Thoughts about building a SQL Server 2008 cluster in Hyper-V

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Having built a SQL Server 2005 cluster on virtualized hardware, using Virtual Server, i thought it was time to do this on hyper-v with SQL 2008. Here’s some thoughts to get you thinking about trying this. The one single most important point here, is how much easier the whole process it with Windows / SQL 2008. It just works. If you’re like me and just playing with it in test, then there are tons of simple wizards to speed you through many of the tasks.

When I did the install on virtual server, I used this article as a starting point for building the actual cluster:

Using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to Create and Configure a Two-Node Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Cluster

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/virtualserver/deploy/cvs2005.mspx

I guess the equivalent article for Windows 2008 Hyper-V is this one

Hyper-V Step-by-Step Guide: Hyper-V and Failover Clustering

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732181.aspx

which is a good starting point. When I actually did this I did it without following any specific instructions, just to see if I could get it to work, and learn a few things as I went along, troubleshooting anything I came across myself. This is always my preferred way to learn. In my scenario I used iSCSI drives hosted on the DC.

This in no way creates a scalable solution that you should use in production, it’s just something to knock together quickly to test stuff with, so I can play with a clustered SQL 2008 instance.

The steps are in the attached document.

hyperv_sql2008_cluster.pdf

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