SQL Cluster WSFC

Question

I am building a SQL cluster for a test. This is the first time I am doing this and need advice.

I already have a WSFC (Windows Server Failover Cluster) with a cluster that contains two Hyper-V nodes. Do I understand correctly that on the WSFC a new cluster has to be created which is responsible for the SQL and once this is entered the SQL setup can be run normally on the SQL server and the "Cluster" option still has to be run there? Or will this cluster be executed using SQL setup? This confuses me a bit.

Answer 1

Hi,

Do I understand correctly that on the WSFC a new cluster has to be created which is responsible for the SQL

I assume that you want to use availability groups, and in this case the answer is that it depend on your server edition and version.

Always On availability groups is a feature that support Enterprise edition while in Standard edition from version 2016 and above you have a new feature named Basic availability groups. In the first option SQL Server takes advantage of WSFC services and capabilities to support Always On availability groups and SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances. The second feature is not build on WSFC. A basic availability group supports two replicas, with one database. For more information about basic availability groups, see Basic Availability Groups.

once this is entered the SQL setup can be run normally on the SQL server and the "Cluster" option still has to be run there?

You can follow this step-by-step tutorial for the task:

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4769/stepbystep-installation-of-sql-server-2016-on-a-windows-server-2016-failover-cluster-part-1/

In addition, I highly recommend to go over this document before you start:

https://learn.microsoft.com/sql/sql-server/failover-clusters/windows/windows-server-failover-clustering-wsfc-with-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15&WT.mc_id=DP-MVP-5001699

Answer 2

Thank you very much for your answers! Exactly, this refers purely to the installation/environment regarding SQL Cluster. When I run the installation of SQL and go to the item "New SQL Server failover cluster installation". It says "this action is only avaible in the clustered environment". I understand that. As mentioned before, there is already a WSFC with a cluster of two Hyper-Vs. Now do I understand correctly that I need to create a new cluster on the WSFC which contains the two SQL servers?

Thank you very much for the information and the time!