Very simple issue.  In case of hardware unrecoverable issue, I have two msdn articles which states different things.

First one claims you remove the node from mscs. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181075(v=sql.100).aspx

Second one claims you should remove it using sql server installation and links to the first link which says you should do it from mscs: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189117(v=sql.100).aspx

Then this third article invalidates the second article. "To remove a node from an existing SQL Server failover cluster, you must run SQL Server Setup on the node that is to be removed from the SQL Server failover cluster instance."  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191545(v=sql.100).aspx#Remove.  It is a hardware faillure where the secondary node is innaccessible.

So what is the proper way to evict a node you cannot access due to a hardware faillure?

note: I don't plan on adding back the failed nodes after removing it.  i.e. I am insterested in the removing part.

• Edited by Antoine F 10 hours 36 minutes ago

Apparently, I am not the only one inquiring about this:

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/332355/cannot-remove-a-cluster-node-from-the-sql-server-failover-cluster-definition-if-the-node-is-down

Microsoft answer (Alan Hirt): "You can evict the node using Windows Cluster Admin tool. SQL Server does not keep any internal state information about the cluster nodes. When a node is broken, such as due to hardware failure, SQL Server does not care. User can always remove the node by evicting it from Windows Cluster."

Hi Antoine,

The above two links are describing two different actions.

first one is evicting the node from cluster. It means separating the one of the participant node from the cluster.

second one is more of how to remove the SQL fail over cluster from the one of the node.

There is a difference between removing the node from the cluster and uninstalling the sql server cluster from one of the node.

thanks

kumar