Does the Log shipping configuration breakes in a a/p cluster setup when a failover occurs?

  • Any Idea..why the Backup job is NOT failing even if we give node name in the backup path and why copy job is failing??

    Backup job is running thourgh sql server no matter which node is it on, it is referring to sql server cluster ip while taking backups. Therefore it is running successfully.

    When the copy process works, it looks for source cluster node IP and destination server IP. It could be possible that it is unable to resolve the active cluster node and fails there. Check what path you have given in copy job, is it pointing to correct server name?

    On a safer side, if you'll use windows virtual server cluster IP, it will automatically point to active cluster node and pick the files from there to copy to logship destination server. If your destination server is also in cluster then give destination windows cluster IP to copy the files to.

    Also open the logshipping jobs on primary db server and generate the scripts from management studio. Go through scripts and most probably you'll find the reason of failure. Give it a shot.

  • I agree with Scott's explanation as well.

    With logshipping experience i have, i'll advice to use windows or sql server cluster IPs (or machine names or UNCs with cluster name) when you have to point to either of the servers (windows or sql svr) rather than using individual nodes IPs. What if in future you add another node to cluster and you'll be in trouble to update your scripts, cluster administrator will automatically take care of it for you. 🙂

  • From BOL....

    Create a file share for the transaction log backups, preferably on a fault-tolerant server that is not part of the log shipping configuration. To maximize availability of the primary server, Microsoft recommends as a best practice that you place the backup share on a separate host computer. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188698(SQL.90).aspx

    So, we need just create a shared folder on Separate computer and give that path as : \\Separate Server\ShareName

    Then Even if the sql group failover to other, then the backup job looks for the same path \\Separate Server\ShareName.

    Copy job will not effect any way..it always try copies from this separate server path \\separate server\sharename

    Please give me your suggestions how good and realistic to take the transactional backups to a network share on a separate server??

    Please suggest me which Path should I choose for the backup path

    1. \\virtual servername\sharename(local to cluster nodes)

    2.Network share on Separate computer

  • 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. At least if you backup to the local [SAN] disk, you don't have to worry about a network blip fouling your backups (it's happened before, discussed on these forums). Of course, if your primary server goes down, you risk losing access to your backups. However, in your case, that is of less concern as you are running a cluster. You'd only have to worry about the SAN going down, in which case it is likely that it wouldn't matter what server your backups were on - if they were on a SAN drive they will still be unaccessible.

    It's a recommendation but not something you have to follow to the letter in order to get things working.

    As with all things SQL Server, "it depends".



    Scott Duncan

    MARCUS. Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour.
    TITUS. Why, I have not another tear to shed;
    --Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare


  • klnsuddu (7/1/2009)

    Please suggest me which Path should I choose for the backup path

    1. \\virtual servername\sharename(local to cluster nodes)

    2.Network share on Separate computer

    It all depends on your exisiting infrastructure. This should have been covered in design and planning phase of logshipping. It also depends on whether the network is capable of handling the transfer of big log files in production environment. I'll recommend to talk to your infrastructre manager or any person who is aware of all current system and network complexities, consider all the aspects of putting it on SAN.

    I was in a situation where i couldn't get any extra free space on SAN and adding more disks to it was not justifiable for this process. I am taking logship backups on local server with \\virtual servername\sharename(local to cluster nodes).

  • Hi anam,

    Do you have created Backup group separately(which consists a backup drive) in cluster administrator or included the backup drive also in SQL group?

  • backup drive is included in SQL Server Group in cluster administrator.

  • We have 5 instances on one node1 and 2 instance on 2nd node and 3rd node is passive for both nodes 1 & 2.

    We have a backup group on node1 and node2. All the backups from node1 goes to the backup drive in Backup group on node1 and all backups from node2 goes to backup drive on node2.

    If sql group related to one instance moves to node3, then the backup group has to move? how exactly we should configure the groups for this scenario

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