News

4-Node Clustering to Come in "Whistler" Version of Advanced Server

• By Scott Bekker
• 04/25/2000

"The Windows 2000 Advanced Server will also get four-node clustering support," Carl Stork, general manager for Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Strategy Group, told hardware developers today at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here.

Stork made the comments during a keynote as he was discussing "Whistler," the next version of Windows 2000, which Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) currently plans to deliver sometime in 2001.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server currently supports two-node failover clusters for high availability. Microsoft will first introduce the ability to gang together four servers with this summer’s release of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

Microsoft has been considering including four-node clustering in Advanced Server for some time. Company officials told ENT at the Windows 2000 launch in February that customers were pushing strongly for four-node failover clustering capabilities in Advanced Server.

The issue took on extra significance at that time when Microsoft revealed its decision to sell and support Windows 2000 Datacenter Server only on machines with at least eight processors. The licensing decision locked out customers who had been interested in using four-node failover clustering on lower-end machines. – Scott Bekker