Recovering Clusters › Cluster Failure Scenarios › Requirements › Hardware Requirements

Hardware Requirements

To perform disaster recovery on clusters, you must meet the following hardware requirements:

• The hardware for a cluster service node must meet the hardware requirements for Windows 2003, Windows 2008, or Windows 2008 r2 Enterprise Server.

  Note: For information about the hardware requirements for Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 r2 operating systems, see the Knowledge Base document on the CA Support Online website named How to Recover Windows 2008 Cluster from a Disaster.

• Cluster hardware must be on the Cluster Service Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
• Two HCL-approved computers comprised of the following:
  • A boot disk with Windows 2003 Enterprise Server installed. The boot disk cannot be located on the shared storage bus.
  • Boot disks and shared disks must be on separate SCSI channels (SCSI PathID); separate adapters (SCSI PortNumber) are not required. You can use a single multi-channel SCSI or Fibre Channel adapter for both boot and shared disks.
  • Two PCI network adapters on each computer in the cluster.
  • An HCL-approved external disk storage unit that connects to all computers. This is used as the clustered disk. A RAID is recommended.
  • All hardware should be identical, slot for slot, card for card, for all nodes. This makes configuration easier and mitigates potential compatibility problems.
  • Backup devices such as tapes or tape library devices can be attached to one or all cluster nodes. It is not always necessary to have backup devices attached to the cluster nodes. If you do not have backup devices attached to the cluster nodes, the Client Agent for Windows should be installed in all cluster nodes that require data protection.