The Bottom Line
Understand the quorum model used in Windows Server 2012 R12 and
above. Windows Server 2012 R2 removed all of the previous models that were
based on the way votes were allocated and the type of quorum resource. In
Windows Server 2012 R2, each node has a vote and a witness is always configured,
but it’s used only when required. Windows Server 2012 introduced dynamic
quorum, which helps ensure that clusters stay running for as long as possible as
nodes’ votes are removed from quorum because the nodes are unavailable.
Windows Server 2012 R2 added dynamic witness to change the vote of the witness
resource based on whether there are an odd or even number of nodes in the
cluster.
Identify the types of mobility available with Hyper-V. Mobility focuses on
the ability to move virtual machines between Hyper-V hosts. Virtual machines
within a cluster can be live-migrated between any node efficiently, since all nodes
have access to the same storage, allowing only the memory and state to be copied
between the nodes. Windows Server 2012 introduced the ability to move the
storage of a virtual machine with no downtime, which when combined with Live
Migration enables a Shared Nothing Live Migration capability that means a virtual
machine can be moved between any two Hyper-V hosts without the need for
shared storage or a cluster, with no downtime to the virtual machine.
Shared Nothing Live Migration does not remove the need for Failover Clustering
but provides the maximum flexibility possible, enabling virtual machines to be
moved between stand-alone hosts, between clusters, and between stand-alone
hosts and clusters.
Master It Why is constrained delegation needed when using Shared Nothing
Live Migration with remote management?
Understand the best way to patch a cluster with minimal impact to
workloads. All virtual machines in a cluster can run on any of the member nodes.
That means before you patch and reboot a node, all virtual machines should be
moved to other nodes by using Live Migration, which removes any impact on the
availability of the virtual machines. While the migration of virtual machines
between nodes can be performed manually, Windows Server 2012 Failover
Clustering provides Cluster-Aware Updating, giving you a single-click ability to
patch the entire cluster without any impact to virtual machines’ availability. For
pre-Windows Server 2012 clusters, SCVMM 2012 also provides an automated
patching capability. Configuration Manager 2016 provides a cluster-aware patching
capability for organizations that leverage Configuration Manager for patching.