Microsoft's enterprise-class clustering solutions have evolved like a fine wine, getting better with age. Unfortunately, like such wine, the cost of implementing and testing Microsoft clustering solutions is out of reach for many. I've worked with several organizations that have Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server clusters in production but don't have the funds to maintain test server clusters in their labs.

To teach clustering in classrooms, I've had to purchase a dozen SCSI host bus adapters (HBAs), cables, and external SCSI drives. Even then, I was limited in what I could show the students because each practice cluster contained only one shared drive. In my travels, I've spoken with many people who wish that clustering were more portable. Administrators and systems engineers would like to be able to practice server cluster configurations outside of production. Microsoft partners and resellers would like to be able to demonstrate on their laptops a clustering solution for clients. I have the answer.

VMware—A Cluster Geek's Best Friend
I discovered VMware a couple of years ago, and I immediately liked the product. Within a month, I had Novell NetWare, Linux, and Microsoft virtual machines (VMs) running on a virtual network on my laptop, and my classroom demonstrations reached a new level. In addition to letting VMs share a network on the same system, VMware lets you configure shareable resources. (This article assumes that you have a fundamental understanding of VMware concepts. If you don't, you can find documentation at http://www.vmware.com/support/ws3/doc.)

The fact that VMware lets you share virtual hard disks between two virtual computers filled my imagination with countless virtual-clustering possibilities. I soon had a documented method to build virtual clusters on one laptop (or desktop) system. Here are the basic ingredients of my VMware clustering recipe:

  • one laptop or desktop PC with 512MB of RAM and 6GB of free disk space
  • one VMware Workstation 3.0 (or later) license
  • two Windows 2000 Advanced Server VMs on a virtual TCP/IP network, each configured to use 128MB of RAM
  • one or more shared nonpersistent virtual SCSI disks (for cluster storage)
  • one 2GB IDE local virtual disk per VM (for OS data)
  • one or more virtual network cards on each VM (for cluster communication)

Building the Virtual Cluster
As with any good recipe, the ingredients alone aren't enough. When building a virtual cluster, the order of preparation is key. To begin, you need two instances of Win2K AS running as VMs on your system. For this article, I built a virtual cluster on a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM and with Windows XP Professional Edition as the host OS. I used VMware Workstation 3.2 to create the VMs. With this horsepower, I've successfully demonstrated the installation and configuration of both Exchange 2000 and SQL Server 2000 server clusters.

To build the two Win2K AS VMs, create a VM (VM1) and install and configure it as a standalone server running Win2K AS. When the installation has finished, power down VM1, then copy the contents of VM1's folder on the host system to a second folder, named VM2 (or any name you choose). Open VM2 in the VMware console. Open Configuration Editor for VM2, go to the Options tab, and give the VM a unique name. Then go to the Hardware tab and change the path for VM2's virtual disk file to point to the virtual disk file in the VM2 folder. After you configure VM2, boot it up and change its host name and IP address so that they're different from those of VM1 (I usually use names such as Node1 and Node2). This shortcut gives you a second functioning server in significantly less time than reinstalling Win2K AS from scratch on a second VM.

Now that you have two VMs, take the following steps to prepare the two servers to be part of a cluster:

  1. Run dcpromo.exe to promote VM1 to be a domain controller (DC) and forest root. Use whatever domain name you want.
  2. After the Active Directory Installation Wizard finishes and VM1 reboots, join VM2 to the domain. At this point, both VMs should be powered up.
  3. On the DC (VM1), open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in and create a cluster domain user account. I typically call the account Cluster. Set the account so that the user can't change the password and the password never expires, then add the account to the Domain Admins user group.
  4. Shut down and power off both VMs.
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Reader Comments

Hi!

I follow you article step by step. When I was ready to install MSCS the application prompt me that I do not have any shared SCSI disk. Do you have any quick answer. I'm running VMWARE 3.2 on Windows XP.

Kind regards

Mikael Johansson- February 21, 2003

Hi, just read your article and had one remark. When you add scsi0.sharedbus=virtual and disk.locking="false" to the configuration file for both nodes then you can use persistent drives and it is possible to power off the nodes without loosing the drives.

