To change the quorum disk designation

How to change the quorum disk designation Article ID: 280353 - View products that this article applies to. System TipThis article applies to a different version of Windows than the one you are using. Content in this article may not be relevant to you. Visit the Windows 7 Solution Center This article was previously published under Q280353 Notice This article applies to Windows 2000. Support for Windows 2000 ends on July 13, 2010. The Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center is a starting point for planning your migration strategy from Windows 2000. For more information see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy. Expand all | Collapse all SUMMARY This article explains the quorum disk resource in Windows Clustering, and describes how to change the drive for the quorum device. MORE INFORMATION In the event of failure, Windows Clustering maintains a primary node, and replicates changes for the cluster registry by means of a shared disk. This disk is called the quorum drive. The quorum drive has two responsibilities: It replicates the cluster registry to all other nodes in the server cluster. The cluster registry is stored in the following location on each node: %SystemRoot%\Cluster\Clusdb The cluster registry is replicated to the \Mscs\Chkxxx.tmp file on the quorum drive. These files are exact copies of each other and can be manually copied and renamed to replace each other. The Quolog.log file is a transaction log that maintains a record of all changes to the checkpoint file so that these changes can be appended to nodes that were offline when they join back into the cluster. Quolog.log is stored in the \Mscs directory on the quorum disk. If there is a loss of communication between the nodes in the cluster, a "Split Brain" scenario occurs. In this situation, the owner of the quorum disk resource becomes the only owner of the cluster and all the resources. The owner then makes the resources available for clients. When the node that owns the quorum disk does not function correctly, the surviving nodes arbitrate to take ownership of the device. In a single cluster, there is a local quorum resource. In the event of a hardware failure of the quorum disk, it may be necessary to designate another device as the quorum disk. The quorum disk is located on a shared bus in the cluster. Use the following procedure to designate a different drive for the quorum device: Start Cluster Administrator (CluAdmin.exe). Right-click the cluster name in the upper-left corner, and then click Properties. Click the Quorum tab. In the Quorum resource box, click a different disk resource. If the disk has more than one partition, click the partition where you want the cluster-specific data to be kept, and then click OK. NOTE: If you cannot start Cluster service because the quorum disk is unavailable, use the /FIXQUORUM switch to start Cluster service. You are then able to change the quorum disk designation. When you change the quorum disk designation, Cluster service does not remove the /Mscs directory from the old drive. For administrative purposes, you may want to delete this old directory, or keep it as a backup. Do not continue running Cluster service with the /FIXQUORUM switch enabled. When the new quorum disk is established, stop the service and restart it without a switch. Then it is safe to bring other nodes online. It is recommended that you increase the quorum log size to 4,096 KB. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 225081 Cluster resources quorum log size defaults to 64 KB Properties Article ID: 280353 - Last Review: March 1, 2007 - Revision: 3.6 APPLIES TO Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86) Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86) Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition Keywords:  kbclustering kbinfo KB280353

How to replace a disk that is on a Windows 2000 or a Windows 2003 server cluster

Article ID: 305793 - View products that this article applies to.

System TipThis article applies to a different version of Windows than the one you are using. Content in this article may not be relevant to you. Visit the Windows 7 Solution Center

This article was previously published under Q305793

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SUMMARY

This article discusses how to replace a shared hard disk that is on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or a Windows 2000 server cluster.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows server clusters are dependent on the disk signatures of the drives that are on the shared bus. The disk may be a single hard disk or, more typically, a hardware array. When the cluster service starts, it scans the shared disk looking for disk signatures that match those in the cluster registry. Drive letters are not used to track disks on a server cluster. When the cluster service starts, it tries to bring the Physical Disk resources in the cluster online. These physical disks are tracked by using the disk signatures. If the cluster service cannot find a disk that matches the disk signature in the cluster registry, the following event may appear in the system log of your Event Viewer:

Event ID: 1034
Source: ClusDisk
Description: The disk associated with cluster disk resource %DriveLetter% could not be found. The expected signature of the disk was %Disk Signature%.

If the signature of the quorum disk changes, the cluster service does not start. The disk signature can change in a variety of ways. For example:

·         An existing disk on the shared bus failed and was replaced with a new disk.

·         An existing disk on the shared bus was low on disk space and was replaced with a larger disk.

·         A utility such as an array management, multipath, or file system tool was run and changed the disk signature.

·         An array on the shared bus was reconfigured.

