Depending on the configuration, the operational
node could regain control of those resources automatically, or could regain
control only in the event of administrative intervention.
CHAPTER 7 n CLUSTERING 178
The quorum also holds configuration information pertaining to the cluster itself,
such as resources, failover and failback settings, and so on. The quorum is the critical
element to a cluster configuration. The quorum should always be on an isolated disk
partition. That way, if some sort of damage occurs to the quorum, it won??™t affect your
SQL Server data, Exchange data, or file-system data??”in other words, the data for the
clustered service. Getting the cluster back up and running can be a completely different
story. I??™ll discuss some of the utilities to reduce the impact of a lost quorum a little later
in the chapter.
Heartbeat
A constant heartbeat, or communication, occurs between all nodes of the cluster. This
communication is separate from any communication with the quorum. The role of
the heartbeat is simply to help each node determine whether the other node(s) are
functional.
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