Richard's DBA Notes: Series 3 - Build a 3-node Windows Server 2016 Failover Cluster

This chapter focuses on building Windows failover cluster (WSFC). Some prerequisites need to be checked first.

- OS patches are identical among all nodes (use gpedit.msc to disable auto update)
- Drive letters are consistent among all nodes
- Installed features and .Net Framework versions remain identical on all servers
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Steps are outlined below:

1. To find out if our nodes are ready or not for clustering, run a "Validate Configuration" task from FCM on the node that currently owns all shared disks. Basically you need to type in the node names separated with a comma. Add them to the selected server list. Click on Next to move to Testing Options window. We should run all tests as recommended. But we often just run a subset of it to test if one particular target is passed. Check the validation result report carefully. We don't want to rush to building a failover cluster unless all tests are passed.

2. We have compared the warning message about missing software updates on all nodes. We're sure the possible minor difference will not cause cluster functionality.

3. We started out by building a two node cluster. We will add the third node to it by joining. In FCM click on "Create Cluster" in the right middle pane. This launches Create Cluster Wizard.

4. Type in cluster name "ParadiseWSFC" and IP address 192.168.1.22

5. Verify the confirmation page. Also check adding eligible disks to the cluster.

6. You can confirm the Cluster Network Object (CNO) has been created in AD DS. The DNS entry is also created.

7. After the cluster is created, it shows up as online in Server Manager. And you can connect to the cluster in FCM.

8. Now let's add a third node to the cluster. To do this click on the 'Add Node...." link in Configure pane in FCM. Manually type in the third node name the same way you start to create the cluster.