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How do I build a cluster in Windows Server 2012?

Hi all.

I was just wondering something;

I might be receiving some used servers in the near future (up to 6, dual Xeon X5670 machines potentially) and I was wondering how I'd go about clustering them so that they'd work as one system, and share the workload between them.
I'm new to servers, and while I do have an i5 server 2012 machine running, it's only doing basic tasks.

The new servers would be running server 2012 too.


If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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What type of cluster? What do you want to make faster?

 

You can do storage clustering with DFS or storage spaces direct(i think you need 2016 or above for that though)

 

AD is easy to cluster if you just add a second server.

 

You can't just have programs transfer to anouther system, the program needs to support clustering.

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20 minutes ago, Queasy Tiger said:

Hi all.

I was just wondering something;

I might be receiving some used servers in the near future (up to 6, dual Xeon X5670 machines potentially) and I was wondering how I'd go about clustering them so that they'd work as one system, and share the workload between them.
I'm new to servers, and while I do have an i5 server 2012 machine running, it's only doing basic tasks.

The new servers would be running server 2012 too.


If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/12/31/windows-server-2012-clustering-step-by-step/

1st hit on google from your topic

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What type of cluster? What do you want to make faster?

 

You can do storage clustering with DFS or storage spaces direct(i think you need 2016 or above for that though)

 

AD is easy to cluster if you just add a second server.

 

You can't just have programs transfer to anouther system, the program needs to support clustering.

Okay then;

I want to run BOINC across the systems while only using one client. (If at all possible)

I also want to be able to virtualise lots of systems across them. (Since each server could be up to 12 cores)

Like I say, I'm kinda new at this.  I've heard something about HPC clustering in Linux?  I'm willing to try other operating systems if it lets me do what I want.

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Just now, Queasy Tiger said:

I saw that, but I am not sure failover clustering is the solution I'm looking for.
Isn't failover clustering for redundancy? 

Yup, and it's part and parcel to a cluster. It's like RAID....Redundancy....not a bad thing to have

If you want a technical detailed involved post on clustering, head over to ArsTechnica and post in their Server forums...the guys there know their stuff hands down. You'll get more info that you could ever want from them.

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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9 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Yup, and it's part and parcel to a cluster. It's like RAID....Redundancy....not a bad thing to have

If you want a technical detailed involved post on clustering, head over to ArsTechnica and post in their Server forums...the guys there know their stuff hands down. You'll get more info that you could ever want from them.

Alright then, I'll do that.  Thanks anyway :) 

(I'll keep the topic open just in case though)

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37 minutes ago, Queasy Tiger said:

Okay then;

I want to run BOINC across the systems while only using one client. (If at all possible)

I also want to be able to virtualise lots of systems across them. (Since each server could be up to 12 cores)

Like I say, I'm kinda new at this.  I've heard something about HPC clustering in Linux?  I'm willing to try other operating systems if it lets me do what I want.

You need to run boinc on every system. You can script it so that they all start at once, but there is no easy way to do this.

 

You can use hyper-v to easily cluster vms and do live migration

 

Why windows server? Id probalby run something like esxi or proxmox here and run everything in a vm and run clustered storage.

 

Also rip powerbill

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9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You need to run boinc on every system. You can script it so that they all start at once, but there is no easy way to do this.

 

You can use hyper-v to easily cluster vms and do live migration

 

Why windows server? Id probalby run something like esxi or proxmox here and run everything in a vm and run clustered storage.

 

Also rip powerbill

Yeah, but VMware is expensive...    I only have server 2012 because a friend of mine had a spare licence...

I guess if I ever get the money I should.
Also, too bad about BOINC, I guess I'll just have to run then separately.

And yep, the power bill is gonna be big, but I want to do it for the greater good of mankind.
Also I'm looking about starting some kind of IT business when I get some experience (Purely so I can qualify to get the business fiber internet in my area. There is only DSL in my area for consumers, and I get 11Mbps down, 0.85Mbps up....
Business users can get 100 down with standard fiber to the cabinet.

So yeah....

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1 minute ago, Queasy Tiger said:

Yeah, but VMware is expensive...    I only have server 2012 because a friend of mine had a spare licence...

