This section briefly describes how you can use Microsoft SQL Server clustering to implement Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) fault tolerance and failover clustering. The procedures for installing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Clustering for your SQL-based are described herein. However, before you proceed to create the clustering configuration, review the following:

• You must log on using an account that is a member of the Domain Administrators group in order to create the first node in a cluster or add additional nodes.
  
• All nodes must have joined a domain (instead of a workgroup) and be members of the same domain.
  
• When you create a cluster or join nodes to a cluster, specify the domain user account under which the Microsoft Cluster service runs. It is best if the Cluster service user account is a new account. The account must have local administrative rights and permissions on the cluster nodes.
  
• Ensure that applications (for example, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition with SP2) do not use the same account as the Cluster service account. Be sure to keep the password from expiring on the account and follow your organization's policies for password renewal.
  

When you install the operating system on a member server, Setup adds the Microsoft Cluster service account as a member of the local administrators group. When you install the operating system on a domain controller, Setup gives cluster-administrative permissions to the Domain Administrators group.

When you use Cluster Administrator to administer a cluster from a remote location, such as from another server or a computer running Microsoft Windows XP Professional, or to administer a cluster locally from a node, you must use an account that is a member of the local administrators group on all nodes.

The procedures for installing and configuring SQL Server clustering are covered in the Deployment Walkthrough documentation.

For general information about clustering Structured Query Language (SQL)-based servers, see SQL Server 2005 Failover Clustering White Paper on Microsoft TechNet.