Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Message Queuing
[January 24, 2008] Message Queuing has become a popular option to ensure reliability. Because it uses a queue-based infrastructure, which provides message store and delivery mechanism as well as other features, applications stay up -- even when the target or intermediary systems are not.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Transactions
[December 6, 2007] In the quest for increased reliability and integrity, transactions, a sequence of related tasks that constitute a unit of work and pass the ACID test, make a fine complement to server clustering.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Generic Resources
[November 8, 2007] Server clustering technology delivers high availability and makes much functionality possible, but its implementation carries with it a great deal of complexity. Generic Service, Generic Application and Generic Script are resources that can help.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, NFS Share Implementation
[October 11, 2007] Deploying a clustered implementation of Network File System shares is a complex process. Getting a handle on the basics is critical.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, NFS Share Resource
[September 6, 2007] We conclude our discussion of resource types with a look at clustered implementations of Network File System and how it relates to Windows Services for Unix.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Access-Based Enumeration
[August 16, 2007] Access-based enumeration came to Windows 2003 Server in Service Pack 1. The security enhancement enables the application of standard NTFS Read permissions on folder and file levels to allow the viewing of folder and file entries in shared network folders.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Volume Mount Points
[July 6, 2007] We continue our coverage of file-sharing-related features by zooming in on volume mount points and volume shadow copies on Windows 2003 server based clusters.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, File Share Resource
[May 30, 2007] File Share resource delivers high availability by providing access over a network to portions of server disk volumes designated for sharing. Although ideal for some situations, it has limitations.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Virtual Servers and More
[April 26, 2007] This installment of the series focuses on designing clustered virtual servers, groups and resources. We define each of these and then look at their types and respective characteristics.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Microsoft Virtual Server
[March 8, 2007] VMware's virtualization software may work in Windows environments, but deploying Microsoft's virtualization software removes any potential issues when it comes to support for operating-system-related problems.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Setting Up a Test Environment
[January 25, 2007] VMware server is one way to emulate Windows 2003 clusters. Where does the technology fit best, and what are the rudiments of setting up clustered virtual systems on a single physical server?

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Test Environments
[December 7, 2006] Server clustering is becoming more economical, but it's not always the most cost-effective option. For development, testing and training, virtualization is often the way to go. Microsoft and VMware dominate in this space.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, iSCSI Storage
[September 8, 2006] iSCSI delivers the benefits of direct-attached SCSI and Fibre Channel SANs while avoiding their biggest drawbacks. This article examines the general principles of iSCSI storage and describes its clustering characteristics on Windows 2003 Server.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, SAN-based Storage
[August 17, 2006] A Fibre Channel storage area network is now the storage infrastructure of choice for the majority of Microsoft server cluster deployments. It has been found to be the most efficient, flexible, stable, scalable and secure option for these environments.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Disk Storage (SCSI)
[July 13, 2006] The importance of disk storage stems from its role in the server clustering architecture. The next few articles will review cluster-specific requirements and explore technologies that satisfy them. We begin with SCSI.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Server Clustering, Part 2
[June 1, 2006] We return to server clustering, this time looking at inter-node communication, specifically, Quorum. Quorum is at the heart of the three main server clustering models: Single Shared Quorum, Single Local Quorum, and Majority Node Set Quorum.

Win 2003 High Availability Solutions, Server Clustering
[April 19, 2006] We kick off a new series dedicated to Windows Server 2003 high availability solutions with a look at server clustering.