In previous versions of Windows server clusters, the process of restoring a failed disk to an online state was more complex. In Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the ClusterRecovery utility speeds the process of restoring a failed hard disk on the shared bus. This utility is also ported (backported) to Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. This utility is included with the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. To obtain this utility, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb633748.aspx

You can also use this utility to replace the Dumpcfg utility on Windows 2000-based server clusters. Or you can use Dumpcfg can with either Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003. For more information about how to use the Dumpcfg utility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

280425 Recovering from an Event ID 1034 on a server cluster

For additional information about how to use the ClusterRecovery tool to recover a shared cluster disk, including the quorum disk, view the ClusterRecovery.chm help file that is included with the ClusterRecovery.exe program.

Note The ClusterRecorery utility does not correctly replace disks in the Japanese Version of Windows Server 2003. For more information about the problem, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

843295 The Server Cluster Recovery utility does not work in the Japanese version of Windows Server 2003

For more information about how to replace a disk in a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 server cluster, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

243195 Event ID 1034 for MSCS shared disk after disk replacement

Properties

Article ID: 305793 - Last Review: March 1, 2007 - Revision: 6.5

APPLIES TO

·         Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

·         Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

·         Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)

·         Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)

Keywords:

kbinfo KB305793

Quorum Drive Configuration Information

SUMMARY

This article provides information about configuring the quorum drive.

MORE INFORMATION

When you install Microsoft Cluster service, you must configure storage at the hardware level so that the operating system and Cluster service have two separate physical devices for cluster usage. For example, in Disk Administrator or Disk Management, the following disks should be displayed:

• Disk 0 (usually drive C)
• Disk 1 (quorum)
• Disk 2 (data drive)

At a minimum, you must create at least one physical drive for the quorum disk and a separate physical drive for data. Each drive must be formatted as NTFS.

NTFS architecture is structured to enable file attribute indexing on a disk volume. This functionality enables the file system to efficiently locate files that match certain criteria so that sorting and searching processes function faster. However, you should not place any input/output (I/O) intensive programs on your quorum drive. Heavy input/output traffic from another source could interfere with the cluster's ability to write to the disk, which may cause the quorum resource to fail. If the quorum resource fails, the entire cluster may fail as well.

It is recommended that you configure the quorum disk size to be 500 MB; this size is the minimum required for an efficient NTFS partition. Larger disk sizes are allowable but are not currently needed. It is also recommended that you configure some form of fault tolerance at the hardware level to be used for the quorum drive, such as hardware mirroring or hardware RAID. If the quorum drive is lost, the cluster may not be available.

The quorum resource plays a crucial role in the operation of the cluster. In every cluster, a single resource is designated as the quorum resource. A quorum resource can be any resource with the following functionality:

• It offers a means of persistent arbitration. Persistent arbitration means that the quorum resource must allow a single node to gain physical control of the node and defend its control. For example, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disks can use Reserve and Release commands for persistent arbitration.
• It provides physical storage that can be accessed by any node in the cluster. The quorum resource stores data that is critical to recovery after there is a communication failure between cluster nodes.

Windows 2003 introduces a new quorum resource type called Majority Node Set (MNS). MNS is tailored for geographically dispersed clusters.

For additional information about MNS, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

838612 TechNet Support Webcast: Majority Node Set support in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Cluster

NOTE: Changes in future releases of Cluster service may require a larger quorum disk size. Therefore, the recommended quorum disk size may be modified in future releases of the product.

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

251284 Cluster Server cannot start if the Quorum disk space is full

245762 Recovering from a lost or corrupted Quorum log

168948 Information about the Cluster group

https://support.ca.com/cadocs/0/CA%20ARCserve%20%20Backup%2015-ENU/Bookshelf_Files/HTML/DR/index.htm?toc.htm?76953.html

Recover Cluster Quorum Disks with No Node Failures

To recover cluster quorum disks with no node failures

1. Stop the cluster services on the secondary node.
2. Shut down the secondary node.
3. On the primary node, from the Windows Service Control Manager, set the cluster service startup type to Manual.
4. From the Device Manager View menu, select Show Hidden Devices and disable the Cluster Disk Driver setting.
5. Shut down the primary node.
6. If the cluster quorum disks are physically damaged, replace the cluster quorum shared disk with new disks.
7. Start the primary node.

Note: Have the Cluster Disaster Recovery Requirements readily available for reference.

