One Node One Machine Cluster?

Hi,
I am in the process of building a SQL Server "farm," but having to tone down
the pace due to $$. I have just purchased a RAID1 (2 disc/10K rpm/146 GB)
Channel 0, RAID5 (3 disc/10K rpm/146 GB) Channel 1 server with 2 CPU's. This
summer, I plan to buy an identical machine. They will both run Win 2003 EE,
with SQL Server 2000 EE. Rather than install SQL Server locally on my
existing machine, is there a problem with installing MSCS and a virtual
server, even though I only have the one machine now. Of course, it won't
give me failover protection, but it would give me the configuration I want
when I get my second box. Does this make any sense? Any caveats or words of
wisdom?
PS. The servers will be accessed in OTLP mode by an ADO.NET app running on
Terminal Server (Win 2003), and BizTalk Server 2004 - also on a Win 2003 box.
Most of the ADO.NET traffic will occur during business hours, with BTS
getting busy after hours.
Thanks.
John
Hi
Why don't you rather build a single node cluster? Build a normal cluster
node, but not add another node. Once you have bought your other machine, add
it to the cluster.
Just be aware, it is very difficult to get the exact same hardware months
apart. If you are going to use clustering, make sure all the hardware is on
the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
A cluster "on the cheap" will just cause you hassles later. I've seen enough
"lets do it with a s little as we can", and the cluster ends up with worse
uptime than a single machine.
Regards
Mike
"JT" wrote:

> Hi,
> I am in the process of building a SQL Server "farm," but having to tone down
> the pace due to $$. I have just purchased a RAID1 (2 disc/10K rpm/146 GB)
> Channel 0, RAID5 (3 disc/10K rpm/146 GB) Channel 1 server with 2 CPU's. This
> summer, I plan to buy an identical machine. They will both run Win 2003 EE,
> with SQL Server 2000 EE. Rather than install SQL Server locally on my
> existing machine, is there a problem with installing MSCS and a virtual
> server, even though I only have the one machine now. Of course, it won't
> give me failover protection, but it would give me the configuration I want
> when I get my second box. Does this make any sense? Any caveats or words of
> wisdom?
> PS. The servers will be accessed in OTLP mode by an ADO.NET app running on
> Terminal Server (Win 2003), and BizTalk Server 2004 - also on a Win 2003 box.
> Most of the ADO.NET traffic will occur during business hours, with BTS
> getting busy after hours.
> Thanks.
> --
> John

OleDbException ErrorCode

When a user finally confirms his order in a shopping cart application (using MS-Access as the backend), the items he has purchased are populated in a Access DB table namedOrders & his personal details (like name, mail, billing address, shipping address etc.) are populated in another table namedCustDetails. Both the DB tables have a column namedOrderID. This column is thePrimary Key in theCustDetails table & theForeign Key in theOrders table. TheSession.SessionID becomes the unique OrderID.

After confirming an order, if the user refreshes the page, the app will try to populate the sameSession.SessionID in theCustDetails table but since the columnOrderID is aPrimary Key column in the tableCustDetails, it won't accept duplicate OrderIDs. Under such circumstances, anOleDbException will be raised.

Since a DB app can throw otherOleDbExceptions other than the one about which I mentioned above, I want to display custom error messages to the user. For e.g. if he refreshes the page after confirming his order, I want to display a message saying "Your order has already been placed".

To do this, I tried using theErrorCode property of theOleDbException class but what I found is theErrorCode changes from time to time! Had a particularErrorCode been assigned to the error, I could have done something like this (assuming that theErrorCode for the above error is-12345 which is constant):

Try
'some code
Catch ex As OleDbException
If (ex.ErrorCode = -12345) Then
Response.Write("Your order has already been placed")
ElseIf (ex.ErrorCode = <some other constant ErrorCode>) Then
Response.Write("Another custom error message")
End If
End Try

But I can't do the above since theErrorCode changes from time to time.

So how do I display custom error messages to users under such circumstances?

Of course, I can use theMessage property of theOleDbException class but that would be a rather tedious workaround.

I would provide user friendly messages for the the common errors in a shared function.

There are too many error codes to redefine them all. Putting the code in a central function allows you to call it from anywhere (excuse my C# but you get the idea)

String ExceptionToFriendlyString(OldDbExcption Ex){switch(Ex.ErrorCode) {case 1234:return"That record has already been inserted";case 5678:return"Friendly error message";default:return Ex.Message; // default to Exception Message }}

|||Thanks for your suggestion, Steve, but as already pointed in post #1 in this thread, the ErrorCode goes on changing. For e.g. when I try to insert a record in a DB table that already exists in that DB table, the ErrorCode turns out to be, say, 1234.

Next I shut down my machine & restart it. Now when I try to insert a record in the same DB table which already exists in the table, then the ErrorCode changes to, say, 5678. Of course, I can use a default message as you have shown in your code but (again) as already pointed out, I want the error messages to be as precise as possible.

Any other suggestions?|||

I think you will find that the reason you are getting different error codes is because you are getting different errors.

|||

Hi RN5A,

I agree that the error code stays fixed when you get certain kind of error. When error code changes, the type of error gets changed.