Series 6 - Adding MSDTC as A Cluster Role

For SQL Server distributed transactions we need to add DTC as a separate resource group in the failover cluster. Here are the brief steps:

Step 1.   In StarWind Free SAN Management Console create a dedicated LUN for the MSDTC resource. It requires 500 MB to 1 GB. Use thick client as previously described in quorum disk creation.

Step 2.   Present the new LUN to host. Open Windows Disk Manager a message pops up asking you to initialize the disk.

Step 3.   After clicking OK the disk is online showing unallocated 1023 MB. Right click on it and choose to create a new simple volume. Assign a free drive letter to it, format it with NTFS, choose allocation unit size = 64 KB, and create a label "MSDTC". Click Quick format and Finish.

Step 4.   In FCM we want to add the available shared disk to storage. Right click on Disks and choose Add Disk.

Step 5.   The disk is already checked in the Available disks list. Click OK. Now cluster disk #6 has been added to the list.

Step 6.   In FCM right click on Roles then Configure Roles -> On the High Availability Wizard page click Next

Step 7.   In Select Role windows choose "Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC). Click Next.

Step 8.   In Client Access Point page provide Network Name for DTC and an IP address.

Step 9.   In the next window check the new disk as the storage.

Step 10.   Review the confirmation page and click next. Wizard will complete successfully.

Step 11.   Click on Roles we now see MSDTC as a separate role.