Adding new MSCS node with Snapdrive and iSCSI

I was having problems replacing a failed node in a Windows 2003 MSCS cluster. With Netapp storage, I had the LUNs mapped to both nodes, but I could not add the shared disks to the new node unless I added it the cluster first.

Use Cluster Administrator to add a new node and specify "Advanced", then click "Advanced (minimum) configuration". This will add the node without shared disks. Once complete, I was able to open SnapDrive and the shared LUNs showed up.

For some strange reason, the only weird think in the System event logs was this warning, Event ID 20:

"A Path Verification request to a device on \Device\MPIODisk2 that is controlled by Microsoft iSCSI DSM has failed. This may indicate a Path Failure."

When I booted the new node alone (with other cluster node off), the LUNs showed up, but as "dedicated" LUNs in SnapDrive.

This led me to try and see if I could add the node to the cluster without shared disk, then to try and access the LUNs after that to see if they showed up as "clustered", which they did!

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331801/en-us

Connecting ESX host to iSCSI LUN on Netapp v3140

Reference: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/12/15/iscsi-from-netapp-to-esx-server/

Adding an Netbios alias to a filer

This is located under CIFS, Configure, Options. Fill in the NetBIOS Aliases box, comma separated, then click Apply button.

Setting SSL on Netapp Filer

For some reason the GUI doesn't work too well.

1. Creating a certificate signing request

From the command line, enter:
secureadmin setup ssl

Answer the prompts and at the end, the setup generates a self-signed certificate for temporary use and a certificate signing request that can be sent to your CA for certificate creation.

2. Installing the signed certificate

• Create a text file with the signed certificate, ie. /etc/keymgr/cert.cer
• Install the certificate: secureadmin addcert ssl /etc/keymgr/cert.cer
• From the GUI, you can Restart SSL to enable new certificate.

Enabling & starting Dedup

To Enable dedup on a volume: sis on path

where path is the complete path to the FlexVol volume, ie. /vol/vol1.

To start dedup operations: sis start [-s] [-f] [-d] [-sp] /vol/volname

• The —s option scans the volume completely and you are prompted to confirm if deduplication should be started on the volume.
• The —f option starts deduplication on the volume without any prompts.
• The —d option starts a new deduplication operation after deleting the existing checkpoint information.
• The p option initiates a deduplication operation using the previous checkpoint regardless of how old the checkpoint is. Note: This option should be used along with -s only. This is applicable if checkpoint data is corresponding with the gathering stage.

Creating a dedup schedule

Command: sis config -s schedule path

schedule lists the days and hours of the day that deduplication runs. The schedule can be of the following forms:

• day_list[@hour_list] - If hour_list is not specified, deduplication runs in at midnight on the morning of each scheduled day.
• hour_list[@day_list] - If day_list is not specified, deduplication runs every day at the specified hours.
• A hyphen (-) disables deduplication operations for the specified FlexVol volume.
• auto - Deduplication runs automatically when the number of blocks added or changed since the last deduplication operation (performed either manually or automatically) exceeds approximately 20 percent of the total number of blocks that deduplication has already processed.

path is the complete path to the FlexVol volume.

Example
The following command starts deduplication operations at 11 p.m., Monday through Friday.

• sis config -s mon-fri@23 /vol/vol1

How to give access to SQL 2005 Activity Monitor

To view the Activity Monitor the user needs VIEW SERVER STATE permission on a SQL Server 2005 server.

Permission to KILL a process default to the members of the sysadmin and processadmin fixed database roles, and are not transferable.

References: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175518(SQL.90,printer).aspx