Re: Clustering with Blade servers

From: Doug Deitterick (ddeitter_at_pct.edu)
Date: 02/28/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:15:35 -0500

We have the same kind of issue. We are using IBM blades, with the NICs
teamed together, and are clustering them without using a NIC for heartbeat.
Everything fails over fine and seems to be working just fine, but I was
wondering if there is a better way. Rod, we can't add another NIC for
heartbeat, since we can't put a NIC in the blade.

Doug Deitterick
Network Applications Analyst
Pennsylvania College of Technology

"Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]" <rod@die.spam.die.nw-america.com> wrote in
message news:u$NomJcHFHA.2740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Leave the team alone, add a NIC for the heartbeat :)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rod
>
> MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
> http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering
> http://msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
>
> "chris" <chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9341B743-384A-416F-B8D4-0D693910D18F@microsoft.com...
>> You are correct in one sense. We were load balancing, but without a
>> privat
>> network configured. We were letting the servers talk within the Blade
>> center.
>> Sounds like we need to configure a priveate vlan within the bladecenter
>> or
>> break the team and dedicate one nic to private traffic?
>>
>> "Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]" wrote:
>>
>>> You can team (what you called load balancing) the Public, but never the
>>> private (cross-over cable/hub network).
>>>
>>> Sounds like you only have one NIC available, this is a mistake and
>>> should be
>>> corrected ASAP. To be really HA (Highly Available), like a cluster needs
>>> to
>>> be, you need a second NIC dedicated to the heartbeat.
>>>
>>> Do an Ipconfig - you should see all the IPs that way. What you are
>>> seeing
>>> sounds normal.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Rod
>>>
>>> MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
>>> http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering
>>> http://msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
>>>
>>> "chris" <chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>>> news:C7CBB1F9-CA95-4DAD-A0F3-E7B4CF5DA416@microsoft.com...
>>> > This is my first time building a MS cluster on any version of Windows
>>> > sever.
>>> > Our company has started to use IBM blades which we are rapidly
>>> > becoming
>>> > familiar with. What is Microsoft's recommendation for load balancing?
>>> > I am
>>> > currently using the Management software installed whith the Broadcom
>>> > nic's.
>>> > We do not have a dedicated nic for the heartbeat, since traffic does
>>> > not
>>> > need
>>> > to travel outside of the blade center for node communication. All
>>> > resoursces
>>> > fail correctly. The one thing I have noticed is tha since installing
>>> > SQL,
>>> > the
>>> > Broadcom software will display the IP of a SQL inatance for the
>>> > virtual IP
>>> > of
>>> > the team, while network properties will display the one assigned to
>>> > the
>>> > server. Is this normal?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

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