August 25, 2020 at 10:07 pm
I have two standalone SQL Server instances. Planning to configure SQL Server FCI between those two instances. Is that possible or I need two nodes without SQL Server on it? Please advise? Thanks in Advance!
August 26, 2020 at 8:46 am
You will need to reinstall SQL as a true FCI so best to start from scratch.
With 2 existing standalone instances I would be looking to do a AOAG instead of a traditional FCI.
August 26, 2020 at 5:40 pm
Thanks! Well I have more than 2 instances, so I am planning to do FCI between 2 instances first then for 3 and 4 th instance I would be configuring AOAG.
August 26, 2020 at 8:13 pm
I think you are confusing what an 'instance' is...I believe you meant to say you have 4 servers.
If your goal is to have an FCI instance across 2 nodes - and one or more AG secondaries then you need to install the cluster first with shared storage between nodes 1 and 2 - dedicated storage to nodes 3 and 4.
Once you have this setup and validated, you then need to install a failover cluster instance (one instance) into the cluster across nodes 1 and 2. Once you have that instance up and working - validated that it fails over between the 2 possible owners, then you can install a standalone instance on node 3. Once you have that standalone instance installed and configured - you can then add an AOAG into the FCI instance where the secondary is defined as node 3 (with or without a listener, depends on what that secondaries are going to be used for and where they are located).
Once you have that completed - and you are sure you have everything setup and configured the way you want it - then you can install a new standalone instance on node 4 and add that node as another secondary to the AG in your primary FCI.
With that said...based on all of your previous posts I would have expected you to already have this setup and configured. It has already been several months since you first posted about this - it is quite surprising that you have not set it up yet.
Jeffrey Williams
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
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Managing Transaction Logs
August 27, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Thanks Jeffrey. I did setup AOAG, so now I wanted to implement both FCI and AOAG. We are still working on licensing. wether to go with standard or enterprise. So i have question until the licensing is sorted out I want to try the FCI on our servers with 180 days trail version and later uninstall after the setup. Do you see any issues with that?
August 27, 2020 at 6:41 pm
This doesn't make sense - you already have a cluster built...across at least 2 servers (nodes)? And - you have setup an AG between 2 of those instances?
What you need to do is:
Note: You can use an FCI for Standard or Enterprise - but you cannot use a normal AG for Standard. Standard Edition only allows for a BAG which is limited to one database per AG and does not allow for read-only secondaries and also does not allow for more than one secondary.
The discussion on Standard vs Enterprise is pretty clear...setting up multiple secondaries for DR/HA/read-only is not possible in Standard and if that is your requirement then Enterprise is required.
Whether you use AG's across all nodes - or an FCI with AG - depends on your goals and requirements. You can setup AG's across all nodes where one node is Primary - second node is HA - third node is DR and fourth node is read-only...or you can setup the first 2 nodes as FCI for primary and HA, third node as DR (AG) and fourth node as read-only (AG).
Again - it all depends on the requirements as to what you are going to build.
Jeffrey Williams
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
How to post questions to get better answers faster
Managing Transaction Logs
August 28, 2020 at 6:30 am
Maybe you could post a small diagram on what you want the build to look like, you know what they say, a picture says a 1000 words.
But I have to agree with Jeffrey, does seem like your confusing FCI's/Instances/Servers a little here.
A FCI is 1 instance over 1 or more servers, just because you have to install SQL on each node of the server doesn't make it multiple instances.
Remember SQL Standard is limited to 2 nodes in a cluster, so even if you wanted to do an FCI and an AOAG over a 4 node cluster in standard you cant do it, the setup can only have two nodes. You want to bring DR into an standard FCI your looking at things like log shipping or rolling your own method of getting the data from PRIMARY to DR data centres.
August 31, 2020 at 8:33 pm
Thanks and appreciate for the info! Here is what I have outlined you for a 4- node cluster. The other question i have here is until the licensing is sorted out on our end, I want to try FCI and AOAG on our old windows servers with SQL Server 180 days trail version and later uninstall after the setup. Do you see any issues with that?
Node1 & Node 2 part of FCI.
Node 3 – Secondary (DR) – Asynchronous
Node 4 – Secondary (Reporting) - Asynchronous
FCI between Node1 and Node2 with active/passive setup. Then AOAG to Node3 and Node4 asynchronous mode. In this configuration i would never fail over to Node4 and make it primary.It will solely built for reporting. Thanks in Advance!
August 31, 2020 at 9:19 pm
So what part of the outline are you having a problem with? With as many different posts you have on this subject - I would have thought that you had this built out already.
If your question is whether or not it can be done - then yes, it can. If your question is whether or not it should be done - then it depends. If your question is on how to set it up - see previous posts.
If you have a different question...I have not seen it yet.
Note: Asynchronous mode does not allow automatic failover - so DR would be a manual failover anyways (as it should). Once you have this built you can then start testing different failover scenarios.
Jeffrey Williams
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
How to post questions to get better answers faster
Managing Transaction Logs
August 31, 2020 at 10:48 pm
Thanks . I did already configured AOAG between 2 nodes. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The only question I have is do you see any issues with SQL Server 180 days trail version for setting up FCI between 2 nodes?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2019
August 31, 2020 at 10:59 pm
I do not see any issues, but I would use developer edition.
Jeffrey Williams
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
― Charles R. Swindoll
How to post questions to get better answers faster
Managing Transaction Logs
October 19, 2020 at 11:09 pm
For a 2 node active/passive cluster on Physical server. I am trying to setup Failover clustering for two nodes. I am looking for prerequisite IP address needed.
So below is what I came up:
I need total of 3 IP addresses along with the virtual server names
1 IP address for Cluster name
Node 1 - 1 IP address
Node 2 - 1 IP address
Correct me if I am missing anything?
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