Question : using cluster administrator console

I have never had a chance to install a cluster environment, but I have started in a company where they have cluster environment, I have been reading about the concept of clustering and how to set it up, but for now I think I need to know much about how to use the cluster administrator console, since most of the wrk is done from this console.
I can see

Groups
Resources
cluster configuration

1- I would like to knwo how/when to use those nodes.

2- I would like also to know where to go first when the cluster is down, assuming it's NOT a connectivity or hardware problem.

Thanks

Answer : using cluster administrator console

Lets break this down into sections. I'll start with the networks.

The private network is the subnet assigned to the cluster nodes to talk across. This CAN be the normal LAN nics but is recommended to be 2nd NIC's in each node. This LAN allows the nodes to talk to each other to make sure they are all up and running. They poll each other once a second to make sure they are 'alive & running'. This is termed the 'heartbeat'. If this poll fails, it is the catalyst that would start the service transfer from the active node to one of the passive nodes. For example, if the Server1 crashed, the heartbeat would stop and server2 would initiate the trasfer of the Roaming Profile Cluster group to itself. It may take up to 30 seconds or so but the service would move.
The public network is the normal LAN and is the network that clients/other servers would talk to the cluster i.e. your 'normal' network.

One of the resources is called the Cluster IP address. This is a virtual IP address (it doesn't really exist) that is assigned to both of the nodes in the cluster.
For example, you have a printer spooler created on your cluster. You would point the clients to look at 192.168.0.200 for the printer shares
real node 1  = 192.168.0.1
real node 2  = 192.168.0.2
Cluster IP    =  192.168.0.200    The node that is active in the cluster will respond to the request to 192.168.0.200; if this node fails, the other cluster node will start to respond to 192.168.0.200 instead.

So lets look at the rest of your display.

the top half is the consolidated view. The bottom half i the node view.
If you look at the bottom half, you see the two nodes you have in the cluster. You will see that each cluster group only appears in one node, not both. This is showingyou where the group & resource is being 'hosted' from currently.
A cluster resource is anything that can be hosted on a cluster. A hard disk drive, a print spooler, generic applications such as wins or dhcp, the virtual IP address etc. A cluster group is the collective name given to a group of resources put together.

In your config, you have a cluster group called Cluster group. (This is the default name given to the first cluster group created)
Active Groups           Cluster Group      online     ServerName2
Active Resources      Cluster IP addr  online       ServerName2
                               Quorum Drive    online        ServerName2
                               Cluster Name    online         ServerName2
                               Print Spooler     online        ServerName2

In this list someone has created cluster resources and collected (assigned) them to a group called cluster group. Depending on how the group has been set, if any of one these resources fail, either that single resource will 'move' to the other node OR if any one of these resources fail, the whole group will move 'en masse' to the other node.

Cluster IP address = Virtual IP address that the active node will respond to
Quorum drive        = A storage area that BOTH nodes have direct access to and stores the cluster information
Cluster name        =  Cluster name (When you join a node to a cluster, this is the name the new node searches for to pick up its configuration)
Printer Spooler      = The area and advertised name of a print spooler created on the cluster and storing its share details on the cluster disks.
Disk G                  = An area of stoarge that BOTH nodes can access directly
etc
etc

The top half of the screen shows the consolidated view.
It shows each cluster group and resource, which node is currently active for that group and resource and its status.

You can test whether this is working or not by:

Right click one of the cluster groups and select move group. if all is well, you will see tha online move to off-line and then pending then online again. However, it will now be the other server that is online. The move group simulates a heartbeat failure.

Hope this helps a little. As mentioned, it is extremely straight forward but very long-winded trying to explain.

Regards
Keith