File server fail over cluster

Question

In my domain environment I have a guest machine that acts as a file sever. I've recently purchased a new server for the purpose of implementing high availability between the 2 servers/sites.
How can I go about implementing a failover cluster with the existing file server which already hosts shared folders along with implementing the new server.

Answer 1

Hi @Whitney Kenny ,

You could use two (2) methods:

Method 1 - Use the Storage Migration Service

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With Storage Migration Service this will be done more or less automatically
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-migration-service/overview

Method 2 - Create the file server cluster, and manually copy the data and configure the shares

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First you would need to deploy your two-node clustered file server, you can follow the official documentation here:

Deploying a two-node clustered file server
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/deploy-two-node-clustered-file-server

Once that is done you can start with copying the data for example with Robocopy from the old file server to the currently active file server cluster node.

The challenge will be with the file shares, you can follow along in the blog post below for more information on how to accomplish this:
https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2014/08/04/migrate-an-old-file-server-to-a-transparent-failover-file-server-with-continuous-availability

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If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you!

Best regards,
Leon

Answer 2

Hey,

You can deploy a cluster with file share role configured and then use storage migration service or robocopy as mentioned.
The following guide should help deploying 2 node cluster with HA File Share:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-for-hyper-v-2-node-hyperconverged-scenario-with-windows-server-2016/

Cheers,
Alex Bykovskyi
StarWind Software
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