SQLCAT: SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Lessons Learned from Early Customer Deployments Sanjay Mishra Program Manager Microsoft Corporation DBI360

Assumed Pre-requisites for this presentation: Basic knowledge of AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG) There is much more to each of these deployments than we can discuss in this session. Come by the SQL Server Technical Learning Center (TLC) / Booth and discuss with us.

AlwaysOn ≠ Availability Groups AlwaysOn = { SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances, Availability Groups } Availability Groups ≠ Database Mirroring

Windows Cluster is the foundation for HA and DR in SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn AlwaysOn inherits all “characteristics” of Windows Cluster Windows Cluster every single AlwaysOn deployment is a Windows Cluster deployment Windows Cluster understand Windows Cluster for succesfully deploy, operate, monitor, troubleshoot, administer AlwaysOn key areas are: quorum model, cluster network communication, DR procedures, cluster.exe, PowerShell Windows Cluster ≠ SQL Cluster (SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance) therefore, is NOT necessarily a shared-storage cluster Windows Cluster many key enhancements have been made to Windows Cluster specifically for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Asymmetric Disk Node Votes Asymmetric Disk as Quorum resource

Organizational structure Typically, teams and skills are organized into separate groups – SQL Server DBA team and Windows Server Admin team AlwaysOn reaches out beyond the SQL Server DBA DBAs need to work closely with Windows / Network Administration teams Not just for initial deployment, but for troubleshooting and disaster recovery as well Historical experience need to unlearn and relearn a few things if you are already experienced with Windows Cluster, but new to AlwaysOn For example, if you haven’t read the Windows Cluster documentation in the last few months, it is worth a re-read now New/Different Tools for administration and troubleshooting Windows cluster log Failover Cluster Manager Knowledge of PowerShell and cluster.exe command lines will come very handy

CustomerSQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn HA+DR Solution 1Microsoft ITAvailability Group for HA and DR 2bwin.partyAvailability Group for HA and DR 3CaregroupAvailability Group for HA and DR 4ServiceU Corporation Failover Cluster Instance for local HA + Availability Group for DR 5Edgenet Multi-site Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) for HA and DR

customer Microsoft IT SAP ERP Deployment

Production Test DR Site Log Shipping SAP Volume Test and Integration System Image of production Synchronous DBM Witness Primary Site

11 Production Test DR Site Async SAP Volume Test and Integration System Image of production Sync File share for Cluster Quorum Sync Production Availability Group on production DBMS cluster SAP production CI cluster containing File Share quorum for DBMS cluster Test Availability Group on test DBMS cluster SAP test CI cluster containing File Share quorum for test DBMS cluster Primary Site

customer bwin.party digital entertainment plc

customer CareGroup Healthcare Systems

Sync ASync Windows 2008 R2 Hosts Cluster Windows 2008 R2 Guest Cluster Availability Group: BillingSys Primary Site DR Site Primary Hyper-V Node B Hyper-V Node A Node C HW & OS Failure Protection OS & SQL Failure Protection Disk & DB Failure Protection

customer ServiceU Corporation, Part of the Active Network

ServiceU Solution Overview

ServiceU FCI + DBM Solution (Pre-SQL Server 2012) FCI for local HA, DBM for DR Asynchronous Database Mirroring Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 Disk Only Quorum 3 nodes in each FCI SQL Server is available with NO user intervention! (unless there is a disaster) “Last Man Standing” Disk Only Quorum provides benefits but the quorum disk must be fully protected and always available SQL Server 2008 FCI #1 SQL Server 2008 FCI #2 Windows Server Failover Cluster #1 Windows Server Failover Cluster #2

Disk Only Quorum SECONDARY – SQL Server 2012 FCI #2PRIMARY – SQL Server 2012 FCI #1 Windows Server 2008 and later – support added for Asymmetric Disk Only Quorum Must be configured with cluster.exe; not supported in GUI or PowerShell Requires testing and thorough knowledge of clustering With a primary site loss, getting the cluster online at the remote site involves force quorum, changing to node majority, then disk only Allows “Last Man Standing” Availability Group (Asynchronous Secondary) ServiceU FCI + AG Solution (SQL Server 2012) FCI for local HA, AG for DR This is a single Windows cluster instead of a Windows cluster at each site. Asymmetric storage is the key to this architecture.

Setup for Availability Groups across FCIs Site 1Site 2Note WRONGINST01 This was correct with FCI+DBM configuration RIGHTINST01DRINST01This means default file paths are different for data and log files because the instance name is part of the path (discussed below) Site 1Site 2 NOT RecommendedF:\MSSQL11.INST01\MSSQL\DATAF:\MSSQL11.DRINST01\MSSQL\DATA RIGHTF:\DATA

customer Edgenet, Inc.

Primary Site - Milwaukee DR Site - Atlanta WSFC Node B FCI Passive Node WSFC Node A FCI Active Node EMC RecoverPoint CE Appliances Hardware Replicated LUNS WSFC Node C Availability Group Secondary Replica (Synchronous, Readable) LUNS for AG secondary Asynchronous SAN Replication 300 Mb Ethernet Connection 850 Miles / /24

Sanjay Mishra

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