Re: Windows Server 2008 cluster nodes as Domain Controllers

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Thanks for the replies Russ and Ryan. I appreciate the input, having little
experience in this area of clustering myself.

Have to second Russ's comments. High Availability is a complete mind-set,
not just getting something to function minimally.

Using DCs as cluster nodes is simply not a best practice and not recommended
at all (for many reasons). If cost is at the heart of this (as it quite
often is), you must re-examine the actual committment to implementing HA
properly.

Ryan

I understand your comments however you must realise that not all situations
fit the complete Microsoft framework. And wanting to run cluster nodes as DCs
may in some situations not have anything to do with lack of money. Far from
it. I want to run clusters across a spanned network in two separate
datacenters with two separate SANs.

I want to move a heavily used resource (Microsoft Exchange) into the HA
space. However, the current Exchange servers (not clustered) are DCs. This is
required in my company's situation. The workstations are not part of the AD
domain, which must be more common that Microsoft think. The AD and Exchange
Admins (my group) have no control over workstations, so we can't dictate that
they be members of the domain. In fact, working at a University you soon
learn that IT can't dictate anything!

Reason for being DCs? As the workstations aren't members of the domain, when
the client launches Outlook the local account and password is passed to the
Exchange server, which can't authenticate the user based on the domain. So
the Exchange server checks its own user (local) database, which is a full
copy of the domain! The user account and password match and Outlook launches
without an issue. [pass-through authentication].

The issue, if we can't have Exchange cluster nodes be DCs, is we can have HA
(which only comes into play during a, hopefully infrequent, outage/disaster)
or user convenience (every time Outlook is launched). When "management" is
asked which one they want the answer is always the same; forget the cluster.

Any comments appreciated.

John
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Windows Server 2008 cluster nodes as Domain Controllers
    ... at all (for many reasons). ... And wanting to run cluster nodes as DCs ... the currentExchangeservers are DCs. ... the client launches Outlook the local account and password is passed to theExchangeserver, which can't authenticate the user based on the domain. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering)
  • Re: 99.999% Uptime For A Cluster - Real World Comments
    ... Our cluster has been quite unreliable and in fact our stand alone servers ... My exchange cluster runs ok the uptime is relative to the users. ... you use outlook 2003 on the client side on the LAN there are some glitches ... will search for the exchange server and use a heck of a lot less bandwidth. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering)
  • Problems with removing old Deleted Items files
    ... Our Exchange server went from version 4.0 and is now at 5.5 w/SP4 and is ... running in a cluster. ... there are no deleted items, and, they'll religiously delete what they do ... have every time that they exit OutLook, ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • RE: Exchange 2003 intermittent crashing
    ... our main exchange server in the cluster, caused the cluster to fail-over to ... > installed several Groupshield service packs and now I am getting these same ... This is the second time, ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • Re: Exchange 2003 in a multi-sites configuration
    ... Bharat Suneja wrote: ... Exchange Server 2003/2000) - you can use hardware from the Windows Server ... rather than the cluster certified list. ... users to this second Exchange server. ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.setup)