SolarWinds Technical Reference

Options for SQL Failover with SolarWinds Orion

Options for SQL Failover with SolarWinds Orion ... 3 SQL Clustering .................................................. 3 Log Shipping ..................................................... 4 Other SQL Failover Solutions ........................... 4 This technical reference provides an overview of two Microsoft solutions for providing high availability or disaster recovery for SQL Servers: SQL clustering and log shipping. Links to MSDN Library articles providing detailed instructions for implementing these solutions are provided. Additional links to other vendors offering SQL high availability and disaster recovery solutions are also provided.

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Options for SQL Failover with SolarWinds Orion

This technical reference provides guidelines for selecting a failover solution to support your Orion database. When evaluating options for SQL failover of your Orion database, SolarWinds recommends that you first consult your database administrator (DBA) to determine how your organization currently handles failover for your other SQL-based applications as you may already have a SQL failover strategy in-house that you can leverage for your Orion database.If you find you do not currently have an established SQL failover solution, Microsoft offers the following strategies outlined in this document: SQL Clustering Log Shipping

This technical reference document also provides a list of links to additional options from vendors other than Microsoft. For more information, see Other SQL Failover Solutions on page 4.

SQL Clustering
SQL Clustering refers to a configuration where two or more SQL Servers, generally called nodes are configured to work together, representing themselves as a single virtual server to the rest of the network. When a client connects to a SQL Server cluster, both the client and the cluster behave as though the connection exists between the client and a single SQL Server, not multiple. If any SQL Server node in the cluster fails, its responsibilities are taken over by another SQL Server in the cluster. The end-user notices little, if any, functional difference before, during, or after the failover.

SQL Clustering Characteristics Supports High Availability and Disaster Recovery Advantages Failover is quick, usually resulting in less than a minute or two of downtime. Disadvantages Failover is automatic; no manual intervention is required. Clustering does not require any servers to be renamed. Failing back is quick, usually resulting in less than a minute or two of downtime. More expensive than log shipping. Requires more set up and more on-going maintenance than log shipping. Requires more experienced DBAs and network administrators.

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For more information about configuring clustering for SQL Server 2005, see How to: Create a New SQL Server 2005 Failover Cluster (Setup).For more information about configuring clustering for SQL Server 2008, see Installing a SQL Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster.

Log Shipping
Log shipping automates the backup of database and transaction log files on a primary (production) server, and then restores them onto a standby server. Similar to replication, the primary purpose of log shipping is to increase database availability by maintaining a backup server that can quickly replace a failed production server, as shown in the following diagram:

Log Shipping Characteristics Supports Disaster Recovery Advantages Relatively less expensive and easier to maintain Disadvantages Relatively less work to set up. Requires less experienced DBAs and network administrators. Failover is not quick; it may take from 15 - 60 minutes or more of downtime. Failover is not automatic; it must be manually implemented. Log shipping requires that full recovery mode is enabled on your SQL Server. Full recovery mode and the log shipping functionality put additional load and overhead on the SQL Server, so you will need to provision the appropriate hardware to handle this additional load. Microsoft recomends frequent backups in full recovery mode to limit the excessive size and growth of the transaction log. For more information, see Working with Transaction Log Backups and Recovery Model Overview. Since no two SQL servers can have the same name, if you choose to use this strategy, in the event of a failover you must run the Orion Configuration Wizard to point your Orion server to the secondary SQL server.

For more information about configuring log shipping for SQL Server 2005, see Configuring Log Shipping.For more information about configuring log shipping for SQL Server 2008, see How to: Enable Log Shipping (SQL Server Management Studio).

Other SQL Failover Solutions

The following vendors also provide SQL failover solutions for high availability and disaster recovery: NeverFail Group Double Take Marathon Technologies SteelEye