TECH

Saw a demo of a CCR install today on a website and thought I would take a few notes. I havent tried this yet and not going to bother until I get hold of an RTM copy, but hopefully these notes will help when the time comes.
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Windows Cluster Services needs an update before the cluster can be set up

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921181/en-us

This adds a file share witness feature and a configurable cluster heartbeats feature to Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1-based server clusters

Need to create the File Share Witness share. This is best done on the Hub server in the same site as the cluster.

Create the directory on the hub server that is going to be used as the file share witness
Share the directory out and assign full control permissions to the service account that is going to be used for the cluster server. The Quorum wont use much space, about 10mb but its advisable to make sure that it has enough space reserved for it.

Create the Cluster on Node 1.
• Define the Cluster Name
• Add the first Node
• Add an IP address for the Cluster
• Provide the cluster account
• Select Majority Node Set Quorum as the Quorum Type

Add Node 2 to the Cluster

Once the cluster has been created you need to modify the Quorum to use the File Share Witness. This can be done from a powershell command

Cluster Res “Majority Node Set” /Priv mnsfileshare =\\server\share
This sets up the File Share Witness
Cluster Group “Cluster Group Name” /Move
This Moves the Cluster group as the resource has to be taken offline
Cluster Res “Majority Node Set” /Priv
This tests the Quorum

Once the Quorum has been defined Exchange can be installed.
Install Exchange onto the first Node.
Select a custom install and select Active Cluster Mailbox Server as the option.
Select the CCR option
Give it an Exchange server name and IP

Once complete install Exchange onto the passive node
Select a custom install and select Passive Cluster Mailbox Server

If you need to do a scheduled move of the Exchange server at a later date it is recommended to use the powershell command line.
Move –clustermailboxserver –identity Exchangeservername –targetmachine nodename