Size limit of cluster objects names

Question

_{Tuesday, September 15, 2009 9:51 AM}

Hi ,
Is there any string length limit specified by the Microsoft on the names we give for

1. Cluster name
2. Cluster Resource Group name
3. Cluster Resource name

I went through the Active Directory naming conventions. It says, for  proper name resolution, the recommended limit is 15 characters.
Is there any cluster documentation which specifies/enforces these limits on cluster administrators ?
Also can i give infinite characters for descriptions of these objects i.e Resource description

Thanks very much in advance.

All replies (4)

_{Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:17 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Their length should be no more than 15.

_{Thursday, September 24, 2009 12:35 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Thanks John!!!
I also tried the same experiment here and got same results.
for cluster name it allowed 15 characters and for resources 259(windows 2003)  and 63(windows 2008) .
anything more than that for resource name causes resource to fail.

_{Thursday, September 17, 2009 3:09 PM}

The cluster name and other network name resources must be a valid netbios name, so this cannot be more than 15 characters

I'm not sure what the limit is for the resource group or resource names. I just tested using 1300 character resources in a group name of 1300 characters and this worked fine in my lab environment on a Windows 2008 cluster. Not sure if there's a documented limit.

In 2008, there is no longer a "Description" field for cluster resources/groups. In 2003, again I'm not sure if there's a documented limit though it seems to take at least 1300 characters in the description field.

Hope this helps.Visit my blog about multi-site clustering - http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner

_{Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:48 PM | 1 vote}

Yes, for best compatibility it is recommended to keep server names under 15 characters.

Lets take a step back, what are you trying to accomplish?  Why do you want to store massive strings?  Why would you want extremely long server names?  It starts to become a really poor client experience to tell them to map a share to \ThisIsOurCompaniesFileServerThatResidesOverThere\Share   typo's, etc... this becomes ugly, error prone, etc...   So I would like to better understand your scenarios and goals.

Thanks!
Elden