HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR SQLSERVER CLUSTER BUILD ON A WINDOWS CLUSTER

•  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 Enterprise Edition is installed on both computers in the cluster.
• All nodes are added to the domain
• A domain-level account that is a member of the local administrators group on each node.
• A dedicated account is recommended.
• Two PCI network adapters on each node in the cluster.
• All hardware should be identical, slot for slot, card for card, BIOS, firmware revisions, and so on, for all nodes.
• This makes configuration easier and eliminates compatibility problems.
• Static IP addresses for all network interfaces on each node.
• Each node must have at least two network adapters—one for connection to the client public network and the other for the node-to-node private cluster network
• All nodes must have two physically independent LANs or virtual LANs for public and private communication.
• All shared disks, including the quorum disk, must be physically attached to a shared bus.
• Verify that disks attached to the shared bus can be seen from all nodes.
• All shared disks must be configured as basic disks with RAID 5 - Logical Array and added to the windows cluster .
• Required at least 3 shared disk/Mount for DATA, LOG and TEMPDB for each Instance
• All partitions on the clustered disks must be formatted as NTFS with 64-KB allocation unit.
• Cluster Quorum Disk Space Recommendation – 1 GB.
• Quorum Configuration – Node and Disk Majority (Quorum)
• IP Address and SQL Virtual/Cluster Name for SQL Instance
• Cluster name will be added in DNS with virtual IP
• Verify the Node Failover and Storage Failover
• Configure MSDTC in the Cluster , It requires an IP  and Disk
• MSDTC Disk Space Recommendation – 1 GB

PRE INSTALLATION CHECKS AND CONFIGURATIONS

Common Software Requirement

•  SQL Server setup program requires Microsoft Windows Installer 4.5 or later.
• DOT NET Framework 3.5.1
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6 SP1 or later is required.
• For client connectivity, SQL Server 2008 R2 also requires the Shared Memory.Named Pipes, or TCP/IP network protocols.
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 Software setup files.
• Collation Settings Requirements for SQLServer

POST INSTALLATION CHECKS AND CONFIGURATIONS 

• Configure the Possible Owners to the SQL Instance
• Check the dependencies for SQL Instances which are properly configured
• Validate Failover of Services and Application which includes all SQL Related Services and  Disks
• Connect to SQL Instance and verify
• Add the SQL Service Account ,DBA group in the SQL instance
• Configure Min Server Memory and Max Memory  for SQL Server Instances depending on the available Physical Memory in the Sever
• Configure MAX DOP in the SQLServer depends on the number of CPU in the Server.

SQL 2008R2 SP2 installation fails on a Cluster with Windows 2008 R2 64 bit -Error Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070490)

When installing SP2 on a SQL 2008R2  Cluster, the installation fails with no apparent reasons. No errors are listed in the event logs

  Final result:                  The patch installer has failed to update the following instance: <Instance Name >. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

  Exit code (Decimal):           -568706566

  Exit facility code:            1562

  Exit error code:               14842

  Exit message:                  The patch installer has failed to update the following instance: <Instance Name >. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

  Start time:                    2014-08-09 21:10:32

  End time:                      2014-08-09 21:35:56

  Requested action:              Patch

Instance <,Instance Name> overall summary:

  Final result:                  The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

  Exit code (Decimal):           -568706566

  Exit facility code:            1562

  Exit error code:               14842

  Exit message:                  Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070490)

  Start time:                    2014-08-09 21:24:36

  End time:                      2014-08-09 21:35:50

  Requested action:              Patch

 Cause :

 The error is caused if there are offline and removed disks inside the cluster

 Resolution:

 1) Run the Windows Cluster Validation Report and see the error   "Element not found." in Disk  Configuration "

 2)The error is caused if there are  offline and removed disks inside the cluster (that are no longer  presented to the server nodes). 

3)Removing the disks and re-run the installer will fix the problem