Cluster Naming Convention

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FineBuild can automatically create the names of the MSDTC, SQL DB, SQL AS, RS, and SQL IS clusters by adding a suffix to the Windows cluster name. The generated names must be unique across all the computer names in the domain.

The Microsoft SQL Server install process imposes restrictions on the cluster name that are not present in Active Directory or DNS. The main restriction is that the cluster name can be a maximum of 15 characters long. The other restriction is that the cluster name can consist only of the characters A to Z, 0 to 9 and -, even though the local DNS server may be configured to accept a wider range of characters.

A ‘natural’ naming convention for cluster names would be to add suffixes to the Windows cluster name, but if these suffixes are too long they can violate the name length restriction. Therefore FineBuild adds only a two or three character suffix to the Windows cluster name to form the names of the clusters it installs.

SQL FineBuild can install all of the following as Clustered Services. The table shows the Default Network Name that will be used if you supply no parameters to SQL FineBuild. You can change the suffix used by the Suffix Parameter value, or you can supply the entire Network Name for some cluster types by supplying the Group Parameter:

Object Type	Windows Cluster	Suffix Parameter	Value	Default Network Name	Group Parameter
Windows Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01			PDGB01SQLC01
MSDTC Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusDTCSuffix:	TC	PDGB01SQLC01TCA	/ClusterGroupDTC:
SQL DB Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusDBSuffix:	DB	PDGB01SQLC01DBA	/ClusterGroupSQL:
SQL AS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusASSuffix:	AS	PDGB01SQLC01ASA	/ClusterGroupAS:
Fileserver Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusFSSuffix:	FS	PDGB01SQLC01IFS	/ClusterGroupFS:
SQL IS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusISSuffix:	IS	PDGB01SQLC01IS
SQL RS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusRSSuffix:	RS	PDGB01SQLC01RS	/ClusterGroupRS:

A further character is added to the MSDTC, SQL DB and SQLAS cluster names to allow for multiple instances of these services to be installed:

Object Type	Windows Cluster	Cluster Suffix	Instance Name	FineBuild Cluster Network Name
MSDTC Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	TC		PDGB01SQLC01TCA
SQL AS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	AS	HR	PDGB01SQLC01ASA
SQL DB Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	DB	HR	PDGB01SQLC01DBA

It is also suggested that a numeric suffix is given for each node in the cluster, as this will group all names used by a cluster together in AD or DNS. This would result in the sample node names shown below:

Node	Node Suffix	Sample Node Name
Server Node 1	N01	PDGB01SQLC01N01
Server Node 2	N02	PDGB01SQLC01N02
Server Node 3	N03	PDGB01SQLC01N03
Server Node 4	N04	PDGB01SQLC01N04
Server Node 5	N05	PDGB01SQLC01N05

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