Oracle 5.0 Reference Manual page 1348

Overview of MySQL with Windows Failover Clustering
Figure 15.3. Typical MySQL HA Configuration with Windows Server Failover Clustering
In this architecture, MySQL is deployed in an Active / Passive configuration. Failures of either MySQL
or the underlying server are automatically detected and the MySQL instance is restarted on the
Passive node. Applications accessing the database, as well as any MySQL replication slaves, can
automatically reconnect to the new MySQL process using the same Virtual IP address once MySQL
recovery has completed and it starts accepting connections.
MySQL with Windows Failover Clustering requires at least 2 servers within the cluster together with
shared storage (for example, FC-AL SAN or iSCSI disks).
The MySQL binaries and data files are stored in the shared storage and Windows Failover Clustering
ensures that only one of the cluster nodes will access those files at any point in time.
Clients connect to the MySQL service through a Virtual IP Address (VIP). In the event of failover
they experience a brief loss of connection, but otherwise do not need to be aware that the failover
has happened, other than to handle the failure of any transactions that were active when the failover
occurred.
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