You can now deploy a failover cluster without network name dependencies on Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). Using this deployment method enables you to create a failover cluster without the previously required permissions to create computer objects in AD DS or the need to request that computer objects are pre-staged in AD DS.
When you create a cluster by using this deployment method, the cluster network name (also known as the administrative access point) and network names for any clustered roles with client access points are registered in Domain Name System (DNS). However, no computer objects are created for the cluster in AD DS. This includes both the computer object for the cluster itself (also known as the cluster name object or CNO), and computer objects for any clustered roles that would typically have client access points in AD DS (also known as virtual computer objects or VCOs).
Before you create the failover cluster, make sure that the servers that you want to add as cluster nodes meet the following prerequisites:
- All servers must be running Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview.
- All servers must be joined to the same Active Directory domain.
- All servers must have the Failover Clustering feature installed.
- All servers must use supported hardware and the collection of servers must pass all cluster validation tests. For more information, see Failover Clustering Hardware Requirements and Storage Options and Validate Hardware for a Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster.
To deploy this type of cluster, you must use Windows PowerShell. You cannot use Failover Cluster Manager.
To create the failover cluster, start Windows PowerShell as an administrator, and then use the New-Cluster cmdlet with the –AdministrativeAccessPoint parameter set to a value of Dns.
The following example creates a failover cluster (Cluster1) from two nodes (Node1 and Node2), with an administrative access point of type DNS.
New-Cluster Cluster1 –Node Node1,Node2 –StaticAddress 192.168.1.16 -NoStorage –AdministrativeAccessPoint Dns
You can run the following Windows PowerShell command to verify the type of administrative access point for a failover cluster:
(Get-Cluster).AdministrativeAccessPoint
For a cluster without network names in AD DS, the expected output value is "Dns."
