How to install EV 8.0 in MSCS

[GauravAditya]

Hello All,

Can some one please help me with a detailed info on how to install EV8.0 on Microsoft Cluster Server environment ...

Scenario: -

We have MS Exchanve 2007 Clustered and installed as SCC ...

We need to install EV 8.0 for Mailbox Archving and PST Migration on Windows 2008 using Microsoft cluster...

We have installed Windows 2008 Ent Edn. on 2 nodes and clustered...

Anyone, please provide step-by-step details on how to successfully accomplish this and what needs to be taken care of...

Regards,

GauravAditya
 

[Rob_Wilcox1]

 Hi

Info on this is in the Installing and Configuring Guide.

Hope that helps,

[GauravAditya]

Hello Rob,

I am following the same but am unsure about some things: -

1. What all Features/Roles/Services do we need to cluster from the following: -
     a. MSMQ
     b. IIS

2. If we need to cluster these, then how?

Kindly advise.

GauravAditya

[MarkBarefoot]

EV8SP2 Install guide has some additional info with regard to setting up a Windows 2008 cluster. I have only had one experience with this, and in this instance we only needed to include the MSMQ from the "Resource Group/Service or Application" wizard. In this version of the guide it has some notes about terminology with regard to Windows 2003 and 2008 clustering :-


Windows 2003 term             Windows 2008 term
Cluster Group                      Cluster
Microsoft Server Cluster        Microsoft Failover Cluster
Network Name                     Client Access Point
Physical Disk                       Storage Device
Resource Group                  Service or Application

All you need to do is then follow the steps in the Install guide.

[MarkBarefoot]

God knows what happened there!! This new pasting process seems to go wonky.....

[GauravAditya]

Hello,

I installed MSMQ on both the nodes and then clustered the resource to be pointed to a shared Drive M:...  I checked to verify that the MSMQ files are now present they are...

Then I ran the Deployment Scanner and got the following warning: -

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSMQ Configuration

 Either MSMQ is installed with Active Directory Integration or some storage directories are on a system drive. It is recommended that the MSMQ storage directories are located on a non system drive.

 
  MSMQ is installed without Active Directory integration. 
  The following Storage directory is on a system drive. StoreJournalPath: C:\Windows\System32\msmq\storage 
  The following Storage directory is on a system drive. StoreLogPath: C:\Windows\System32\msmq\storage 
  The following Storage directory is on a system drive. StorePersistentPath: C:\Windows\System32\msmq\storage 
  The following Storage directory is on a system drive. StoreReliablePath: C:\Windows\System32\msmq\storage 
  The following Storage directory is on a system drive. StoreXactLogPath: C:\Windows\System32\msmq\storage  
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I opened the Server Manager and got to see that on both the servers and yes it is indeed point to the path in the warning above...

Can someone please help as to how can I get rid of this warning?

Regards,

GauravAditya

[Frank_Beck · Accepted solution]

Disclaimer:
I'm not a Windows 2008 Failover Cluster guru - if anyone can suggest a better way of doing this please feel free - this is just a basic guide to get you started, how you configure your system is down to you!

First a snippet from the Enterprise Vault 8 Installation and Configuration guide so that you're familiar with the Windows 2008 Failover Cluster terminology:



Step 1: Configure a new Service/Application from the Failover Cluster Management console



Step 2: Select “Other Server” as the service or application you want to configure for high availability.



Step 3: Configure the Service/Application client access point name (This will be the DNS name) and the IP address.



Now follow through the rest of the wizard to add your shared storage for MSMQ and the Vault Stores / Index Location / Shopping location etc.

Step 4: Right click on the Service/Application that you have created and add a new Message Queuing resource.




Once the resource is added, configure the MSMQ resource so that it is dependent on the disk you will be using to host the MSMQ storage, and the Service/Application name.



Note: If you try to start the MSMQ service before you set the dependencies, it will hang and you may need to reboot the server.

When the MSMQ resource is brought online with it’s dependencies set correctly, it will automatically create the MSMQ folders on the drive that it is dependent on, and you will then see a second instance of mqsvc.exe running in the task manager (The first instance is the local msmq service, which can actually be disabled completely in the services.msc MMC snapin, and the second instance is the cluster managed instance)

You need to run \Program Files\Enterprise Vault\clustercompmgmt.bat to connect to the cluster computer management interface in order to see the clustered MSMQs.
 
Simply running the local computer management interface will not show you the correct MSMQs!

Step 5: The service/application you have created should now look something like this:



So now you have everything you need to run the Enterprise Vault cluster configuration wizard.
 
Select the Service/Application you created as the resource group for Enterprise Vault, and follow through the wizard.

Once you’ve run through the Enterprise Vault cluster configuration wizard and it has been successful, and subsequently configured Enterprise Vault, you will see the Service/Application looks something like this:
 


And finally, running the Enterprise Vault 8 SP2 deployment scanner shows me the following:

[MarkBarefoot]

Great posting Frank. Hopefully this will help all those fighting with Windows 2008!

[GauravAditya]

Hello All,

Firstly, I appreciate a lot for the inputs in the post by Frank.

However, I tried following the step above and I dont dont know why but i dont see MSMQ in the 'Add a resource ' section.

