Evict a node from the cluster

Article
10/08/2009

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To evict a node from the cluster

Close all applications on the node that is to be removed.
Open Cluster Administrator.
Review the failover policies of the resource groups on the node to be evicted.

For information on how to do this, see "Determining failover and move policies for groups" in Related Topics.
If necessary, move all groups on the node to be evicted to another node or nodes in the cluster.

For information on how to do this, see "To move a group to another node" in Related Topics.
Select the node to be evicted.
Stop the Cluster service if the node being evicted is not the last node in the cluster. That is, on the File menu, click Stop Cluster Service.

For information on how to do this, see "To stop the Cluster service" in Related Topics.

If the node being evicted is the last node in the cluster, proceed to the next step.
On the File menu in Cluster Administrator, click Evict Node.

Caution

Prior to evicting a node, check with application vendors to determine whether your applications require unclustering.
Application-specific data may be lost if you do not close your applications before you perform this procedure.

Important

Evicting the last node from the server cluster will not automatically delete the Cluster service account. It is highly recommended that you remove this account from the local Administrators group if you no longer have use for it. However, because the administration rights and permissions for the Cluster service account are granted locally on each cluster node and not domain wide, the impact of a compromised account is limited to just the cluster nodes. For more information, see Best practices for securing server clusters.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open Cluster Administrator, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Cluster Administrator.
In some cases you may be unable to stop the Cluster service on a node or evict the last node from the cluster, for example, if you are administering a mixed-version server cluster from a Windows 2000 node and try to evict a Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition node. In these cases, you can manually remove the configuration of the Cluster service on that node by typing cluster nodenode name**/force**[cleanup] at the command line. For more information on the cluster node command-line options, see Related Topics.
When you evict a node from the cluster, that node is configured as a stand-alone node (that is, not a cluster node). The clustering software remains installed on the node. You can re-add the evicted node to this cluster or create a new cluster on that node at any time.
Typically, you remove a node from a cluster when testing, redeploying, or replacing a node.
Allow the process of adding or evicting nodes to complete before changing the quorum in any way. For example, if you are evicting a node, wait until that process is complete before changing from a single quorum device cluster to a majority node set cluster.

Information about functional differences

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

Evict a node from the cluster

To evict a node from the cluster

Information about functional differences

See Also

Concepts

Additional resources