to both disks at the same time. Lesson 7

30. You Learned (cont.) • Parity-based RAID is the most commonly used high-availability solution for data storage, primarily because it is far more scalable than disk mirroring and enables you to realize more storage space from your hard disks. • One way of protecting workstation applications and ensuring their continued availability is to run them using Terminal Services. Lesson 7

31. You Learned (cont.) • Windows Installer 4.0 is the component in Windows Server 2008 that enables the system to install software packaged as files with a .msi extension. One of the advantages of deploying software in this manner is the built-in resiliency that Windows Installer provides to the applications. Lesson 7

32. You Learned (cont.) • A failover cluster is a collection of two or more servers that perform the same role or run the same application and appear on the network as a single entity. Lesson 7

33. You Learned (cont.) • The NLB cluster itself, like a failover cluster, is a logical entity with its own name and IP address. Clients connect to the cluster rather than to the individual computers, and the cluster distributes the incoming requests evenly among its component servers. Lesson 7

34. You Learned (cont.) • The Terminal Services role includes the TS Session Broker role service, which maintains a database of client sessions and enables a disconnected client to reconnect to the same terminal server. Lesson 7

35. You Learned (cont.) • In the DNS Round Robin technique, you create multiple resource records using the same name, with a different server IP address in each record. When clients attempt to resolve the name, the DNS server supplies them with each of the IP addresses in turn. As a result, the clients are evenly distributed among the servers. Lesson 7