Moreover, I  tried clustering MSMQ directly, and it fails with the error below: -

Storage:	Cluster Disk 3
Network Name:	mowtestevMsmq
IP Address:	10.40.243.44
Started	8/18/2009 12:33:11 AM
Completed	8/18/2009 12:33:41 AM

Creating the group mowtestevMsmq.

Creating Message Queuing resources.

Configuring the cluster storage device.

Configuring Message Queuing resources.

Configuring Message Queuing networking.

Verifying the client access point settings are valid.

Configuring network name resource.

Configuring new IP address resources.

Configuring the dependencies for the IP address resources.

Configuring the network name dependencies.

The client access point has been configured successfully.

Configuring Message Queuing resources.

Creating the MSMQ resource.

An error occurred while creating the Message Queuing - An error occurred while configuring the Message Queuing resource(s). An error occurred creating resource 'MSMQ-mowtestevMsmq' for the clustered service or application 'mowtestevMsmq'. The specified resource type was not found. .

Restoring previous cluster state.

Please advise.

Regards,

GauravAditya

[RVD]

Hi,

I installed an EV failover cluster recently and also had some probs with the MSMQ services.
Nice info by Frank above.

I also struggeled with the installation of the MSMQ on my 2 nodes.
Deployment scanner gave the path warnings, I changed them to the 'what I thought correct' shared drives.
Result: warning gone in the deployment scanner, but I did not manage to cluster the MSMQ's.

So, I uninstalled the MSMQ's on both nodes and tried to re-install them again, but this was no longer  possible (???!!??).
Reason: registry keys left behind regarding the MSMQ's.

So, what I suggest to do is to uninstall the MSMQ's on your nodes but be sure also to delete the MSMQ keys in the registry prior to reinstall the MSMQ's. (under \LOCAL MACHINE if I remember well ...)

Normally, you should be able then to add the MSMQ resource into the cluster.

greetz,

Rudy
   

[GauravAditya]

Hello,

Frankly speaking even I tried moving MSMQ on a shared/clustered disk but that did not help.

Anyways, I have done all that and have reinstalled MSMQ. I knew that registry thingy from another forum and hence followed that to reinstall MSMQ.

NOW, MSMQ is still on the C: (System Drive) on both the nodes.

But I still get the same error as i mentioned in the post above while clustering MSMQ.

Please advise.

Regards,

GauravAditya

[Alexxx]

Hi did you ever get this issue resolved as this is the issue i had when i tried it years back non SP1 and now i am looking at the same issue again with 2008 R2 64bit. I noticed it has been added to the SP1, SP2 supported list (non R2)

[GauravAditya]

Hello all,

The steps followed are as below: - (THESE STEPS HAVE WORKED FOR ME)

1. Uninstalled MSMQ completely (deleted MSMQ registry keys)
2. Installed MSMQ again

NOTE: - It is not recommended to keep MSMQ storage on C:\ (System / boot) Drive. It is also pointed out when you install and run Deployment Scanner.
So, there needs to be another local drive. (Mapped drives, SAN, NAS, UNC paths not supported)

3. On this local drive, create a folder namely 'msmq'
4. Take Message Queuing offline
5. Go to the properties of MSMQ and Click on the Storage Tab
6. Change the location to X:\msmq\storage on for all the sections on this screen. (Message Files Folder, Message Logger Folder, Transaction Logger Folder)

NOTE: - X: is the new local drive for MSMQ

7. Click Apply and OK to acknowledge all the prompts
8. Bring Message Queuing online

Now try to cluster the MSMQ and it should work fine.

[mdefilippis]

The steps followed are as below: - (THESE STEPS HAVE WORKED FOR ME)

1. Install MSMQ

NOTE: - It is not recommended to keep MSMQ storage on C:\ (System / boot) Drive. It is also pointed out when you install and run Deployment Scanner.
So, there needs to be another local drive. (Mapped drives, SAN, NAS, UNC paths not supported)

2. On Shared Storage, create a folder namely 'msmq'
3. Take Message Queuing offline
4. Go to the properties of MSMQ and Click on the Storage Tab
5. Change the location to X:\msmq\storage on for all the sections on this screen. (Message Files Folder, Message Logger Folder, Transaction Logger Folder)

NOTE: - X: is the new local drive for MSMQ

6. Click Apply and OK to acknowledge all the prompts
7. Bring Message Queuing online

8. Fail Cluster Secondary Node

9. Delete msmq folder located on Shared Storage  

10. Repeat Steps 1 – 7

11. Create Cluster Resources for MSMQ and Shared Storage

12. Test Failover.

            Run Deployment Scanner on all Nodes of the Cluster

[JustMy2Cents]

Just a note on MSMQ in a cluster: On a cluster you have MSMQ installed on each node. Each node has its own MSMQ installed locally (not part of the cluster). When the cluster is being configured and you create an MSMQ resource, the PhysicalDisk resource that you add as a dependency for the MSMQ resource will become the disk/folder for the MSMQ data on the cluster. The MSMQ that is installed on each node is completely seperate from the cluster.

So Frank's guide is complete. You just need to leave the local msmq alone and let the deployment scanner complain about it.

-0,02$