May 1, 2013 at 8:51 am
We are investigating using database mirroring as a DR solution for sharepoint 2010. the sharepoint documentation states that high availability mirroring MUST be used to achieve automatic redirection of the client. However I don't agree with this as I don't believe a witness is required to get the CLIENT to redirect, so high safety would be good enough.
Except in a few blogs I cannot find it definitely stated in MS articles that the witness is not required for client redirect, reading between the lines you would say not, but it goes unstated, so can anyone back me up?
ITs not that I am against a witness per se, its just I want to know what my options are in achieving automated client redirection.
Anyone got feedback on mirroring with SharePoint 2010?
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May 1, 2013 at 8:58 am
george sibbald (5/1/2013)
We are investigating using database mirroring as a DR solution for sharepoint 2010. the sharepoint documentation states that high availability mirroring MUST be used to achieve automatic redirection of the client. However I don't agree with this as I don't believe a witness is required to get the CLIENT to redirect, so high safety would be good enough.Except in a few blogs I cannot find it definitely stated in MS articles that the witness is not required for client redirect, reading between the lines you would say not, but it goes unstated, so can anyone back me up?
ITs not that I am against a witness per se, its just I want to know what my options are in achieving automated client redirection.
Anyone got feedback on mirroring with SharePoint 2010?
Automatic failover requires the use of a Witness. No witness, your failover option is manual.
May 1, 2013 at 9:00 am
Lynn,
agreed - for the databases, thats a no brainer.
but what about the client automatically repointing to the mirror when the principal goes down, thats my question, I see no function for the witness there.
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May 1, 2013 at 9:07 am
george sibbald (5/1/2013)
Lynn,agreed - for the databases, thats a no brainer.
but what about the client automatically repointing to the mirror when the principal goes down, thats my question, I see no function for the witness there.
If you are talking about the user accessing SharePoint, that user doesn't change where they are looking, they continue to access SharePoint. SharePoint is the application that needs to change from the principal databasee to the mirrored database if the principal goes down or becomes unavailable.
May 1, 2013 at 9:26 am
sorry Lynn, thanks for replying but I think you have misunderstood the question: -
a client can use either SQL Server Native Client or .NET Framework Data Provider to connect as long as failover_partner is provided, so as long as the principal and mirror server names are provided in the connection string, as I see it the presence or not of a witness server is irrelevant in allowing the application to redirect following a mirrored database failover - I was just looking for confirmation of that.
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May 1, 2013 at 9:29 am
Something or someone has to tell the mirror database to take over as principal. The application does not do this. If you want SQL Server to automatically failover to the mirror database, you need the Witness. No witness, your only failover option is manual.
May 1, 2013 at 9:47 am
Lynn - I would not ask such a newbie question.
I know how the databases fail over, automatically or not, I was just looking for a second opinion on the conditions required for the client to automatically redirect when the database has swapped roles.
I believe the witness is not required for CLIENT redirect - anyone out there have second opinions on that?
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May 1, 2013 at 9:55 am
george sibbald (5/1/2013)
Lynn - I would not ask such a newbie question.I know how the databases fail over, automatically or not, I was just looking for a second opinion on the conditions required for the client to automatically redirect when the database has swapped roles.
I believe the witness is not required for CLIENT redirect - anyone out there have second opinions on that?
You are correct, the witness is not needed for the client, but it is needed for an automatic failover. The client, in fact, never communicates with the witness.
May 1, 2013 at 10:01 am
thank you.
now to convince the sharepoint guys that MS doco can be less than perfect............
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May 1, 2013 at 12:28 pm
george sibbald (5/1/2013)
thank you.now to convince the sharepoint guys that MS doco can be less than perfect............
Yes, looking back at this:
The sharepoint documentation states that high availability mirroring MUST be used to achieve automatic redirection of the client.
Should say something more like this:
... that high availability mirroring MUST be used to achieve automatic failover to the mirror database.
Emphasis is mine.
May 11, 2013 at 3:35 am
You will need to look at Log shipping rather than Mirroring for Sharepoint 2010. As Mirroring will not sync the filestream and BLOB data.
May 11, 2013 at 3:07 pm
Russell, thanks for that, but logshipping wont replicate data outside of the database either, and mirroring will copy everything logshipping does.
This document from MS themselves recommends mirroring , although statements in the doco appear to say it does not work for all sharepoint databases, but that might be me not knowing enough about sharepoint.
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