Windows Server Failover Clustering

We use Windows Server Failover Clustering as a solution for high availability for many porpouses: Virtual Machines, Network File Sharing and SQL Server Instances. We have dedicated clusters for Virtual Machines and Network File Share, and another one for SQL Server Instances. For the Virtual Machines, we use the live migration feature to put a node in maintence mode, without take any Virtual Machine off.

• High availablity of applications
• Maintence without applications downtime
• Centralized management for virtual machines

Microsoft SQL Server, Portainer, Redis Software, Apache Solr, NGINX, Veeam ONE, NAKIVO Backup & Replication, pfSense

I use Windows Server Failover Clustering primarily in hyperv clusters with physical servers but also in some cases in hyperv clusters with virtual servers (nested virtualization in lab environments). Also i use Windows Server Failover Clustering in SQL Server virtual clustering (guest clustering). The major business problems addressed are high availability and agility in hosting business workloads in a reliable manner.

• Reduced total cost of ownership by 15% after consolidating standalone servers into 1 cluster
• Increased return on investment by 20% after utilizing the new HyperV cluster with virtualized workloads
• Increased productivity and overall infrastructure availability by 30%

Azure Arc, Azure App Service, Azure Application Gateway, Azure AI Studio

We utilized Windows Server Failover Clustering as an integral part of a MS SQL cluster setup. We utilized it for almost zero downtime on our Microsoft SQL serving our on prem Sharepoint implementations, as well as several critical IT infrastructure systems that need a SQL database back end. This allows us to perform maintenance and patching without affecting the applications that use the SQL server. It's deployed on a active passive setup. We also set up a test Hyper-V high availability cluster.

• One of the most important features in the high availability of the SQL cluster ensuring we have minimum downtime.
• The automatic fail over feature. Making sure the database is always up when a failure occurs on the hardware level.
• The ease of managing the resource in the Failover clustering manager.

• A positive impact is that we are able to setup the Windows Server Failover Clustering with just the Standard Windows server and SQL license.
• We have hardware redundancy on our SQL server so we won't have to worry about hardware failures on maintenance windows. We can work on the passive node while the database is up on the active node.
• We were able to setup a virtualization cluster without having to purchase additional licenses for a test instance.
• We are able to utilize MS SQL for some of our more critical infrastructure because of the Windows Failover clustering, since the database was always up as long as one node was up.

Oracle Real Application Clusters

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM), ManageEngine ADAudit Plus, ManageEngine Remote Access Plus, VMware vCenter Server, Cohesity DataProtect

• SQL Server Roles deployment
• SQL Server databases on different disks
• Nodes on different Blade servers

• Zero Downtime
• Asynchronous updates
• Roles deployment

Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Power BI

• Failover
• Ease of use

• No need to invest in a third part product
• Support and documentation is everywhere
• The learning curve is not steep and is very quick

VMware vCenter Server

StarWind Virtual SAN