All the things you need

to know before setting

up AlwaysOn
Michael Steineke
SQL & BI Solution Lead
Enterprise Architect
Concurrency, Inc.
Terminology and Architecture

 AlwaysOn
 Marketing name for the high availability features in SQL Server
 Includes
 Fail over Cluster Instances (FCI)
 Availability Groups (AG)

 Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC)

 All of AlwaysOn uses WSFC
High Availability vs. Disaster Recovery

 High Availability
 Generally same site
 Quick Recovery

 Disaster Recovery
 Separate Site
 Slower Recovery
Site to Site Considerations

 How far apart are they?

 What is the connectivity between sites?
 Type of connection
 Size of connection
 Latency of connection
Networking

 Server to server connectivity

 Ports to open on Firewalls
 TCP Ports 1433 & 1434 or specific SQL ports
 AG Endpoint – tcp 5022
 IP Addresses
 DNS Names & IP Addresses
 Servers, Cluster Name, AGs
Windows Clustering
 What do I need to know as a DBA?
 Management
 Windows Failover Cluster Manager
 PowerShell
 Windows Domain
 Joined
 Authentication
 SQL Server needs to run as a Domain Account
 Connectivity
 DNS Names and SQL Instances
 Availability Group Listener
 Ports
 Quorum
Why do I care about Quorum?
 Quorum Controls if the Cluster in Online
 Majority of votes
 What can vote?
 Shared Disk
 Servers – Active, Passive or Witness
 File Share – Witness
 Manual Voting override is available

 In Multi-Site configurations you need to decide

where the voting members are located
Windows Server Version & Clustering
 Windows Server 2012 R2
 Many useful updates to clustering
 Dynamic Quorum
 Cluster automatically controls Voting
 Adjusts the vote weight of each node
 Allows for Last Man Standing

 Network Resiliency
 Key to making sure the Cluster is healthy
Cluster Network Objects

 Computers in AD
 AD OU
 Permissions
 Cluster and Listener Objects in AD
OU Delegation

 Create an OU and Delegate to the Cluster Account

SQL Server Version Comparison
SQL 2012 Enterprise
 Multiple Node FCI
 Multi-Subnet Clusters
 AG’s – 5 Copies of Data
 4 Secondaries Total
 2 Synchronous
 Up to 4 Asynchronous
 2 Automatic Failover Targets
 Readable Secondaries
SQL 2014 Enterprise
 Multiple Node FCI
 Multi-Subnet Clusters
 AG’s – 8 Copies of Data
 7 Secondaries
 2 Synchronous
 Up to 7 Asynchronous
 2 Automatic Failover Targets
 Readable Secondaries
 Azure Replica
 Backup to Azure
 Site Survivability for Read Intent
FCI or AG?

 If you need MSDTC, AGs don’t support MSDTC

 AGs require separate Disk for each Instance
 AGs can fail from node to node faster than FCI
 Synchronous AGs require transactions to commit(log harden) on
both servers
 AG Secondaries can do workload
 Backup & Read-only

Answer – It depends on your needs

You might want to combine them!
MSDTC

 In Windows 2008 and later you either Create a

clustered instance of the MSDTC resource for
EVERY SQL Server instance /Group that requires
its functionality or DO NOT CLUSTER MSDTC at
all

 View msdtc mappings

 msdtc -tmMappingView *
Availability Group Setup

 Shared Backup location

 Permissions on share
 Full on SQL Server Account
Multiples – Instances, AGs

 You can have multiple AGs in an instance

 Listeners are tied to AG
 Multiple Instances
 Each AG needs different ports for the endpoints

 AG’s on Private Network

Multi-subnet

 DNS
 Client App connectivity
 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2015/12/01/improve
d-multisubnet-listener-behavior-with-newly-released-sql-client-
provider-in-net-4-6-1/
 JDBC - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/gg558121(v=sql.110).aspx

 Azure Listener
 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2014/03/31/use-
readintent-routing-with-azure-alwayson-availability-group-listener/
Enabling AGs
What you need before the Wizard

 Network Names  Active Directory

 Cluster name  Permissions or Objects staged
 Listener Name  Servers in OU
 Firewall Rules/ports open  File System
 Listener  Location of DB Files
 AG  Shared Backup Location
 IP Addresses
 Each Server
 Cluster Name
 Each Listener
Useful Reference Links
 SQL AlwaysOn Team Blog
 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlalwayson/

 SQL Server Customer Advisory Team

 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlcat/

 SQL Server 2014 Technet Reference

 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sqlserver/dn135309

 SQL High Availability on MSDN

 http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=sqlhadr

 Failover Cluster Guide to Quorum

 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770620(WS.10).aspx

 Prestage Computer Objects in AD

 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn466519.aspx

 MSDTC
 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2014/01/15/msdtc-recommendations-on-sql-failover-cluster/

 AGs on Private Network

 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2013/11/01/configure-availability-group-to-communicate-on-a-dedicated-network/

 SQL 2016 Changes to AGs

 https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2015/12/15/enhanced-always-on-availability-groups-in-sql-server-2016/
 Thanks!
 msteineke@concurrency.com
 www.michaelsteineke.com
 Twitter @MSteineke