Cluster Naming Convention

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FineBuild can automatically create the names of the MSDTC, SQL DB, SQL AS, RS, and SQL IS clusters by adding a suffix to the Windows cluster name. The generated names must be unique across all the computer names in the domain.

The Microsoft SQL Server install process imposes restrictions on the cluster name that are not present in Active Directory or DNS. The main restriction is that the cluster name can be a maximum of 15 characters long. The other restriction is that the cluster name can consist only of the characters A to Z, 0 to 9 and -, even though the local DNS server may be configured to accept a wider range of characters.

A ‘natural’ naming convention for cluster names would be to add suffixes to the Windows cluster name, but if these suffixes are too long they can violate the name length restriction. Therefore FineBuild adds only a two or three character suffix to the Windows cluster name to form the names of the clusters it installs.

Cluster names can be generated as shown in the table below. If the generated names are used then the Windows Cluster name must be 12 characters or less. If the default generated name is not suitable at your installation, you can supply an explicit cluster name by using the Name parameter.

Object Type	Windows Cluster	Suffix Parameter	Value	Default Network Name	Name Parameter
Windows Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusWinSuffix:		PDGB01SQLC01
MSDTC Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusDTCSuffix:	TC	PDGB01SQLC01TCA	/ClusterNameDTC:
SQL DB Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusDBSuffix:	DB	PDGB01SQLC01DBA	/ClusterNameSQL:
SQL AS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusASSuffix:	AS	PDGB01SQLC01ASA	/ClusterNameAS:
Fileserver Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusFSSuffix:	FS	PDGB01SQLC01IFS	/ClusterNameFS:
SQL IS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusISSuffix:	IS	PDGB01SQLC01IS
SQL RS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusRSSuffix:	RS	PDGB01SQLC01RS	/ClusterNameRS:
SQL Always On Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	/ClusAOSuffix:	AO	PDGB01SQLC01AOA	/ClusterNameAO:

The /ClusWinSuffix: parameter can be used to remove a suffix from the Windows Cluster name. In the example below the MSDTC and SQL clusters would all have the same names as in the table above:

Object Type	Windows Cluster	Suffix Parameter	Value	Default Network Name	Name Parameter
Windows Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01CL1	/ClusWinSuffix:	CL1	PDGB01SQLC01CL1

A further character is added to the MSDTC, SQL DB and SQLAS cluster names to allow for multiple instances of these services to be installed:

Object Type	Windows Cluster	Cluster Suffix	Instance Name	FineBuild Cluster Network Name
MSDTC Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	TC		PDGB01SQLC01TCA
SQL AS Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	AS	HR	PDGB01SQLC01ASB
SQL DB Cluster	PDGB01SQLC01	DB	HR	PDGB01SQLC01DBB

It is also suggested that a numeric suffix is given for each node in the cluster, as this will group all names used by a cluster together in AD or DNS. This would result in the sample node names shown below:

Node	Node Suffix	Sample Node Name
Server Node 1	N01	PDGB01SQLC01N01
Server Node 2	N02	PDGB01SQLC01N02
Server Node 3	N03	PDGB01SQLC01N03
Server Node 4	N04	PDGB01SQLC01N04
Server Node 5	N05	PDGB01SQLC01N05

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