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We covered how we were going to implement the physical design of our database earlier in the chapter in the section "Designing the Database." The server we use for this is Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. This server has two NICs connected to two different networks. One is the network our clients (via the application layer) use to access the database. We call this the external network and configure it with the setting All Communications in Cluster Service. The other is a private network that only internal cluster communications occur on. The private network has no other computers on it beside our cluster members. This is configured with the setting Internal Cluster Communications Only. This network also has the highest priority for internal cluster communications.
All our NICs are configured with static IP addresses. We use no DHCP at all. They all also have the same communications settings, which we set manually.
Furthermore, we ensure the networks share no hardware, like switches, hubs, cables, and other communication devices. This way we try to eliminate the chance that both networks could fail at the same time.
We make sure both nodes were part of the same domain. This is one of the reasons we use two domain controllers in our lab environment.
We strongly recommend collaborating closely with experienced database administrators and network administrators when setting up an MSCS cluster. There are always a lot of specific settings that apply only to your networks. MSCS is a bit more complex to install than setting up NLB, and these people know the best settings for the hardware and networks you are using.
Figure 9-60 shows the final application layering of our solution.
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