April 3, 2009 at 8:55 am
My company is in the process of purchasing a new SQL Server; the specs for this server are as follows:
Windows 2003 64 Bit OS
16 Gigs RAM
Database and Log files will be located on a shared drive
We are planning on setting up an active/passive mirroring environment with the new server as the active server and our current SQL server as the passive.
The specs for the current server are:
Windows 2003 32 Bit OS*
2 Gigs RAM
Database and Log files are located on a shared drive.
*Our current hardware does not support a 64 bit chip set, so we can not upgrade.
One question I have is will there be any problems setting up mirroring from 64 Bit Standard addition (Active) to 32 Bit Standard edition (Passive)?
April 7, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Mirroring is really a process of continually restoring a database from log entries, and as such it shouldn't matter whether the servers are 32bit or 64bit.
However - what are you trying to accomplish with this setup? The 2 servers are so drastically different that if you need to fail over you will almost certainly take a performance hit, and possibly run into other problems as well.
April 7, 2009 at 9:52 pm
There is no difference in the database files between 32 bit and 64 bit so you can mix and match architecture in any configuration.
Like Matt said, you're going to take a performance hit when you fail over. I suggest setting up a job on the old server that runs every minute and checks to see if it is the current principal, and if it is, it checks to see if the original principal is online and the database is synchronized. Once it reaches this state, automatically fail back to the original principal.
This way, if mirroring fails over unexpectedly due to a reboot or some temporary problem that fixes itself, it fails back as soon as it is ready.
April 14, 2009 at 9:06 am
Thank you for your replies, and I apologize for my delay.
Matt - I was fighting for a clustered set up with 2 servers that were EXACTLY the same in all aspects so performance hits (and any other possible problems) would be less likely to occur. I was told that we did not have the funding possible right now for this to happen, so my boss decided to use our current server as a passive server. I've relayed the performance information to him, and he said that was understandable and acceptable for him.
Do either of you know if the setup we are trying to accomplish will be compliant with licensing if we try to license the 64 bit in an active production environment and install the 32 bit as the passive server?
April 14, 2009 at 9:38 am
There is no difference in licnesing between 64 bit and 32 bit. If you are using processor based licensing, your license must be for the larger of the two machines. so if one machine has 16 processors and one has 4 processors, your license must be for a 16 processor SQL Server no matter which one is the main principal.
April 14, 2009 at 9:46 am
Look for the section titled "Passive Servers and Failover Support" in this document.
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/Special-Considerations.aspx
April 14, 2009 at 10:06 am
Great! Thank you both for your help!!
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