Clustering the SCOM 2007 R2 RMS Role on a Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Cluster (Part 5)

We're into the penultimate post of this series on 'Clustering the SCOM 2007 R2 RMS Role on a Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Cluster'. In this part, I will detail how to create the actual RMS Cluster and once it is created, I will outline some basic tests to ensure you're configuration is working as it should do.

Before you read through this section, please make sure you've read Part 1, Part 2 ,Part 3 and Part 4 of this series first to ensure you have your environment ready to create the SCOM 2007 R2 RMS cluster.

Creating the RMS Cluster 

In this procedure, you distribute the RMS Key to the secondary management servers and create the RMS cluster. At the end of this procedure, all nodes in a cluster can host the RMS.

Before you start

Ensure that the file share with the encryption key is accessible by all cluster nodes. This is used for distributing the RMS Key.

Creating the Virtual RMS

1. Log on to the computer that owns the RMS application with an account that is a member of the Administrators group. 2. If you successfully backed up the encryption key at the end of RMS setup, you can skip to step 5. 3. On the RMS owning node, as an Administrator, open a Command Prompt window and change current directory to the Operations Manager installation folder; for example, cd\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007. 4. To back up the RMS Key, type the following, where <fileshare> is a share accessible to all cluster nodes: SecureStorageBackup.exe Backup \\<fileshare>\<filename>.bin. Note This will launch the Encryption Key Backup or Restore Wizard. A password will be requested. It must be at least eight characters long and must include at least one symbol. You must confirm the password to create the encryption key file. 5. Log on to each secondary management server computer with an account that is a member of the Administrators group. 6. On each secondary management server, navigate to the Operations Manager installation directory and launch SecureStorageBackup.exe as an administrator. 7. This will launch the Encryption Key Backup or Restore Wizard. On the Introduction page, click Next and then select the ‘Restore’ option. 8. On the Provide a Location page, type in the path or browse to the encryption key file and click Next. 9. On the Provide a Password page type in the password that you used when you backed up the encryption key and click Next. 10. Click Finish. 11. Log on to the RMS computer with an account that is a member of the Administrators group. 12. In Failover Cluster Management, expand the cluster, and ensure that the RMS application is owned by node 1. 13. On the SQL Server-based computer that hosts the OperationsManager database, open the SQL Server Management Studio tool, open the Databases folder, and select the OperationsManager database. Right-click to open the context sensitive menu and select Tasks, Back Up to initiate a backup. On the Back Up Database - OperationsManager page, ensure that the Backup type value is set to Full, give the Backup set an appropriate name, and set the Backup set will expire value to a date in the distant future. In the Destination box, for the Back up to value, select Disk and add an appropriate disk location to hold the backup, if one is not already present, and then click OK. Important When you run the ManagementServerConfigTool to create the RMS cluster, you are advised to back up the OperationsManager database because irrecoverable damage can be done by creating the RMS cluster if something is done incorrectly. 14. On the RMS server, as an Administrator, browse to the installation media for SCOM 2007 R2 and in the ‘Support Tools’ folder, you will find the ‘ManagementServerConfigTool.exe’ file. Copy this file to the same location on the C drive that you ran the ‘SecureStorageBackup.exe’ tool from (this location is generally a default of ‘C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007’) Once you have copied the tool to the location as above, open an Elevated Command Prompt window, type cd <path to Operations Manager installation directory>, and then press ENTER. 15. To instantiate the RMS cluster group as a cluster, type the following, where G is the disk resource that is allocated to the cluster group that is being used to create this virtual Root Management Server and where <VirtualServerNetbiosName> is the network name resource allocated to the same cluster group: ManagementServerConfigTool.exe InstallCluster /vs:<VirtualServerNetbiosName> /Disk:G The value you enter for <VirtualServerNetbiosName> must be the value that appears in the Name box on the General tab of the Properties dialog box. Note ManagementServerConfigTool.exe InstallCluster will install the RMS as a clustered service on every available node in the cluster. Note When you run the ManagementServerConfigTool, the output might display instructions for running the SetSPN command; these instructions can be ignored. 16. In Failover Cluster Management, right-click the RMS application to open the context menu and select Bring Online to bring all the RMS applications online. 17. Open Failover Cluster Management and right-click the RMS application to open the context menu. Select Move this service or application to another node and select the next node in the cluster. Repeat this so that the RMS application is moved to each node of the cluster. Important The RMS application must be moved and come online successfully on each cluster node to set the state of the services correctly on each node at this time. Do not skip this step. Clustered RMS setup is complete.

Testing the Cluster Installation

Use the following procedure to test the cluster installation.

1. In the Operations console, click Administration.

Note
When you run the Operations console on a computer that is not a management server, the Connect To Server dialog box appears. In the Server name text box, type the name of the RMS Server (the cluster virtual server name) that you want the Operations console to connect to. 

2. In the Administration pane, point to Administration, point to Device Management, and then click Management Server.

3. In the management servers pane, the RMS Server Network Name should appear with a health state of Healthy.

4. In the Administration pane, click Agentless Managed.

5. In the Agentless Managed pane, the entry for each node in the cluster should appear with a health state of Healthy.

This concludes Part 5 of my 'Clustering the SCOM 2007 R2 RMS Role on a Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Cluster' series of posts. In the final post of this series, I will explain how to install SCOM 2007 R2 Reporting into an SQL 2008 R2 environment and also some troubleshooting steps if you are having issues with your newly created RMS Cluster.