This past weekend I was rebuilding a storage array to increase the storage capacity and also reconfigure the drives to optimize the arrangement for better performance on our SQL Server. The original arrangement was two Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers connected to a Dell MD3000 Storage array. This setup was using Windows Server 2003 Clustered for High Availability. We had a single Raid 5 array in the MD3000 and on it were three partitions, one for the Quorum, One for Data and one for Log files.
Our new configuration was designed to increase the drive space and also split off the partitions onto separate raid arrays. So, we created a RAID 10 for the Log Files, a RAID 5 for the Databases, and then another Raid 10 which contained the Quorum partition and also a partition for the Temp DB.
When we brought up the server after the reconfiguration we discovered that the Cluster Service would not start. This was due to the fact that the Quorum drive had been moved and was no longer at the location that Cluster Service expected it.
After several minutes of searching I found this TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738770(v=ws.10).aspx. Basically, in order to start up the Cluster Service without the Quorum resource you need to edit the service and put in a switch.
Edit the ClusterService and add “/fixquorum” as a startup parameter and then start the service. Once the service has started up with the /fixquorum option you can then run clusterrecovery.exe. Clusterrecovery.exe will allow you to substitute a new disk for the Quorum disk. Once you have done that and its replaced the quorum disk you will then be able to restart your ClusterService with the /fixquorum option and it should start up correctly.
Cheers!
Filed under: SQL Server, System Admin, Windows Server Tagged: Cluster, Windows 2003 Server Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
