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Cluster workload requirements

Make sure your cluster meets the general source and target server requirements as well as the standard or GeoCluster requirements below, depending on your cluster configuration.

Standard cluster—If you will be protecting a standard cluster configuration, with a shared SCSI disk, there are two additional requirements.

Network—The cluster's private network should be a unique subnet so that Double-Take Availability will not attempt to use an unreachable private network.
Volumes—The source and target should have identical drive mappings.
Licensing—Each node in the cluster must have a valid Double-Take Availability activation code.

GeoCluster—If you will be protecting a GeoCluster configuration, where data is stored on volumes local to each node, there are several additional requirements.

Operating system—The operating systems are limited to the Windows Enterprise, Itanium, and Datacenter editions listed in the source and target server requirements.
Volumes—The source and target should have identical drive mappings.
Hardware—Intel-based hardware is required. Microsoft support for MSCS and MSCS-based Microsoft applications requires that the cluster configuration appear on the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List under category Cluster.
Cluster Network Name—Double-Take Availability does not handle dynamic changes to the cluster network names, the names assigned to the routes for network traffic. If a network name is changed for a network that is used by a GeoCluster Replicated Disk resource, the resource must be taken offline, the resource's network property must be changed, and then the resource must be brought back online.
Protocols and Networking—All of the networking requirements below must be met.

You must have TCP/IP connections between nodes.
The cluster nodes must be members of the same domain.
The cluster nodes must be on the same logical IP subnet.
Your network can contain direct LAN connections or VLAN technology.
The maximum round trip latency between nodes should be no more than ½ second.
Multiple networks are recommended to isolate public and private traffic.
Forward and reverse lookups must be implemented on the primary DNS server for the cluster name and individual nodes.

Queuing—The Double-Take Availability disk queue, configured during installation, should use a local volume for each node in the cluster.
Virus software—You should configure your virus software to delete or quarantine viruses because cleaning them can cause an access denied retrying operation error. Additionally, configuring virus software to scan outgoing traffic will lessen performance impacts.
Licensing—Each node in the cluster must have a valid Double-Take Availability activation code.