Q. How many nodes can I have in a Windows cluster?

A. A node is simply a server that participates in a cluster. Different Windows versions support different numbers of nodes. The storage connection method (i.e., SCSI or Fibre Channel) that servers in the cluster use also affects the number of possible nodes. The Table shows the number of nodes that are supported by the various versions of Windows and connection type.

Be aware that although you can mix OSs in a cluster, they can differ by only one OS version--that is, you could have a cluster with Windows 2000 Server and Windows NT 4.0 nodes, or Win2K Server and Windows Server 2003 nodes, but you couldn't have NT 4.0 and Windows 2003 nodes in the same cluster. Also, if you're running a mixed cluster, the maximum number of nodes supported is that of the most restrictive OS in the cluster. Therefore, if you had Win2K Advanced Server and Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition, you'd be limited to two nodes because that's the Win2K AS maximum.