August 12, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Do we need to stop (or pause) mirroring when we upgrade our production server with SP3? We are using a witness server, and the SP (plus subsequent CU fixes) requires a reboot. We are concerned that the principal will switch to the mirror server during the upgrade.
Anyone know the best approach to upgrading a partner in a mirrored database?
Thanks,
Kay
August 12, 2009 at 4:51 pm
When I applied SP3 to my 2005 mirrored servers this is the process I followed:
1. Pause mirroring
2. Apply SP3 to the witness server
3. Apply SP3 to the mirror server
4. Manually fail the db's to the mirror server
5. Apply SP3 to the principal server
6. Fail the databases back to the principal server
7. Resume mirroring
August 14, 2009 at 9:27 am
This process involves sequentially upgrading the instances of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 that are participating in database mirroring. This form of upgrade, which is known as a rolling upgrade, reduces downtime to only a single failover. Note that for high-performance mode sessions in which the mirror server is geographically distant from the principal server, a rolling upgrade might be inappropriate.
A rolling upgrade is a multi-stage process that consists of the following stages:
•Protect your data.
•If the session includes a witness, we recommend that you remove the witness. Otherwise, when the mirror server instance is being upgraded, database availability depends on the witness that remains connected to the principal server instance. After you remove a witness, you can upgrade it at any time during the rolling upgrade process without risking database downtime.
• If a session is running in high-performance mode, change the operating mode to high-safety mode.
•Upgrade each server instance that is involved in database mirroring. A rolling upgrade involves upgrading the server instance that is currently the mirror server, manually failing over each of its mirrored databases, and upgrading the server instance that was first the principal server (and is now the new mirror server). At this point, you will have to resume mirroring.
•Revert to high-performance mode, if it is required.
•Return the witness to the mirroring session, if it is required.
For more Information visit:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb497962(SQL.90).aspx
Regards,
Sarabpreet Singh 😎
Sarabpreet.com
SQLChamp.com
Twitter: @Sarab_SQLGeek
August 14, 2009 at 9:56 am
Excellent. Thanks very much for all the advice.
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