Actually Wally - I've hit

Is the volume that the I:drive is created on in a different diskgroup to the volume SQL is on - this must be the case if you want MSDTCC in a separate service group, i.e. you not only have to have MSDTC on a separare volume to SQL - it must also be in a separate diskgroup.

Mike

Hi SB,

The wizards that come with the base VCS product directly on the nodes are not VMWare aware like the wizards that are that launch from the vCenter console plugin.  As such, you will need to do a workaround to get the bulk of the group created and then make some manual configuration changes to the VMWare components.

Here are the basics of what you need to do.

1. Temporarily assign the disk to all servers in the cluster but only have the drive letter assigned on one system where you will run the wizard.  The disks need to be added to a virtual scsi adaptor other than the one that the OS drive is on.  AKA scsi ID 1:x would be fine.

2. Run the wizard to create the MSDTC service group.

3. Remove/unassign the disks from all systems except the one where the wizard was run on.

4. Create a VMwareDisks resource in the MSDTC service group and link it below the other disk resources in this cluster.

5. Test online and failover to ensure that the MSDTC group works as expected.

Note: The MSDTC service group will automatically show up in the vCenter's Symantec HA Console tab since you already have a SQL service group created on these nodes.

If you have any problems and need more direct assistance, please open a case with Symantec Technical Support.  We will be able to assist you with this configuration as needed.

Thank you,

Wally

Hi SB,

Assign the VMDK file to SCSI id 1:0 on both nodesat the same time and try running the wizard.  The wizards on the nodes directly are looking for the same disks to be available to both nodes at the same time.

Again, you would like direct help please open a support case.

Thank you,

Wally

Hi Wally - thanks for the swift reply.

I've followed most of the steps but am only able to select the first of the two nodes via the SQL Wizard, so I've configured the MSDTC group only on the first node. If I add the second node, I get the same failure.

I did put the new VMDK on 1:0 on the first node which seemed to work for that first node.

Can you clarify this step: Temporarily assign the disk to all servers in the cluster but only have the drive letter assigned on one system where you will run the wizard.

Thanks,

SB

Hi Wally,

This doesn't work - I attempt to assign the same VMDK ([datastore] node1server/6.vmdk) to both nodes, I get the following error:

The first node locks the file and when I attempt to attach it to the second node, it complains that the file is locked - which makes sense.

Is there another way of creating the MSDTC resource?

OR - as I can at least add 1 node using the SQL Config Wizard, is there a a way of manually introducing the second node via Cluster Manager?

Thanks again,

SB. 

Hi John (SB),

Good to hear that you got around this issue.  Have you tested MSDTC to ensure that it is working as expected?  If not here is a quick way to test.

1. Online the MSDTC service group on node 1.

2. Online the SQL service group on node 1.

3. Open SQL Query Analyzer (in SQL Management Studio) and execute the following T-SQL statement

  Begin Distributed Transaction

If MSDTC is working correctly it should simply return the following line

   Command(s) completed successfully.

If it returns an error then MSDTC is not working correctly.

Test failing over the MSDTC and SQL groups to different nodes in the cluster to test each combination possible to ensure that all nodes are working as expected.

Thank you,

Wally

Note: I split this thead from a prior thread and the comments didn't move over directly, so I have copied them. My apologies for the duplication of comments between the two threads.

John (SB) - do you have an update on this issue?  Is everything working ok now?

Kimberley, thank you for splitting this issue off from the other post.

-Wally

Hi Wally - yes I can confirm that all is working as planned.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

John.