Enable the Failover Clustering Feature on both SQL1 and SQL2
Run this PowerShell command on SQL1 and SQL2
Install-WindowsFeature -Name Failover-Clustering -IncludeManagementTools
Validate your Cluster
Run this PowerShell command from SQL1 or SQL2
Test-Cluster -Node sql1,sql2
Depending upon the version of Windows Server you are using, you will see some warnings about Network and possibly storage. The network warning will likely tell you that each cluster node is accessible via a single interface. Earlier versions of Windows will warn you about the lack of shared storage.
You can ignore both of those errors as they are expected in a cluster hosted on OCI. As long as you have received no Errors, you can proceed with the next section. If you receive any errors, fix them, then run validation again and continue on to the next section.
Create the Cluster
Next, you will create the cluster. In the example below, you will notice I use the two IP addresses we planned to use, 10.0.64.101 and 10.0.128.101. You can run this Powershell from either cluster node.
New-Cluster -Name cluster1 -Node sql1,sql2 -StaticAddress 10.0.64.101, 10.0.128.101
Please Note: do NOT try to create the cluster via the WSFC GUI. You will find that because the instances are using DHCP, the GUI will not give you the option to assign IP addresses for the cluster and instead will hand out duplicate IP addresses.
Add the File Share Witness
To maintain the cluster quorum, you need to add a witness. In OCI, the type of witness you will want to use is a File Share Witness. The file share witness must reside on a server that resides in a different Fault Domain than the two cluster nodes.
In the example below, the file share witness will be created on DC1, which resides in FD1.
On DC1, create a file share and assign the cluster name object (CNO) read-write permissions on the folder. Add permissions for the CNO on both the Share and Security tab of a folder that you created. In the example below I created a folder called “Witness”.
Once the folder has been created and the appropriate permissions have been assigned to the CNO, run the following PowerShell command on SQL1 or SQL2.
Set-ClusterQuorum -Cluster cluster1 -FileShareWitness \\dc1\Witness
Your cluster should now look like the following when you launch the Failover Cluster Manager on SQL1 or SQL2.
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