Administrators may need to protect servers as part of an MSCS cluster. This article explains how best to go about protection and migration.

To protect MSCS server from disaster (only 1 server will be recovered):

1. Create a VPG to protect the active node, all shared RDMs must be protected to RDMs at the recovery site.

   1. Note: Currently, only the active node can be protected. Passive node protection is not currently supported.

2. Whenever the primary node's role changes, the protected VM/node should be made the active node again and then run a Force sync against the VPG.

3. When a disaster happens where the source site is down, failover the VPG so the primary node is up and running in the Recovery Site.

4. Install a new windows server and assemble it with the recovered node to be a full cluster again in the Recovery Site.

To migrate MSCS servers (both servers will be migrated):

1. Create a VPG to protect the active node, all shared RDMs must be protected to RDMs at the recovery site.

2. Break the cluster (stop relevant services and detach all shared RDMs from the passive node).

3. Create a second VPG to protect the passive node.

4. Failover the two VPGs to the Recovery Site.

5. Attach shared RDMs to recovered passive node.

6. Login to the guest OS to reassemble the cluster.

Further information can be found in the Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with Zerto document (still relevant for MSCS).