MSSQL Cluster using Local disks of the Servers as Cluster Storage?

Question

Dear Colleagues,

Good day! We are setting up 2 Node MSSQL cluster. Unfortunately, we don't have shared storage. Only available local disks in each node. Is it possible to proceed with this setup of the MSSQL cluster? The goal is to have HA for our DB Server. Also, can we use Windows Network Load Balancer for DB redundancy of MSSQL Servers? For your expert input!

Appreciate your response.

Thank you in Advance!

Best Regards,

Jr

Answer 1

What sort of HA solution are you aiming at?

If you are intending to get a failover cluster, that is not possible without shared disks, since the whole idea is that you have two nodes that share the disk where the database resides, and both nodes can work with that disk.

If you instead set up an availability group (AG), it is a different matter, as you have local replicas of the database on each server, and the primary replicates the data to the secondary. However, a proper AG solution requires a cluster, and I suspect that the cluster still requires something shared. If nothing else, you need a file-share witness so that you can achieve quorom in the cluster.

It is possibly to have an AG without a cluster; it is a special type of AG known as clusterless. However, this does not really count as an HA solution, since all failover need to be manual.

Answer 2

To build a 2 node cluster you need to buy certified hardware. Ask your preferred hardware vendor for a configuration.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/clustering-requirements