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.