Two ordinary PCs (P-II 450 or better) with two NIC cards each.
Two ordinary SCSI cards. I find Adaptec works best. They need to be the
same brand but not necessarily the exact same model.
One or more SCSI drives in an external case/Powersupply. (old PC case works
if you don't have anything else).
Load W2K AS or W2K3 EE on each host node (local disks for this.) Connect
one NIC on each machine to the other machine with a crossover cable.
Install SCSI cards/drivers. Change SCSI address on one card. Connect
drive(s) and cards on one cable. Make sure termination is correct.
Bring up ONE workstation. Leave the other at the BIOS prompt. Initialize
and format drive (Disk Administrator). Create cluster and point to this
disk as quorum drive.
Start other node. Add to cluster, again pointing to shared drive.
You can add more drives for more virtual servers. Don't even think about
using something like this for anything except training and testing. You
will likely run into some problems, but solving them is part of the
training.
--
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com
I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org [quoted text, click to view] "zrb" <zrb@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:utdDoaeEEHA.1128@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Can you give some more information on setting up a cheap cluster. I would
> love to have one purely for testing and trying out things before I try
them
> on production.
>
> Regards
>
> Parthi
>
> "Geoff N. Hiten" <SRDBA@Careerbuilder.com> wrote in message
> news:%23fs6cOeEEHA.684@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > What is your shared storage system? Your vendor should be providing
> cluster
> > installation services as part of the cluster sale. Otherwise, it won't
be
> > certified and it can't be supported.
> >
> > As a general rule, listen to your vendor, unless what they are saying
just
> > doesn't make sense. Then check them against what you know and what you
> can
> > find out (including what you can learn here).
> >
> > I wish you had asked about this earlier. I would have recommended
putting
> > together a cheap cluster from a couple of workstations, a pair of SCSI
> > cards, and a stand-alone SCSI drive. The cost is relatively low,
> especially
> > if you use recycled parts, and the learning experience is invaluable.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Geoff N. Hiten
> > Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> > Senior Database Administrator
> > Careerbuilder.com
> >
> > I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
> >
www.sqlpass.org > >
> > "Scott" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:840AC18B-9C96-469B-A1C1-27AB8C30E3AB@microsoft.com...
> > > Almost everybody might have come accross this situation and handled it
> > easily, but we are at the first step in setting up SQL Server cluster. I
> am
> > contact person for the setup in my organization and I have no idea how
to
> > set up, and at the same time the NT person is also new to windows
> > clustering. We just received the new servers and are just out of the
> boxes.
> > Obviously we have to start installing NT server some time tomorrow and
SQL
> > server in the next week. Where should we start. Any suggestions will be
> > greatly helpful.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > >
> > > Scott.
> >
> >
>
>
