Exchange Server

Michael Lockhart · Guest

I have not worked with clusters before, and have inherited a 3 node exchange
cluster in my new job. We need to shut down the whole cluster in the coming
days for a 6 hour period while we do some urgent maintenance on our SAN. Is
there anything i should know about completely shutting down a cluster?? Is
there a certain order/way to shut things down, etc. None of the other guys
here have had to do it before, and i have not been able to find any info/docs
on a cluster shutdown. Any help would be great!

Michael Lockhart · Guest

Thanks for the reply. Nodes A & B are active, and node C is passive.

Jonathan Norris · Guest

I would ensure you allow time for each node to properly fail over as you shut
them down. Then you should start them in the reverse order that you started
them up.

For Example;

Shutdown
Node A
Node B
Node C

Startup
Node C
Node B
Node A

You didn't mention which nodes were passive and active and any possible
owners, so it is possible that I am not advising you correctly.

Jonathan Norris · Guest

In this case shut down A first allow it time to fail over gracefully.

Then do B and it will fail since there are no possible owners.

Then Shut Down C.

I would then bring A up and let it start the services.
Then follow this with B.
Next C.

Good luck with your upgrade!

Bob Christian · Guest

Before shutting down the nodes, I generally make sure they are healthy and
can fail over, and function, on each physical node. After that has been
functionally tested, I pause the nodes so that they will not have an issue
trying to fail-over and flip-flop. From there I shut down down the passive
node, and then the Active Node(s).

Bob

--
Bob Christian II
MVP - LCS
http://bobchristian.blogspot.com - Blog

Russ Kaufmann [MVP] · Guest

Yeah, what Bob said - make sure you test them before taking them offline and
shutting down the nodes.

Keep in mind with a 3 node cluster, you will probably have one of the EVSs
not start up automatically and it will have to be brought online manually
after all of the nodes are up.

--
Russ Kaufmann

MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Website
http://msmvps.com/clusterhelp - Blog

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