Users Guide

26 Designing for High Availability
Best Practice Recommendations
• Static IP addresses should be used for networks — especially the Cluster
Private, Cluster Public, Parent Partition, and any iSCSI Storage networks.
• Ensure that the Cluster Private network is on a separate subnet than all
other networks on the Hyper-V hosts. It is recommended that each
network type in Table 3-4 is on a separate subnet.
• Ensure that the network configuration is completed (including assigning
the appropriate subnets and static IP addresses) on every Hyper-V host
before the Hyper-V Host Cluster is configured.
NOTE: This is critical because in Windows Server 2008, the Failover Cluster
service automatically identifies network resources during configuration and
assigns them as cluster network resources. It does this based on the subnet
configurations and automatically selects at least one network adapter from
each subnet. Network resources cannot be manually added or removed as a
cluster resource using the Failover Cluster Management console
• After the Failover Cluster is configured, ensure that cluster network
resources have been configured as recommended in Table 3-4.
• When using dual-port or quad-port network adapters, host the same
network types on different physical network adapters to ensure that there
are redundant network paths available to accommodate a single network
adapter (NIC) HW failure. For example, in a configuration with two iSCSI
storage networks, instead of using two ports of the same network adapter
for hosting the iSCSI network, use network ports on two separate network
adapters. Follow similar best practices for Cluster Private/Public, and
Virtual Machine Networks.
Recommended Configurations
As mentioned in the Dell Solutions Overview Guide for Microsoft Hyper-V,
Dell supports Hyper-V on a very wide array of server, networking, and storage
hardware. Even though the Failover Clustering feature in Windows Server
2008 does not require that the hardware in a cluster configuration be
identical, Dell strongly recommends having identical hardware in any single
Hyper-V Host Cluster configuration. This will ensure that there are no
compatibility issues (such as processor dependencies to support Quick
Migration) that could cause disruption in a production environment.