MSMQ Clustering on Windows 2008 Server

MSMQ clustering on Windows 2008 is very different from Clustering on Windows 2003.

Steps to Cluster MSMQ on Windows 2008

1. Install MSMQ on the two nodes of the cluster using Add Remove Windows Features.

Note: Both the Nodes should have the same MSMQ Components Installed. If the two nodes do not have the same msmq components Installed the cluster resource will fail to come online.

2. Once the installation is complete, open the Cluster Failover Manager.

3. Right Click Failover Cluster Manager and select Configure a Service or Application
Select Message Queuing under Select Service or Application and then Click Next

4. At the next screen Type in the name that you will be using to access the MSMQ Service. This name corresponds to the virtual server name or machine name that you will be using to send messages too. (This is one big difference when compared to earlier versions of MSMQ)

5. The select a Shared Drive Resource for MSMQ Storage. If possible this should be a Direct Attached Storage Device and not a SAN device. A SAN device is currently not fully supported with existing versions of MSMQ.
Now Follow the prompts and complete the Installation and bring the resource online.

Differences between MSMQ 4.0 and MSMQ 3.0 Cluster.

1. You no longer need to use the MMCV tool or create a clustered Command line Resource to View the Clustered queues. Once the resource is online, there is a link to launch the Computer Management Console under the Cluster Context.

2. You cannot have both the Cluster resource and the Local Node MSMQ Service Online at the same time. The MSMQ Service on Windows 2008 listens on all possible interfaces. Hence it is not possible to have two services running at the same time and listening on the same ports. This may change in the near future with the BindInterfaceIP registry key support for MSMQ 4.0.