AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Reeves Smith
Principal Architect
Macer Consulting
Thanks to our Sponsors!
Who am I

Reeves Smith

Principal Architect at Macer Consulting in Denver Colorado with over

17 years of SQL Server experience. Focused on Business Intelligence
and Data Warehousing with SQL Server for the past 11 years.

Currently holds a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server 2008 and a

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Business Intelligence and Data
Platform.

reeves.smith@macerconsulting.com
@sqlreeves
http://reevessmith.wordpress.com
www.linkedin.com/in/reevessmithiii
Who are you

 Worked with SQL Server?

 Who are the DBAs?
 Worked with Log Shipping?
 Worked with Mirroring?
 Worked with Clustering?
 Worked with Availability Groups?
Agenda

 Introduction to HA/DR
 Introduction to AlwaysOn
 Requirements
 Benefits
 Demo
 Questions
 References
Introduction
 Why would we want an AlwaysOn Availability Groups?
Provide both High Availability and Disaster Recovery with
one technology

 High Availability (HA)

Availability within a datacenter
 Disaster Recovery (DR)
Availability across data centers
Protection Levels

 Instance Level
 Failover Clustering
 Database Level
 Log Shipping
 Database Mirroring*
 Availability Groups
 Table\Data Level
 Replication

* Deprecated in SQL Server 2012

HA & DR Prior to SQL Server 2012
Challenges

 Multiple Features for Complete Solution

 Active-Passive with Failover Clustering
 Mirroring only Supports one Database Failover
 Secondary Not Available for Reporting
Introduction to AlwaysOn
 What is AlwaysOn?
Group of technologies within SQL Server that include:
 AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI)
 AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG)
Misconceptions
 AlwaysOn ≠ Availability Groups
 Availability Groups ≠ Database Mirroring
 AlwaysOn is not Always On
Introduction - Compare
 AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI)
• Instance Level Solution
• Shared Storage
• Single Data Center*

 AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG)

• Database Level Solution
• No Shared Storage
• Multiple Data Centers
* Without other supporting technologies
AlwaysOn Availability Group Concepts

Availability Group A set of databases that fail over together.

A database that belongs to an availability group.

Requirements

 Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

 Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC)
 Not a Clustered install of SQL Server
 SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition
 Enable HADR within SQL Server
 Databases must run in Full Recovery Mode

 Does NOT Need Shared Storage/Disks

Benefits

 Supports up to 5 Secondary Replicas

 Supports up to 3 Synchronous Replicas, per AG
 Supports up to 5 Asynchronous Replicas, per AG
 Supports up to 2 Automatic Failover Pairs, per AG
 Replicas can be used for Read Only Access
 Backups on Secondary Replicas
 Automatic Failover
 Read Only Routing
HA & DR with SQL Server 2012 +
Flexible Solutions

Synchronous
Asynchronous

Backups

Synchronous

Reporting
Demo Environment
Demo
Questions

 How do I get started?

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/learning-center/virtual-labs.aspx

 Introduction to SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups (SQL 200)

http://tinyurl.com/aoaglab1
http://online.holsystems.com/Software/holLaunchPadOnline/holLaunchPadOnline.application?eng=SQL&auth=none&src=SQL&altadd=true&labid=8255

 Implementing and Managing AlwaysOn Availability Groups (SQL 210)

http://tinyurl.com/aoaglab2
http://online.holsystems.com/Software/holLaunchPadOnline/holLaunchPadOnline.application?eng=SQL&auth=none&src=SQL&altadd=true&labid=8265

* Note: the above URLs launch an application (holSystems.launchPad Online)

References – Books

 SQL Server 2012 AlwayOn Joes 2 Pros

By Balmukund Lakhani, Vinod Kumar
http://www.amazon.com/Server-2012-AlwaysOn-Joes-
Pros%C2%AE-ebook/dp/B00EBIXHHA/ref=sr_1_sc_1

 Mission Critical SQL Server*

By Allan Hirt
http://www.sqlha.com/2013/07/11/allans-mission-critical-sql-
server-book-ordering-information-and-faq/
*Release date: Feb 2014
References - Blogs
 SQL AlwaysOn Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlalwayson/
 Joe Sack’s Blog
http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/joe/category/availability-groups/
 Brent Ozar’s Blog
http://www.brentozar.com/sql/sql-server-alwayson-availability-groups/
 Allan Hirt’s Blog
http://www.sqlha.com/category/availability-groups/
Thanks