failover-cluster-instance-administration-and-maintenance.md

title	Failover Cluster Instance Administration and Maintenance | Microsoft Docs
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Failover Cluster Instance Administration and Maintenance

Maintenance tasks like adding or removing nodes from an existing Always On Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) are accomplished using the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Setup program. Other administration tasks like changing the IP address resource, recovering from certain FCI scenarios are accomplished using the Failover Cluster Manager snap-in, which is the management snap-in for the Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) service.

Maintaining a Failover Cluster Instance

After you have installed an FCI, you can change or repair it using the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Setup program. For example, you can add additional nodes to an FCI, run an FCI as a stand-alone instance, or remove a node from a FCI configuration.

Adding a Node to an Existing Failover Cluster Instance

[!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Setup gives you the option of maintaining an existing FCI. If you choose this option, you can add other nodes to your FCI by running [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Setup on the computer that you want to add to the FCI. For more information, see Create a New SQL Server Failover Cluster (Setup) and Add or Remove Nodes in a SQL Server Failover Cluster (Setup).

Removing a Node from an Existing Failover Cluster Instance

You can remove a node from an FCI by running [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Setup on the computer that you want to remove from the FCI. Each node in an FCI is considered a peer without dependencies on other nodes on the FCI, and you can remove any node. A damaged node does not have to be available to be removed, and the removal process does not uninstall the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] binaries from the unavailable node. A removed node can be added back to a FCI at any time. For more information, see Add or Remove Nodes in a SQL Server Failover Cluster (Setup).

Changing Service Accounts

You should not change passwords for any of the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] service accounts when an FCI node is down or offline. If you must do this, you must reset the password again by using [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] Configuration Manager when all nodes are back online.

If the service account for [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] is not an administrator in your cluster, the administrative shares cannot be deleted on any nodes of the cluster. The administrative shares must be available in a cluster for [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] to function.

Important

Do not use the same account for the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] service account and the WSFC service account. If the password changes for the WSFC service account, your [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] installation will fail.

On [!INCLUDEnextref_longhorn], service SIDs are used for [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] service accounts. For more information, see Configure Windows Service Accounts and Permissions.

Administering a Failover Cluster Instance

Task Description	Topic Link
Describes how to add dependencies to a [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] resource.	Add Dependencies to a SQL Server Resource
Kerberos is a network authentication protocol designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications. Kerberos provides a foundation for interoperability and helps to enhance the security of enterprise-wide network authentication. You can use Kerberos authentication with [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] stand-alone instances or with Always On FCIs.	Register a Service Principal Name for Kerberos Connections.
Provides links to content that describes how to enable Kerberos authentication
Describes the procedure used to recover from a [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] failover cluster failure.	Recover from Failover Cluster Instance Failure
Describe the procedure used to change the IP address resource for a [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] failover cluster instance.	Change the IP Address of a Failover Cluster Instance

See Also

Configure HealthCheckTimeout Property Settings
Configure FailureConditionLevel Property Settings
View and Read Failover Cluster Instance Diagnostics Log