Reference Guide

Preparing Your Systems for Clustering 27

Configure client systems to access the highly-available applications and

services that are hosted on your failover cluster.

Installation Overview

Each node in your Dell Failover Cluster must be installed with the same

release, edition, service pack, and processor architecture of the Windows

Server operating system. For example, all nodes in your cluster may be

configured with Windows Server 2008 R2, Enterprise x64 Edition. If the

operating system varies among nodes, it is not possible to configure a Failover

Cluster successfully. It is recommended that you establish server roles prior to

configuring a Failover Cluster, depending on the operating system configured

on your cluster.

For a list of Dell PowerEdge Servers, Fibre Channel HBAs, and switches, and

recommended list of operating system variants, specific driver and firmware

revisions, see the Dell Cluster Configuration Support Matrices at dell.com/ha.

For more information on deploying your cluster with Windows Server 2008

operating systems, see the Dell Failover Clusters with Microsoft Windows

Server 2008 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide at

support.dell.com/manuals.

The following sub-sections describe the procedure to enable communication

between the cluster nodes and your shared Dell Compellent storage array, and

to present disks from the storage array to the cluster.

Installing the Fibre Channel HBAs

For dual-HBA configurations, it is recommended that you install the Fibre

Channel HBAs on separate peripheral component interconnect (PCI)

buses.

Placing the adapters on separate buses improves availability and performance.

For more information about your system's PCI bus configuration and

supported HBAs, see the Dell Cluster Configuration Support Matrices at

dell.com/ha.