I guess if I ever get the money I should.
Also, too bad about BOINC, I guess I'll just have to run then separately.

And yep, the power bill is gonna be big, but I want to do it for the greater good of mankind.
Also I'm looking about starting some kind of IT business when I get some experience (Purely so I can qualify to get the business fiber internet in my area. There is only DSL in my area for consumers, and I get 11Mbps down, 0.85Mbps up....
Business users can get 100 down with standard fiber to the cabinet.

So yeah....

well linux is free, so you can do all the linux stuff here for free. Id run that over 2012 as 2012 is missing a few features now.

 

Your probably better off donating the money that would be spent of power, Your not helping that much with BONIC and that is gonna use a good amount of resources to get the power.

 

You can normally get buiness internet without being a buiness, you just have to pay more and ask for it.

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1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

well linux is free, so you can do all the linux stuff here for free. Id run that over 2012 as 2012 is missing a few features now.

 

Your probably better off donating the money that would be spent of power, Your not helping that much with BONIC and that is gonna use a good amount of resources to get the power.

 

You can normally get buiness internet without being a buiness, you just have to pay more and ask for it.

I might give linux a try tbh, but its completely alien to me.

The servers are my College's old ones, and they might give them to me free, so ima keep them for my own use too.

And we tried, because they'd have to run a fiber cable to our farmhouse, they only want to do it for a business. If they did, they'd charge us to install the cable, but It'd be worth it.

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5 hours ago, Queasy Tiger said:

I might give linux a try tbh, but its completely alien to me.

The servers are my College's old ones, and they might give them to me free, so ima keep them for my own use too.

And we tried, because they'd have to run a fiber cable to our farmhouse, they only want to do it for a business. If they did, they'd charge us to install the cable, but It'd be worth it.

Well your gonna gonna have to do a good amount of learning no matter what os your going to use(this is far more than the normal windows desktop stuff). You can go windows, but id go 2016+ and you need a key per system. Id personally go linux here, but take your pick.

 

Getting fiber to your house won't be cheap, but you can easily(at least in the us) setup a business(just need paperwork and someone to make sure its correct). But if you gonna get someone to run fiber out to you might aswell get 1g or 10g, 100m seems slow for fiber. Look for other custom fiber comapies, there are normally lots of companies that will run a line for you if you pay.

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On 10/19/2018 at 8:42 AM, Queasy Tiger said:

Yeah, but VMware is expensive...    I only have server 2012 because a friend of mine had a spare licence...

Sign up for VMUG Advantage, $200 US per year and you get access to all the major top end VMware software, the big enterprise licenses of them too.

 

Also it sounds like you want the servers to act as one large logical server/compute unit, that's pretty much not actually a thing and very much not in the Windows world. Server clusters more typically work using workload distribution and automatic HA/failover in the event of hardware failure.

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8 hours ago, Queasy Tiger said:

Yeah, but VMware is expensive...

 

VMWare ESXi is free....unless you want vCenter so you can do vMotions, HA/DRS, etc....

Sign up to VMUG and its US$200/year for the entire vCenter suite. 

 

And no you can't cluster them like you want, thats not how clustering works.

 

To get a business connection in most places you just need a registered business name at the most. In my country you don't even need that, so you probably dont need an actual business to get a business line...

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On 10/18/2018 at 3:52 PM, Queasy Tiger said:

And we tried, because they'd have to run a fiber cable to our farmhouse, they only want to do it for a business. If they did, they'd charge us to install the cable, but It'd be worth it.

When you say farmhouse, do you mean actual farmhouse? As in, you live on an active farm?

 

If so, you're already a business.

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On 10/20/2018 at 9:09 PM, dalekphalm said:

When you say farmhouse, do you mean actual farmhouse? As in, you live on an active farm?

 

If so, you're already a business.

Hey, sorry about the long wait for a reply.


We only rent a farmhouse on a working farm, and the people who own the farm have no interest in fiber.

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1 hour ago, Queasy Tiger said:

Hey, sorry about the long wait for a reply.


We only rent a farmhouse on a working farm, and the people who own the farm have no interest in fiber.

I just find it odd that they would refuse to offer the business plan, even if you're willing to pay the sizeable installation fee.

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