Create a new group in a cluster

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To create a new group

Open Cluster Administrator.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Group.
In the New Group Wizard, in Name, type a name for the new group.
In Description, type any comments you want, and then click Next.
Under Available nodes, click the nodes you want to be the preferred owners for the group, and then click Add.

You can also leave Preferred owners empty. This means that it does not matter to which node the group fails back after failover takes place. For more information, see "Failover and failback" in Related Topics.
To change the priority of an owner, select the owner, click Move Up or Move Down, and then click Finish.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open Cluster Administrator, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Cluster Administrator.
The name that you give the group is for administrative purposes only. It is not the same as a network name, which is the name that clients can use to connect to the group. However, make sure this name is different from any other group name in the cluster.
Cluster Administrator lists the group description and the group name in the details pane.
All resources within the new group fail over together. To have the group fail back to a certain node, specify that node as the preferred owner and enable failback. You can balance groups among all nodes to maximize the performance of the cluster. However, you can choose not to have a preferred owner if the location of the group does not greatly affect performance.

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.