SQL 2005 Cluster Installation on Mounted Drives

I got a chance to install SQL 2005 in Cluster environment over Mounted Drives. It was a good experience and great learning for me. I am sharing the important things here which we have to keep in mind before starting this activity.

Here is little bit difference in Installation on Normal Drives and Mounted Drives. Because these are LPA servers, you cannot add the accounts to the NT admin group - if they get added we need to get CSS help to remove them so this is a very important thing.
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Because of that the permissions need to be set manually on the mounted drives. As they are mount points it can only be done through Disk Manager, not in the file explore and install to the mount points - not a normal install.
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So instead of fixed drives like C, D and E, you have to install bits on Mounted Drives.
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At any rate, if you do the permissions steps correctly then installation will go pretty smooth.

Prerequisites for Cluster installation of SQL 2005 over Mounted Drives:

Prerequisite 1: Copy the SQL bits on fixed drive.
Prerequisite 2: Add the Service Account in Security Policy on all the nodes.
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Below are the lists of entry of Security Policies where we need to add the Service Account before installation:

1. Act as part of the Operating System
2. Adjust Memory quotas for a process
3. Allow log on through terminal Services
4. Backup files and directories
5. Bypass traverse checking
6. Debug programs
7. Increase scheduling priority
8. Lock pages in memory
9. Log on as a batch job
10. Log on as service
11. Manage auditing and security log
12. Replace a process level token
13. Restore files and directories

Prerequisite 3: Grant permission to the Service Account manually on mounted drives through Disk Manager. Don’t use file explore.
Prerequisite 4: Stop MOM, e-Trust and SNMP Services on all nodes.Prerequisite 5: Change NON SIGINGING DRIVE value to 0 on all nodes. (Registry value)Prerequisite 6: Change the environment variable value to C:\TEMP (My Computer -> Properties -> Advance -> Environment Variable) on all nodes.
Prerequisite 7: TS into Active Node using your account. (Check No one logged on passive nodes)
Installation Steps:
Step 1: Run Step.exe from SQL Bits. From here installation will go as per normal installation. Always use mounted drives for DATA file path.
Step 2: Choose the components whatever you want to install like Normal installation.
Step 3: Use the SQL and Agent service account.Step 4: Provide the Domain Group name under which service account exists.
Step 5: Read the information which comes on every dialog box and act accordingly till Finish Button.
Hope these steps will help you a lot whenever you will get a chance to install SQL 2005 over mounted drives.