• Runs on NT 4.0 EE SP5+ or W2K AS/DC. SQL Server Enterprise Edition required.
• DataCentre Edition requires Fibre-channel/switch/hub
• Scsi can be used for 2 nodes. Fibre needed for more.
• NT 4.0 SP6 ships with the cluster dll’s show any pc with these on can manage the cluster.
• Can run 4-way active with 4-nodes. 4 nodes need DataCentre Server. SQL Server will work with any number of nodes – whatever NT tells it is there.
• Full text-search will work in a cluster
• Generally more cluster aware – setup.exe will just work in a cluster. It will just query the MSCS service(s) to see what is going on.
• All tools are cluster aware
• Uses multiple instances for faster/easier cluster fail-over. Removes the "virtual layer" that was needed with previous releases to redirect dll calls etc.
• Service-packs can just be applied – no extra work for clusters needed.
• Don’t have to remove replication or anything
• Refreshed SQL EE 7.0 CD with new cluster setup wizards etc.
• Setup detects on a cluster and gives the option to build a virtual server straight away.
• Supports multiple network cards
• Setup defaults to the first non-quorum disk. Will warn if you try and install on the quorum disk
• Can do default or named-instance. Checks that no other node on the cluster has the same name.
• Program files are installed on the local C drive (can be installed on shared drives?)
• Perfmon counters available after fail-over (broken in 7.0)
• Tools on all nodes at all times
• Licensing info on each node – needed for merge replication.
• Only errors put in the cluster errorlog
• SQL engine is cluster aware and won’t let you do things like create a database on a non-cluster drive.
• Tools are cluster aware – SQL EM will change passwords for each service account. Uses cluster api to pause group. It will set all registry/file permissions etc. If you reset stuff with FTS not with SQL EM then it will almost certainly break.
• Upgrade from 6.5/7.0 then need to uncluster them first to get rid of the "virtual layer". So upgrade 6.5/7.0 standalone to SQL 2000 standalone. Un-install SQL 6.5. Then run SQL 2000 setup again and can upgrade it to a cluster – use maintenance mode in advanced options.
• If you have an active/active cluster then because SQL 2000 will need to use a named-instance you will need to use the copy database wizard to move database from the default to the named-instance.
• Couple of things not cluster aware – registry rebuild and rebuild master.
• Clustering works fine with MSMQ (2.0) now.

English Query

• Supports OLAP and free-text
• Generates MDX against OLAP if it can, and SQL code if it can’t
• Batch mode for problem queries/suggestions
• Thesaurus integration (from MS Office) – to assist with synonyms
• Integrates as Visual Studio package. Allows access to Visual Data Tools to change data, create views
• In the box with Visual Studio 7 – technology combined with Visio for modeling tool (when VS7 comes out)
• Project wizards build models automatically -
• Suggestion wizard to add relationships based on user questions
• Graphical question/relationship builder
• Support for other databases – Oracle
• Semantic modeling format to create EQ models programmatically via XMS DOM.
• One click web deployment

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