You must log on using an account that is a member of an Administrators group to create the first node in a cluster or add additional nodes. All nodes must have joined a domain (instead of a workgroup) and be members of the same domain. When you create a cluster or join nodes to a cluster, you specify the domain user account under which the Cluster service runs. It is best if the Cluster service user account is a new account. The account must have local administrative rights and permissions on the cluster nodes. In addition, make sure that applications (for example, Microsoft SQL Server 2000) do not use the same account as the Cluster service account. Be sure to keep the password from expiring on the account (follow your organization's policies for password renewal).
When you install the operating system on a member server, Setup adds the Cluster service account as a member of the local Administrators group. When you install the operating system on a domain controller, Setup gives cluster-administrative permissions to the Domain Administrators group.
When you use Cluster Administrator to administer a cluster from a remote location, such as from another server or a computer running
Note
If you have administrative permissions on all nodes of the cluster, you can fully administer the cluster. However, if you have only specific permissions to administer the cluster, you cannot change the cluster description, change cluster security, or register extensions to Cluster Administrator.
For information on changing the account used to run the Cluster service, see To change the account under which the Cluster service runs.
For information on changing the password for the Cluster service account, see To change the Cluster service account password.