Denali Always On adventures

I’ve built a new AD controller VM and two SQL server VM’s with Windows Server 2008 R2 EE. Joined both SQL servers to the domain. Installed the Failover Cluster feature on each. Installed Denali RC0. Enabled AlwaysOn High Availability in the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Then I created a FayWorks database, and a new Availability Group. I set up the primary and then a replica / read only / preferred backup. Then I set up a Availability Group listener. I connected with SSMS to the AG via the listener, started a script that inserted 5000 rows into a temp table in RBAR fashion. Initiated a failover. The insert failed at some point, but I was able to restart the insert without reconnecting or changing anything after the failover completed. Slick as a pan covered in bacon grease.

This combines the best of HA Failover Clustering with the best of Mirroring / Log Shipping / Etc. Being able to geographically set up an Availibility group, having the mirror be targeted for backups, reporting, etc, having up to 4 replicas, completing a failover of just an AG, creating a virtual instance name / IP. Oh yeah, Denali is a game changer.

Some links I have used

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh213080(v=sql.110).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh213417(v=sql.110).aspx
http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/07/how-set-up-sql-server-denali-availability-groups/

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