Failover cluster Manager - cluster creation with network interface which has enabled only IPV6

Question

Hello,

Good Morning!

I tried to create a cluster on windows 2019 server with 2 network interfaces,
Interface#1 - with both IPV4 and IPV6 enabled and
Interface#2 - with IPV6 only enabled ( disabled IPV4 on this interface).

Then tried to create the cluster which should use the network that has only IPV6 enabled ( Interface#2).
It throws an error as "the IP address is invalid".
I think it is checking Interface#1 and complaining, not sure though.

How do i create a cluster with a network interface enabled only with IPV6.
If someone can share their thoughts on this, it would be of great help!
Thanks in advance for your time.

PS C:\Users\Administrator.W16FTCLAB> New-Cluster -Node NTB-TEST-NODE1, NTB-TEST-NODE2 -Name NTB-CLUSTER -IgnoreNetwork 10.35.5.0/8 -StaticAddress "fdd0:d890:c696:bf5c:fdd0:d890:c696:abcd"
New-Cluster : The specified IP address 'fdd0:d890:c696:bf5c:fdd0:d890:c696:abcd' is invalid.
At line:1 char:1

• New-Cluster -Node NTB-TEST-NODE1, NTB-TEST-NODE2 -Name NTB-CLUSTER -I ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [New-Cluster], ClusterCmdletException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : PSArgument,Microsoft.FailoverClusters.PowerShell.NewClusterCommand
  PS C:\Users\Administrator.W16FTCLAB>

Thanks
Priya

Answer 1

Hi,

We can't use static IPv6 addresses to create the Cluster. If we want to use static IPv6 address, we need to identify it first after the cluster is created.

So, it's recommended to use IPv4 address to create the Cluster first, then use the following method to add static IPv6 address resource and add to Cluster name, then remove the IPv4 addresses. Or use dynamic IPv6 address to create the cluster.

"If you prefer to select your own statically assigned IPv6 addresses, you can reconfigure the IPv6 Address resources using PowerShell as follows (it cannot be specified when the cluster is created):"

Open a Windows PowerShell console as an Administrator and do the following:

1) Create a new IPv6 Cluster IP Resource

Add-ClusterResource -Name “IPv6 Cluster Address” -ResourceType “IPv6 Address” -Group “Cluster Group”

2) Set the properties for the newly created IP Address resource

Get-ClusterResource “IPv6 Cluster Address” | Set-ClusterParameter –Multiple @{“Network”=”Cluster Network 1”; “Address”= “2001:489828:4::”;”PrefixLength”=64}

3) Stop the netname which corresponds to this static IPv6 address

Stop-ClusterResource “Cluster Name”

4) Create a dependency between the netname and the static IPv6 address

Set-ClusterResourceDependency “Cluster Name” “[Ipv6 Cluster Address]”

You might consider having an OR dependency with between the netname and, the static IPv6 and IPv4 addresses as follows:

Set-ClusterResourceDependency “Cluster Name” “[Ipv6 Cluster Address] or [Ipv4 Cluster Address]”

5) Restart the netname

Start-ClusterResource “Cluster Name”

For name resolution, if you prefer not to use dynamic DNS, you can configure DNS mappings for the address automatically generated by the cluster, or you can configure DNS mappings for your static address. Also note that, Cluster IPv6 Address resources do not support DHCPv6.

Please check the following article for detailed information:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/failover-clustering/failover-clustering-and-ipv6-in-windows-server-2012-r2/ba-p/371912

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

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Answer 2

Thanks Anne for your immediate response. It helps!

I would like to share few observations with my experiments.

I have 2 interfaces as shown below, one with IPv6 address 10.35.x.x and the other one with both IPV4 and v6 configued. Actually i tried to create cluster with Ethernet 3 for cluster communication,

New-Cluster -Name CLUSTER -Node NODE1,NODE2 -IgnoreNetwork 10.35.0.0/16

Then did use -staticAddress option to mention 192.168.x.x ip after assigning 192.168.125.1 to Ethernet 3. Still cluster creation did not succeed.
Any suggestion on what i am missing here.

PS C:\Users\Administrator> ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : ntbwg.com
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.35.5.174
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.35.5.254

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 1:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : ntbwg.com
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fdd0:d890:c696:bf5c:fdd0:d890:c696:cf5c
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.94.60
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Answer 3

For dynamic IPv6 address to create the cluster, i need to have DHCP server right.

Answer 4

Hi Anne,

I am curious to know what is the reason for not supporting static IPV6 with failover cluster.

Thanks your time and help!

Answer 5

Hi,

To create Cluster, we need to ensure at least one IP address can communicate between each nodes, if we want to use the Ethernet 3 IPv6 address, please ensure the other nodes also has the IPv6 address that can communicate with each other.

Best Regards,
Anne