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Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

 
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

I have an issue with the CR3500 and the two Cluster Nodes. Whichever node is brought up first works effortlessly. However, the second node to come online seems to have GREAT difficulties negotiating access to the shared disk cabinet. Consequently, this hangs the second node for extreme lengths of time prior to finally coming up, albeit with errors and tons of errors logged to the System log about SCSI disk driver problems.

When both nodes are finally up and running, everything seems to be OK with the cluster. Have I missed a particular hardware configuration step specific to the CL380 / CL1850 or perhaps I've missed something during the config of W2K AS and Cluster Services?

Please...any help or suggestions...
--Ryan
11 REPLIES 11
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

I'm seeing the same issues with a CL380 I received last week. I'm in the process of re building but it sounds like there may be other issues.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

We had this too - run the SupportPaq from the SmartStart CD
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

Ryan , please see my message posted 01/02. Can you provide the installation steps you followed to bring up both nodes succesfully. Any diviation from the MS instructions, device updates.. etc.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

For Node 1:
1) Run SmartStart on Node 1 to configure it and load the System Configuration Utility,
2) Load Windows NT Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 3, and the Support Software for Windows NT a.k.a. NT SSD.
3) Install the CR3500 Configuration Utility into the new Windows NT installation from the [CD-ROM drive letter]:\CR3500\ENG directory of the SmartStart CD.
4) Run the CR3500 Configuration Utility from the Compaq System Tools folder and configure the array as desired.
5) Run Disk Administrator, create volumes out of the logical drives, and be sure to format them NTFS and assign drive letters to them. NTFS is the only file system supported for the shared storage.
6) Install and configure Microsoft Cluster Server.

For Node 2:
1) Run SmartStart on Node 1 to configure it and load the System Configuration Utility.
2) On this node, change the Ultra2 SCSI Adapter ID from ID 7 to ID 6
3) Load Windows NT Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 3, and the Support Software for Windows NT a.k.a. NT SSD
4)Run Disk Administrator to set the drive letter to match the drive letter for the shared storage area which was created on Node 1
5) Install and configure Microsoft Cluster Server.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

The only solution to this is defing 1 scsi adapter on SCSI 7 and on the other node on SCSI id 6. You can do this in BIOS.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

I have the same issue. I manged to install W2k Sp1 on the second node , but at the moment I can't have both nodes up and running at the same time.
I tried to follow the Instructions supplied by Compaq for setting up Cluster services for Windows 2000 on the Cl380 but as I have found and obviously some of you this doesn't actually work as stated.
I have set the SCSI IDs on both nodes to be different.
Has anyone actually resolved the issue?

I'm still trying to figure out how to get it working but so far no luck.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

I have finally got it working. I had to install W2k on node 1 first, power it down, then install w2k on the 2nd node. Then power up the 1st node. I made sure the shared storage disks had the same drive letters on both servers. I then did a few power up and down tests. Although a bit slow to start up all appeared okay. I then bit the bullet and installed Cluster services on both nodes and did some cluster fail over test and also powered up and down the servers . So far so good. I will do one more major power down test and then I'll install SOL server 2000 in cluster mode just for a laugh!!!

It took 68 steps to get this working as it should ..

Grace
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

We`ve got similar problems. The Node2 stops and hangs at the point where we wanted to install the CR3500. It was running without Node1 but not together. We found an entry in the EventLog which reported different Revisions on the second Processor. We didnt got any problem during the W2K installation, but now.
So we just took it out and what a surprise the Node2 was working fine. So we created the cluster and so on...
Is it an option ??

Henning
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Win2K AS Cluster - Shared Disk Access Problem

Wow, I guess I was lucky. :)

I've setup 3 of these clusters now, with Win2K SP1, and had no problems. Only thing (as others have mentioned) is to make sure the SCSI ID's are setup correctly on your nodes... setup one of them to connect to the array via ID 7, and the other node to connect via ID 6.

Since the smartstart setup goes by so quick, you may forget to do this on the second one before it gets into the Win2K detection phase... so what I do is set the ID to 6 on the first node I setup, so then I don't have to worry about changing it on the second node, which I just leave at id 7.

Never had a problem doing it that way.