Today I was trying to install a SQL Server 2008 R2 Cluster environment on Windows Server 2012 R2 servers and after doing all the necessary steps to prepare the cluster (like Creating an iSCSI Virtual Disk for Windows Cluster, configuring both node members, installing .net Framework 3.5, Adding the Windows Cluster Failover Feature, configuring the cluster, etc…) I continued by running the "Advanced Cluster Preparation" installation in SQL Server 2008 R2.
During one of the initial steps (the one checking the Rules) I find that the "Not clustered or the cluster service is up and online" step fails…
Upon inspection of the details I see that the "machine is clustered, but the cluster is not online…" message
… not sure the reason why, since when I inspect the cluster using Failover Cluster Manager everything seems all right
I can even do a fail-back on the drives and a fail-over with no problem. I also ran the Validation report and everything came back green…
Any ideas of what could I be missing?
More investigation
This is what I found when looking in the SystemConfigurationCheck_Report.htm (on the bootstrap log)… apparently it is more or less the same message. All the other checks are "green" (OK).
Also, on further bootstrap log investigation, I found this section (in the detail.txt for one of my executions) that appears to shed some more light…
What "the given key was not present in the dictionary" means… I can't say. I'm not an expert in advanced cluster troubleshooting so I am only speculating here… I have updated the contents of my bootstrap log here if anybody thinks they can find some more "clues" that I have not been able to find…
More findings (24 hours later…)
So, I have not been able to find the root cause of the problem, even following suggestions in this page and this KB, nothing seems to help me with that Support Rule!
Today, out of desperation, I attempted to run the "Advanced Cluster Preparation" using the installation image for SQL Server 2017 Enterprise and that one indeed worked with no problems!
So the issue seems to be limited to SQL Server 2008 R2 cluster binaries (something that sometime after 2008 R2 was addressed). This is not a solution for me (as I need to make this work in 2008 R2 for various reasons) but at least sheds some more light into the problem (hopefully) and tells me there is nothing wrong with the Failover Cluster install and configure per se, but more of how SQL Server 2008 R2 interprets that I have a fully-functional cluster.
Best Answer
So, finally after more investigation I found the right post explaining my problem and the solution.
It turns out the article was the one that dco pointed out. The thing is this: the problem I was experiencing was not solved with the slipstreaming technique (the install with SP2) but with other thing mentioned there further down the road (Issue 2: The "Cluster Service verification" rule fails when you try to install a SQL Server 2008 R2 failover cluster instance).
Turns out I had to enable the "Failover Cluster Automation Server" Feature in my Windows 2012 R2 boxes.
Thanks everybody for your help on this matter, especially dco for pointing me to that website. Since the resolution that dco offered (slipstreaming with SP 3) was not the solution to my problem I did not accepted that one as the answer (so that future searches with other people looking to fix this same problem don't end up on a wild goose chase).