Microsoft supports Microsoft Antigen 9 products and Microsoft Forefront products on stretched clusters when the solution includes third-party products that are listed on the Windows Server Catalog of Tested Products Web site.

Stretched clusters are geographically dispersed clusters that use Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering together with a third-party replication mechanism to abstract the location of the servers and the associated storage location from the applications.

If a stretched-cluster solution is approved by Microsoft, the third-party application is listed as a Geographically Dispersed Cluster Solution on the Windows Server Catalog of Tested Products Web site. For more information about Geographically Dispersed Cluster Solutions, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Applications that are used in geographically dispersed solutions are listed in the Windows Server Catalog after they are subjected to a series of tests. These tests demonstrate that the appropriate level of abstraction is achieved and that an application will run as expected.

Applications are not specifically tested on stretched clusters. The testing that is provided in the geographically dispersed qualification process verifies that the solution provides the same functionality as a non-stretched cluster. Additionally, the testing verifies that applications will not be affected. Antigen and Forefront are cluster-aware applications that are expected not to have any issues when they run on an approved geographically dispersed cluster solution.

Support for applications on geographically dispersed clusters may require involvement of both Microsoft and the hardware vendor. For more information about Microsoft support policies with geographically dispersed cluster solutions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: