The cluster
utility enables you to manage almost all of the functions and
administrative needs of a server cluster from the command line, making
it easy to integrate such functions into scripts and dynamic web pages
you might create. In this section, I'll take a look at the various
options you have when using cluster and what you can do with the utility.
A couple of notes before I begin: When using cluster,
the locale settings for the user account under which you're logged in
must match the system default locale on the computer used to manage the
cluster. It's best to match the locales on all cluster nodes and all
computers from which you will use the command-line utility. Also, when
you remotely manage a cluster using Cluster Administrator or
cluster.exe, make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) is enabled on
the client.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at using the utility. You can create new clusters
from the command line; for example, to create a new cluster called
"testcluster" at the IP address 192.168.1.140 with the administrator
account, use the following:
Cluster testcluster /create ipaddress:192.168.1.140 /pass:Password /user:HASSELLTECH\
admnistratior /verbose
The /verbose option outputs detailed information to the screen about the process of creating the cluster.
You can add a node or multiple nodes, as shown in the below example, by using the /add switch. In the next command, I'm adding three nodes, called test1, test2, and test3 respectively, to the testcluster cluster:
Cluster testcluster /add:test1,test2,test3 /pass:Password /verbose
You might also wish to change the quorum resource via the command line. You can do so as shown below:
Cluster testcluster /quorum:disk2 /path:D:\
One thing to note in the
preceding command: if you change the location of the quorum resource, do
not omit the drive letter, the colon, or any backslashes. Write out the
path name as if you were entering the full path at the command line.
1. Managing Individual Nodes
The node option in cluster allows you to check on the status of and administer a cluster node. Some example commands include:
Cluster node test1 /status
This command displays the cluster node status (for example, if the node is up, down, or paused).
Cluster node test1 /forcecleanup
This command manually restores the configuration of the Cluster service on the specified node to its original state.
Cluster node test1 /start
(or
/stop
or
/pause
or
/resume)
This command starts, stops, pauses, or resumes the Cluster service on the specified node.
Cluster node test1 /evict
This command evicts a node from a cluster.
Cluster node test1 /listinterfaces
This command lists the node's network interfaces.
2. Managing the Cluster Service Itself
There is also a command, called clussvc,
that allows you to take action against a few things that might cause
the cluster service to present trouble. You should only use this command
if the cluster service fails to start, and it should only be run
locally from the node which is presenting problems.
To enable the debugging
of the resource dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that are loaded by the
resource monitor process, use the following:
Clussvc /debug /debugresmon
To allow the Cluster service to start up, despite problems with the quorum device, issue the following command:
Clussvc /debug /fixquorum
When the /fixquorum
command is issued on a particular node, the Cluster service starts, but
all the resources, including the quorum resource, remain offline. This
allows you to then manually bring the quorum resource online and more
easily diagnose quorum device failures.
If the quorum log file is
not found or is corrupted, the following will create a new quorum log
file based on information in the local node's cluster database file:
Clussvc /debug /resetquorumlog
The new quorum file is
created using information in the cluster database located in
%systemroot%\cluster\CLUSDB. Be careful, however, as that information
might be out of date; only use this if no backup is available.
Use the following command to disallow replication of event log entries:
Clussvc /debug /norepevtlogging
This command is useful
in reducing the amount of information displayed in the command window by
filtering out events already recorded in the event log.
And in the event that
nothing else works, you can use the following command to force a quorum
between a list of cluster nodes for a majority node set cluster:
Clussvc /debug /forcequorum node1,node2,node3
You
might use that command in the case where all nodes in one location have
lost the ability to communicate with nodes in another location.
