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One more (and potentially very useful for many customers) new feature of Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 R2 is the ability to deploy a failover cluster without any dependencies in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for network names. What this means is that you can now register the cluster network name together with the network names of clustered roles that have client access points on your DNS servers without the need of creating corresponding computer objects in AD DS. This new capability is called Active Directory–detached clustering.

The main benefit of this new option for implementing Failover Clustering is that it can simplify the process of deploying, managing, and maintaining your failover clusters.

For example, if you use Active Directory–detached clustering, then you will no longer need permissions to create these computer objects in AD DS or ask your Active Directory administrator to pre-stage the computer objects in AD DS. In addition, you will no longer need to manage and maintain the cluster computer objects for the cluster.

The chance of an administrative error causing your failover cluster to go down can also be reduced if you implement Active Directory–detached clustering in your environment. For example, it has been known to happen in the past that an administrator accidentally deletes a cluster object in Active Directory. Such mistakes, of course, can have disastrous consequences not only for your failover cluster and the workloads running on it, but for your business operations as well.

Note that Active Directory–detached clustering does not mean you don’t need Active Directory for your Failover Clustering solution. The nodes in a failover cluster must still be joined to an Active Directory domain. Windows Server does not support deploying failover clusters in a workgroup environment using standalone servers.

Note also that you must use Windows PowerShell to implement Active Directory–detached clustering. For more information on how to do this, see the link on this topic in the “Learn more” section at the end of this chapter.

IMPORTANT Microsoft does not recommend implementing Active Directory–detached clustering for any scenario that requires Kerberos authentication.

Learn more

You can learn more about the new Failover Clustering features and enhancements in Windows Server 2012 R2 by checking out the following topics on Microsoft TechNet:

“What’s New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012 R2” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265972.aspx.

“Virtual Hard Disk Sharing Overview” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/

dn281956.aspx.

“Deploy a Guest Cluster Using a Shared Virtual Hard Disk” at http://technet.microsoft .com/en-us/library/dn265980.aspx.

“Deploy an Active Directory-Detached Cluster” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/

library/dn265970.aspx.

The following Microsoft TechNet and MSDN blog posts also have lots of information about the new Failover Clustering features and enhancements in Windows Server 2012 R2:

“How to Enable CSV Cache” at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/

archive/2013/07/19/10286676.aspx.

“How to Properly Shutdown a Failover Cluster or a Node” at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/

clustering/archive/2013/08/23/10443912.aspx.

“Windows Server 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Recovery from Network Disconnects” at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2013/09/04/10446482.aspx.

Be sure also to check out the following videos from TechEd 2013 on Channel 9:

“Continuous Availability: Deploying and Managing Clusters Using Windows Server 2012 R2” at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B305.

“Failover Cluster Networking Essentials” at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/

NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B337.

“Upgrading Your Private Cloud with Windows Server 2012 R2” at http://channel9.msdn .com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B331.

“Application Availability Strategies for the Private Cloud” at http://channel9.msdn.com/

Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B311.

“Storage and Availability Improvements in Windows Server 2012 R2” at http://channel9 .msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/MDC-B333.

“Understanding the Hyper-V over SMB Scenario, Configurations, and End-to-End Performance” at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2013/

MDC-B335.

C H A P T E R 5

Networking

C

urrently, IT is all about the cloud, and the foundation of cloud computing is infrastructure. If you’re an enterprise that’s going to build and manage a private cloud, then you’ll be dealing with three main kinds of infrastructure: compute, storage, and network. And if you’re a hoster creating a cloud for selling services to customers, then you’ll be working with the same three building blocks but on a much larger scale and with additional features that are essential for hosting environments such as multitenant isolation, IP address management, and Network Virtualization.

In Chapter 2, “Hyper-V,” we looked at Hyper-V improvements in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Hyper-V hosts provide the compute infrastructure needed for running virtualized workloads in a cloud infrastructure. In Chapter 3, “Storage,” we examined storage improvements in the new platform. Storage Spaces and the Scale-out File Server (SoFS) are two storage technologies that can enable new scenarios and help lower costs when deploying the storage infrastructure for a cloud solution. In Chapter 4, “Failover Clustering,” we looked at how the Failover Clustering feature has been enhanced in the platform. Failover clustering enables your compute and storage resources to be highly available, which is essential for today’s always-on businesses.

In this chapter, we’ll now examine the networking improvements in Windows Server 2012 R2. Networking is the underlying glue that holds your infrastructure together, makes possible the delivery of services, makes remote management a reality, and more.

But first let’s begin by reviewing the networking enhancements introduced earlier in Windows Server 2012.