8. Use the dumpcfg.exe utility to restore the original disk signature for the shared disk. See the output file created by the dumpcfg.exe utility during the backup.
9. Recreate and reformat the partitions on the non-quorum shared disk.
10. From the Device Manager View menu, select Show Hidden Devices and enable the Cluster Disk Driver setting.
11. Restore the system state backup. In CA ARCserve Backup, select System State session and right-click to select the local option.

The System State Restore Options dialog opens.

Note: If the cluster nodes are Active Directory Servers, you must reboot the primary node into directory restore mode when restoring the system state session.

12. Restart the primary node.
13. If the cluster files are not restored to the quorum disk, run the caclurst.exe utility to load the cluster database from the following:

14.  %windir%\clusbkup

caclurst.exe is available in the ARCserve Home directory.

caclurst /s c:\%SystemRoot%\clusbkup /q Q:

If this is a remote disaster recovery, copy the caclurst.exe file to the Client Agent for Windows directory.

15. Reboot the primary node.
16. Connect the shared disks to the secondary node.
17. Start the secondary node.

Recovering from a lost or corrupted quorum log

Article ID: 245762 - View products that this article applies to.

System TipThis article applies to a different version of Windows than the one you are using. Content in this article may not be relevant to you. Visit the Windows 7 Solution Center

This article was previously published under Q245762

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SYMPTOMS

The Cluster service may not start if a hardware failure occurs or power is lost to both nodes of a cluster and to the storage device known as the quorum on the shared device bus. In such cases, the following error message may occur when you attempt to start the Cluster service on the forming node of the server cluster:

Event ID: 1147
Source: ClusSvc
Description: The Microsoft Clustering Service encountered a fatal error. The vital quorum log file 'Q:\MSCS\quolog.log' could not be found. If you have a backup of the quorum log file, you may try to start the cluster service by entering 'clussvc -debug -noquorumlogging' at a command window, copy the backed up quorum log file to the MSCS directory in the quorum drive, stop the cluster service, and restart the cluster service normally using the 'net start clussvc' command. If you do not have a backup of the quorum log file, you may try to start the cluster service as 'clussvc -debug -resetquorumlog' and this will attempt to create a new quorum log file based on possibly stale information in the cluster hive. You may then stop the cluster service and restart it normally using the 'net start clussvc' command.

Important If this cluster is Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4)-based, and if the KB 872970 hotfix is installed, do not use the -ResetQuorumLog switch. Start the Cluster service normally.

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CAUSE

This error message occurs if the quorum log file (Quolog.log) cannot be found or read at Cluster service startup. It must be readable to confirm that the cluster configuration on the local node is up-to-date. If it cannot read the log, the Cluster service does not start to prevent potentially loading stale configuration data.

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RESOLUTION

If you have a backup of the system state on one of the computers after the last changes were made to the cluster, you can restore the quorum by restoring this information. For more information about backing up and restoring cluster configuration information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

248998 How to properly restore cluster information

If you do not have a backup of the Quorum log file, re-create a new quorum log file based on the cluster configuration information in the local system's cluster hive by starting the Cluster service with the -ResetQuorumLog switch. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the Services snap-in. (Click Start, point to Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Services.)
2. Right-click and select the properties of the Cluster service.
3. In the Start Parameters box, type:

-resetquorumlog

Then click the Start button.

If the error message occurs after you restore the system state on a computer that has lost the quorum log, the quorum information is copied to %SystemRoot%\Cluster\Cluster_backup. You can use the Clusrest.exe tool from the Resource Kit to restore this information to the quorum disk. For more information about Clusrest.exe and other useful Resource kit tools, see the Resource kit online Help.

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MORE INFORMATION

Important If possible, perform the procedure that is described in this article from the node in the cluster that was known to have the latest configuration with regards to the resources that are contained in the cluster. If you had a node that has not been a member in the cluster since the time that the last changes, deletions, or additions were made to the cluster resources, that node will not have the latest configuration. Using this node with the -ResetQuorumLog switch could result in permanent loss of data, such as Resources or Resource Configurations.

The -ResetQuorumLog switch is new for Windows 2000. This switch is not available in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. In Windows NT 4.0, if no quorum log is found, the Cluster service assumes that it is a new installation and creates the quorum log fresh from the local system information. It gets any updated cluster and program check points from the cluster nodes when they are brought online.

Important If this cluster is Windows 2000 SP4-based, and if the KB 872970 hotfix is installed, do not use the -ResetQuorumLog switch. Start the Cluster service normally.

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REFERENCES

For more informationabout the KB 872970 hotfix, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

872970 The quorum log file becomes corrupted in your Windows 2000 Advanced Server-based cluster environment