Configuring a standalone SQL Server for high availablility
Perform the following tasks to configure the standalone SQL Server for high availability, in an active-passive configuration with one to one failover capabilities:
Note: In addition to the tasks mentioned below, the procedures described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 224071: INF: Moving SQL Server databases to a New Location with Detach/Attach are required. Refer to:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;224071.
The following table lists the tasks to configure the standalone SQL Server for high availability.
Table: Tasks to configure the standalone SQL Server for high availability
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
| Prepare the standalone SQL Server | Complete the following tasks before you begin the InfoScale installation and configuring a VCS cluster\: |
| - Back up the existing SQL data | |
| - From the SQL Server Service Manager, set the SQL Server services to manual start. While you set the SQL Server services to manual start, you must select the standalone server that you plan to incorporate, select the service from the Services list, and then clear the Auto-start service when OS starts check box. Note: Repeat these steps for all other SQL Server services that are running on the server. | |
| Install the InfoScale product and configure VCS cluster on the standalone SQL | Install Arctera InfoScale Availability on all the systems where you want to configure the application. During installation, the product installer installs the VCS agents required for making the applications highly available. |
| server | For details refer to the Arctera InfoScale® Installation and Upgrade Guide . |
| For details on configuring the VCS cluster, refer to, | |
| See Configuring the cluster using the Cluster Configuration Wizard . | |
| Create volumes or LUNs (virtual disks) necessary to manage the SQL Server | See Managing storage using NetApp filer . |
| storage. | See Managing storage using Windows Logical Disk Manager . |
| Install and configure SQL Server on additional | Perform the following tasks to install Microsoft SQL Server on additional nodes. |
| nodes, if required | - Ensure that the shared volumes or LUNs are imported on the node. |
| - Ensure that the SQL Server configuration is identical on all nodes in the cluster. To have identical configuration, ensure that the instance name (if applicable), destination folder for Program Files and Data Files and the Authentication Mode are same on all the nodes. | |
| - Perform the SQL Server installation See About installing SQL Server on additional systems . | |
| Verify that the existing SQL Server databases and logs are | Verify the location of all SQL Server databases and logs for the existing standalone |
| moved to shared storage | server. If they are located on local storage, move them from the local drive to the |
| appropriate volumes or LUNs on shared storage to ensure proper failover | |
| operations in the cluster. | |
| Configure the SQL Server service group | See About configuring the SQL Server service group . |
| Create and manage SQL Server user-defined database | See Making SQL Server user-defined databases highly available . |