Forum FAQ: Why do I get ‘Rule “Existing clustered or clustered-prepared instance” failed’ error while adding new features to an existing instance of SQL Server Failover Cluster?

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Question

After SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 cluster setup, you may want to add new features that were not installed during the initial installation. Therefore, you try to add addition features to this cluster. For instance, if you perform this operation using GUI, you may use the following steps:

1. Start SQL Server setup, and ‘select New installation or add features to an existing installation’ wizard.

2. Choose the cluster instance which you want to add features to in the Installation Type page.

3. Select features you want to add and following the wizard.

However, in the ‘Installation Configuration Rules’ page, you get the following error:

Rule “Existing clustered or cluster-prepared instance” failed.

The instance selected for installation is already installed and clustered on computer xxx. To continue, select a different instance to cluster.

Answer

The cause to this issue is that SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 does not support adding new features to an existing failover cluster instance. However, the installation is not be blocked until you get the ‘Installation Configuration Rules’ error.

To work around this issue, you could:

· If you want to install cluster-aware feature such as SSAS or SSRS with failover cluster, you need to select to install during the initial installation of SQL Server failover cluster, or install these features as a new installation/instance after initial installation of SQL Server failover cluster.

· If you want to install non-cluster features/shared components such as SSMS, SSIS and etc., you can perform a new installation and select these features during the installation which will not install a new instance of SQL Server but only install all those shared components.

More Information

SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering Whitepaper

https://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2009/07/08/sql-server-2008-failover-clustering.aspx

Applies to

Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2