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Preparing a Development Environment

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To setup a development environment to use the failover cluster APIs, verify that the following requirements and steps are complete:

Windows Server Requirements

Failover clustering is available on these versions of Windows Server:

  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

For information about installing, configuring, and administering a failover cluster, see these topics:

IDE Requirements

To implement the Failover Cluster APIs, this software must be installed:

  • Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later with the Unicode MFC libraries
  • MIDL compiler version 3.00.44 or later
  • Active Template Library (ATL) version 2.0 or later
  • Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 or later is required to use VBScript or Visual Basic with the Cluster Automation Server

Headers and Libraries

Include the necessary headers and libraries in your code:

  • For information on the failover cluster header and library files, see subsets of the Failover Cluster API.

  • For example C/C++ code that creates a suitable runtime environment, see ClusDocEx.h.

  • If you will be using a scripting language with the Cluster Automation Server, make sure your script references the GUID of the MSCLUS type library as shown in the following example.

    <REFERENCE GUID="{F2E606E0-2631-11D1-89F1-00A0C90D061E}" VERSION="1.0"/>

Debugging for Resource DLLs

If you are going to debug resource DLLs, you need to configure debugging.

The following procedure describes how to setup debugging for resource DLLs.

To prepare for debugging resource DLLs

  1. Install the Debugging Tools for Windows from https://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx.

  2. Enable kernel debugging, using IEEE1394 (FireWire) if possible. For more details, read "Choosing Kernel Debugging Settings" and "BCDEdit /dbgsettings" in the Debugging Tools for Windows help.

  3. Install Application Verifier from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd02c19c-1250-433c-8c1b-2619bd93b3a2 and enable it for Resource Hosting Subsystem (RHS).

  4. Enable Application Verifier for RHS by using the following command:

    AppVerif -enable Heaps Com RPC Handles Locks Memory TLS Exceptions Threadpool InputOutput -for %WinDir%\Cluster\rhs.exe

  5. Set RHS to run under a debugger with the debugger output redirected to the kernel debugger by using the following command:

    C:\Progra~1\Debugg~1\Gflags.exe -p /enable Rhs.exe /debug "C:\Progra~1\Debugg~1\cdb.exe -gG -y SRV*C:\WebSymbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/Download/Symbols -ddefer"

    The following list provides more information about the previous command:

    • Do not pass the -gG argument to cdb.exe if you want to set a breakpoint before your dll gets loaded.

    • This command line assumes that the Debugging Tools for Windows were installed in "C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows" with a short path of "C:\Progra~1\Debugg~1" and the local cache of Windows symbols is to be installed in "C:\WebSymbols". Please adjust the paths as necessary.

    • To set a breakpoint, use the "bu ResDllName!FunctionName" command in the debugger. For example, to set a breakpoint on the Terminate callback function for the ClipBook Server sample in the Windows SDK, the command would be "bu ClipBook Server!ClipBookServerTerminate".

    • To break when the DLL is being loaded, use the "sxe ResDllName.dll" command in the debugger.

    • The -ddefer argument allows the user-mode debugging session to be controlled by a remote debugger. For more information, read "Remote Debugging Through the Debugger" in the Debugging Tools for Windows help.

    • For more information, read the "Controlling the User-Mode Debugger from the Kernel Debugger" topic in the Debugging Tools for Windows help.

Using the Failover Cluster APIs