Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases: Clustering and AlwaysOn
- 7/15/2012
Exam objectives in this chapter:
Implement a SQL Server clustered instance.
Implement AlwaysOn.
Failover clustering instances and AlwaysOn Availability Groups are two strategies for making Microsoft SQL Server 2012 databases highly available. Failover clustering is a more traditional approach to ensuring that a database remains available in the event of server failure. If you are planning to deploy a failover cluster instance, you must first deploy the cluster and then install SQL Server 2012 by using a method that differs from a traditional installation.
AlwaysOn Availability Groups are a technology new in SQL Server 2012 that also rely on failover clustering technologies. AlwaysOn Availability Groups are a replacement technology for database mirroring and have the benefit of allowing clients read-only access to the secondary replica. In this chapter, you learn about how to deploy both of these SQL Server 2012 high-availability technologies.
Lessons in this chapter:
Lesson 1: Clustering SQL Server 2012
Lesson 2: AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Before You Begin
To complete the practice exercises in this chapter, make sure that you have:
Completed the setup tasks for installing computers DC, SQL-A, SQL-B, and SQL-CORE as outlined in the introduction of this book.
Completed the setup tasks outlined in the end-of-lesson practice exercises in Chapter 1, through Chapter 7.
Deployed two new servers, named SQL-C and SQL-D, in the CONTOSO domain. Instructions for configuring these servers are outlined in the introduction of this book.
No additional configuration is required for this chapter.