I’m trying to run an application program on Windows Server 2022, and I want to implement clustering. So that if one server goes down, another server will take over. I wanted to configure active-active clustering and started watching some YouTube videos and reading some articles. I set up 2 old computers and installed Windows Server 2022 on both of them.
First I tried Windows Clustering with only 2 Windows servers (same version) connected to the local network. The 1st server can ping the 2nd server. But in the Failover Clustering Manager wizard (1st Windows server), it cannot find the other Windows server when I click the “Find Now” button (same result from the 2nd Windows server). Then I did some research on the Internet and also used ChatGPT. I found that domain controller is required for Windows clustering. Is this true? If so, please explain why?
While checking the failover cluster manager wizard, I found that the cluster service is not running in the background (services.msc). The log viewer says critical error with error code 2 and 1090 code. I tried to restart the service, reinstalled windows failover clustering feature, still same result. On some part of the Internet says, the cluster service will run only after the creation of windows cluster and the ChatGPT says, cluster service should run in the background even if the windows cluster is not created. I don’t know how to troubleshoot and solve these problems.
I have never used any of the Windows clustering but most any clustering solutions need to solve the “Split-Brain” problem typically by using a combination of heartbeat network connections between cluster hosts, and quorum witness storage.
I don’t recommend using windows for clustering & HA services, unless you don’t have have access to better options for your given solution.
Linux has almost always been the platform of choice for clustering and other services. There has to be more than just licensing reasons why its the #1 preferred solution for super computer clusters world wide.
Windows from what I have heard, on the server-side, has adopted a lot of regressive chances to their licensing that would make it less attractive to use for almost any size organization. It was already a very reluctant choice for client and server functions way back in my tech school days just because the compliance cops would roll through without any warning and audit stuff, ‘windoooze’ on that end of things would foot print and report back anything installed on it. The compliance people would occasionally ding the college for BS reasons.
It occurred to me at one point that the ideal cover to go under for hacking a college network was the compliance people, they were a third party group who seem to have unlimited access and no one was allowed to question them.
I have installed ubuntu on both the systems. Installed packages like : pcs , pacemaker and corosync on both the servers and enabled in the background. Both can ping on the same network. But I dont think so it is working after seeing the pcs status .
Server 1 pcs status :
Cluster name: testcluster
Cluster Summary:
Stack: corosync (Pacemaker is running)
Current DC: clusternode1 (version 2.1.6-6fdc9deea29) - partition WITHOUT quorum
Last updated: Fri Jan 24 17:15:28 2025 on clusternode1
Last change: Fri Jan 24 17:08:55 2025 by root via cibadmin on clusternode1
Dont know what to do next . Dont know why it is not working. So far , I setup these with the help of chatgpt. Didn’t find any online resources for this.
Then I did some research on the Internet and also used ChatGPT. I found that domain controller is required for Windows clustering. Is this true? If so, please explain why?
For Windows Clusters, an Active Directory security object gets created for the cluster itself. This object is used for applying permissions to shared resources and such.
All that said, there are only two reasons I can think of to build a Windows Cluster: 1) an MS SQL cluster, and 2) a Hyper-V cluster.
In regards to Hyper-V, there are better hypervisors out there, both open and closed source. One of the few times a Hyper-V cluster can make sense is if the physical hosts are both large (lots of CPU and RAM), they are running Windows Server Datacenter, and you plan on hosting a lot of Windows based VM’s on them. It can save you some money on licensing.