Microsoft Failover cluster 2008 : Moving MSDTC to new SAN disk

We have four node cluster on Windows 2008 where the MSDTC disk hosted on a SAN array. Now we have to move the MSDTC disk to new SAN drive as we are going to decommission the existing SAN. In this post  I will explain the steps that we have followed in our environment to move the MSDTC disk to new SAN.The same steps can be followed for configuring MSDTC in a new cluster environment.

From the current host server(the node where quorum drive visible) ,open the Failover Cluster Management. In the left pane expand the Services and Application group and select the MS-DTC resource. From the summery window note down the Server network name and IP address to use in our later steps.

The next step is to get  the new SAN disk in the cluster. To add the disk to the cluster follow the steps given below:

• Open the windows disk manager.
• Right click the new disk  in Windows Disk Management and select online.
• Right click again and select initialize.
• Finally format it by right clicking the disk and selecting New Simple Volume.
• This will open Simple Volume Wizard. Provide the new drive letter(For Example U) and label for the disk.
• In the Cluster Manager ,select the storage in the  left pane.
• Select the Add Disk in the Action pane and select the proposed new disk.

At this point we can see this disk under the available storage group. Now everything is ready to make the move. Unfortunately we can't move existing MSDTC to the new disk directly.The only option is delete the existing one and add new MSDTC. 

Follow the below steps to delete and add new MSDTC resource:

• In the cluster manager ,expand the services and applications
• Right click  the MSDTC  group and select Delete.
• Now the existing MSDTC  disk (in our environment X drive) will be available under the available storage.
• Select the old disk (X drive) under the storage and click on change drive letter option available in the activity pane
• Select None as new drive letter and click Ok button
• Select the new disk ( U drive ) under the storage  and click on change drive letter option available in the activity pane
• Select X as new drive letter and click Ok button
•    The last four  steps are done to keep the drive letter for new disk as same as the old one. These four steps are not mandatory to perform.
• Right click on the Services and Application and select Configure Services or Application option
• This will open the high availability wizard screen.
• Select next which will list Services or application that can be configured for the high availability.Select the Distributed Transaction Coordinator(DTC)

• Select Next which will open the client access point configuration screen as given below.Enter the network name and IP address which we have noted down in the first step.

• Select Next,which will open the storage configuration screen.This will list all the disk available under the available storage group. Select the appropriate disk and click Next

On clicking Next, it will directed into the confirmation screen and click again on Next will complete configuration. Now the MSDTC is configured in the SAN disk and can be verified by opening the disk in the windows explorer. Now we should be able to see the MSDTC  folder inside the new drive which confirms the movement. Now bring this service online.Set the preferred owner through the properties window and test the failover.

In the later post I will be explaining about quorum disk and System/user database movement to the new SAN array.

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