Question

Windows Server 2003 Cluster: Is it possible to move resources from one cluster to another with virtually no interruption?

Asked by: eugene81

Hi guys, this is my first post with my own account! =D

Anyhoo, we have an existing Windows 2003 file/print cluster with 2 nodes, and plan on creating a new cluster with 2 new servers to handle the shares while the old one just hosts print queues -- all running off a SAN.  My question is, is there a way to migrate the shares seamlessly (almost), with very little disruption to users?  

I could imagine being able to just build the new cluster with one node, then removing the file server resources from the old cluster, presenting the disks to the new cluster node, creating the same file server resources with the same names on the new cluster node, and then adding the second node to the new cluster.  However, it seems like the shares would be offline for at least 10-30 minutes.  I work at a large hospital, and this cluster serves the entire campus, so needless to say we want to minimize down time.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Asked On
2008-03-24 at 17:03:34ID23265744
Tags

Microsoft

,

Windows

,

2003

,

2 node active/passive cluster via MSCS

Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Active Directory

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: SystmProgPosted on 2008-03-25 at 06:24:57ID: 21201637

Why do you say Shares will take at least 10-30 minutes to migrate? This is your assumption or you have tried in a test lab? As I understand, it should take more than 10 seconds to migrate the shares from one node to another.

How many resources are created? Do they all depend on each other? Have you tried breaking their dependencies and creating the separate groups and then moving them to those created groups. This way you could trnasfer resources group by group rather than transferring all the resources at a time.

Let us know.
SP

 

by: eugene81Posted on 2008-03-25 at 19:22:28ID: 21208430

I'm not talking about moving shares from one node to another in the same cluster; I'm talking about moving them to a completely new cluster.  Sorry, maybe "...new cluster node..." appeared to read as "new node on the cluster" when I actually meant "node on the new cluster".

To reiterate...

OLD: 1 file/print cluster with 2 nodes = 2 boxes

NEW: 1 print server cluster with 2 nodes + 1 file server cluster with 2 nodes = 4 boxes

Just my estimate RE: downtime.

There are maybe 10-20 shares, a name, an IP address -- basic stuff.  I don't think the rest of your questions are relevant since I want to go to a new cluster.

Ideally I'm looking for some kind of MS migration tool.  Is anybody aware of such a tool -- MS or 3rd party?  If not, perhaps a quicker or more "sound" method than that which I have outlined?

 

by: SystmProgPosted on 2008-03-25 at 21:42:22ID: 21208930

 

by: WMichaelisPosted on 2008-07-01 at 08:04:26ID: 21908523

All right, I'll chime in.

1. Download the Print Migrator utility from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9b9f2925-cbc9-44da-b2c9-ffdbc46b0b17&displaylang=en

2. Log into the node of the cluster that is currently the owner of the print resource, as an administrator.
3. Run the Printmig.exe utility, and from the Actions menu, choose Backup.
4. Name the file something you'll remember, and make sure the Target server is set to the name of your print resource Network Name. This will generate a cab file with all the information you need.
5. Copy the cab file, and the printmig.exe utility to each node of the new cluster. Run it on both nodes (choose restore from the actions menu, and set the target server to the name of the node it is running on), and when it completes, go to Control Panel/Printers and Faxes, and delete the printers there.
6. Make sure to setup the new Print spooler resources on the new cluster.
7. On thee node that is the active owner of the new print resources, run the printmig.exe utility again, choose restore from the actions menu, and set the target server to the Network Name you created for the print resource.

That should do the trick.

 

by: eugene81Posted on 2008-07-15 at 12:41:41ID: 31442513

FSMT is what I was looking for!  WMichaelis - I was looking more for a solution for file shares, not print queues, but you got it half right (after SystmProg did) so I'm awarding you some points.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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