Rob van Es- February 25, 2003

After setting up my VMware cluster using the steps outlined in Chris Wolf's artice I failed over the cluster to the other node. Before I failed over the cluster to the other node I created several documents on the "Data" drive. Once I failed it to the other node the data wasn't on the Data drive. If I failed it back to the original node the data was there. Any ideas?

Thank you!

Aric Cecil- March 19, 2003

I followed you article step by step. When I was ready to install MSCS the application prompt me that I do not have any shared SCSI disk. Do you have any quick answer. I'm running VMWARE 3.2 on W2K.

Duarte Matos- July 01, 2003

I am keen to understand Clusering so I tried this on vmware 3 and vmware 4 but couldn't get the Virtual Machine to create the cluster. The disks were present in Disk Manager as basic disks formatted NTFS and visible from both Virtual Machines but the Cluster Wizard failed saying that it couldn't find any suitable disks. Any ideas please

Joe- November 06, 2003

Chris Wolf's article "A VMware Clustering Recipe" (February 2003, http://www.win netmag.com, InstantDoc ID 37599) was excellent. At my company, we use VMware GSX servers and VMware workstations to model new infrastructure, support Microsoft .NET development, and provide systems for quality assurance testing and sales demos. The author's "recipe" might be missing an ingredient, however. Chris recommends simply copying the contents of the first virtual machine (VM—VM1) to create the second (VM2). This approach will certainly work, but our testing has shown that it typically results in Windows SID problems because both servers are essentially identical copies of each other. Changing the system name and IP address doesn't change the underlying SID. However, an ingredient is easily available that will fix this problem. After you've completed the initial VM1 configuration, run Microsoft's Sysprep utility (available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp) to remove the unique identifying characteristics of the system. Next, make a backup of the Windows 2000 configuration that you used Sysprep on, and use it as the foundation for all future Win2K Server­based VM work. Then, copy the configuration into the directory for VM2 to create the second VM. Finally, after you power on both VM1 and VM2 machines, Windows will generate unique SIDs for each system. Note that Windows will prompt you to name each system and provide network configuration details during the first boot after using Sysprep—just as if you had purchased "real" servers with the OS preinstalled by the manufacturer. This extra step should prevent potential SID problems.

Mark F. Ewert- January 15, 2004

I'm astounded by the depth of the problem and the solution in Chris Wolf's "A VMware Clustering Recipe" (February 2003, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 37599). I've been trying to set up virtual machines (VMs) and had given up until I came across this article. Great job by the author, and thanks to the magazine for publishing such an in-depth and technical piece. I would love to see more of these kinds of articles.

Senthil Prabakaran- January 15, 2004

I too get the same results as Aric Cecil. Its as if the nodes have their own version of the shared disks. Here are the additions to my VM that made clustering possible for me on VM WS 4.5.: scsi0.sharedBus = "virtual" disk.locking = "false" scsi0.present = "TRUE" scsi0:0.mode = "persistent" scsi0:1.present = "TRUE" scsi0:1.fileName = "C:\VMWareGuestOS\ClusterQuorum\QuorumDisk.vmdk"

David Chapman- May 07, 2004

I also receive the same results of Aric Cecil and David Chapman. Any data created on one node cannot be viewed on the other node after failing over. It is as if there are two seperate disks, any input would be appreciated.

arbt- September 10, 2004

Article Rating 4 out of 5

I am having the same problem like Duarte. I followed you article step by step. When I was ready to install MSCS the application prompt me that I do not have any shared SCSI disk. Do you have any quick answer. I'm running VMWARE 3.2 on W2K.

patelnikhil30- October 23, 2004

Article Rating 5 out of 5

I am having the same problem like Duarte. I followed you article step by step. When I was ready to install MSCS the application prompt me that I do not have any shared SCSI disk. Do you have any quick answer. I'm running VMWARE 3.2 on W2K.

patelnikhil30- October 23, 2004

Article Rating 5 out of 5

 
 

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