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ThorinOFlag for United States of America

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Should my MS SQL 2008 cluster have a DNS entry?

I followed the URL below to setup a SQL 2008 cluster and it is working and I am currently doing testing. I am currently installing a Web application with a SQL database. When I did the installation I was not able to put in the name of the SQL cluster which means there is no DNS entry. I ended up being the IP address of the SQL cluster which is working.

Before I put this into production I would like to know if I should create a DNS entry for it or always use the IP. I ask this because the web.config will now have the IP instead of the DNS name.

I am also a little confused as to which IPs do what, below is what I ended up with.

10.0.0.235 = Node1
10.0.0.236 = Node
10.0.0.237 = Cluster (I assume I would use this if I want to access whatever the primary node is?)
10.0.0.238 = MSDTC IP (not sure when if ever I would use this)
10.0.0.239 = SQL Cluster IP (I assume whenever I need to access SQL I use this?)

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1721
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mass2612
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Avatar of sharjeel ashraf
cluster would the IP of the current node thats up
sql cluster would the IP for accessing the SQL part
msdtc, is a component used by Cluster services, dont worry about it.

node1 and node are the physical servers that create the cluster set.

ideally you should have a DNS entry created by the cluster wizard when it created the cluster for you, if it hasnt theres no harm in adding it manually, apart from if you wish to change the IP (which i cant see why), of the cluster .

your web app should be looking for either the server nameor fqdn name i.e. cluster.domain.local, and sql cluster.domain.local
Sorry I missed a link

How to Create a Cluster Group with a Disk, IP Address, and Name Resource
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd897474(v=bts.10).aspx
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After looking this morning I did see a DNS entry for the SQL cluster group, it was named incorrectly so I fixed it in the failover manager and all is well, I also tested by updating my connection strings and they worked.