September 12, 2012 at 10:00 am
Do mirroring, log shipping and replication require identical versions of SQL Server? Or can these types of high availablity be be set up between SQL 2008 R2 and SQL 2008? 32-bit and 64-bit?
September 12, 2012 at 10:25 am
32 bit to 64 bit could probably be done, I don't see a good reason to do that though, it's asking for odd problems.
Mirroring between versions can be done, but it's only supported as part of a rolling upgrade (mirroring 2005 to 2008 as part of a 2005-2008 upgrade). It can only be done up-version (2008 principal and 2008 R2 mirror) and if you ever fail over you won't be able to fail back.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
September 21, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Specifically re: Replication
Replicating up-version and down-version are officially supported but there are limitations usually related to the lowest version in the topology:
Using Multiple Versions of SQL Server in a Replication Topology (SQL Server 2008 R2)
There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
--Plato
April 15, 2016 at 10:06 am
Can we failover to a lower version of SQL Server?
Currently mirroring is configure on two servers
Principle SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6220)
Mirrored SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6000)
Will we have trouble this weekend when performing a failover to the lower version?
Will we have trouble failing back to the newer version?
Any help is appreciated
Jeff
April 15, 2016 at 12:05 pm
jayoub (4/15/2016)
Can we failover to a lower version of SQL Server?Currently mirroring is configure on two servers
Principle SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6220)
Mirrored SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6000)
Will we have trouble this weekend when performing a failover to the lower version?
Will we have trouble failing back to the newer version?
Any help is appreciated
This will probably work as both are 2008 R2 SP3.
April 17, 2016 at 7:10 pm
Cool, thank you very much for the help
Jeff
April 19, 2016 at 5:51 am
jayoub (4/15/2016)
Can we failover to a lower version of SQL Server?Currently mirroring is configure on two servers
Principle SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6220)
Mirrored SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 (10.50.6000)
Will we have trouble this weekend when performing a failover to the lower version?
Will we have trouble failing back to the newer version?
Any help is appreciated
You wont have any issues as its only the minor not major version you are failing between. During fail over though the instance will take slightly longer to come online as it will perform an upgrade \ downgrade between versions. You'll see this reported in the SQL server event log along the lines of "Upgrading ......." no matter whether its up or down grading.
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
April 19, 2016 at 6:07 am
RTaylor2208 (4/19/2016)
During fail over though the instance will take slightly longer to come online as it will perform an upgrade \ downgrade between versions. You'll see this reported in the SQL server event log along the lines of "Upgrading ......." no matter whether its up or down grading.
"Upgrading ..." in the error log means changing the DB file structure and bumping the internal database version, and that cannot be undone, but that's only done when upgrading the major versions, ie 10.50.6000 to 11.00.nnnn.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
April 19, 2016 at 10:04 am
GilaMonster (4/19/2016)
RTaylor2208 (4/19/2016)
During fail over though the instance will take slightly longer to come online as it will perform an upgrade \ downgrade between versions. You'll see this reported in the SQL server event log along the lines of "Upgrading ......." no matter whether its up or down grading."Upgrading ..." in the error log means changing the DB file structure and bumping the internal database version, and that cannot be undone, but that's only done when upgrading the major versions, ie 10.50.6000 to 11.00.nnnn.
I'll have to disagree with you on this one as we have a production cluster that we are still trying to resolve issues with so we can run the same version.
As it stands Node A is on a higher version of cumulative update to the B node, both are the same SQL server and Service Pack version (SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3). Each time we fail over we have the following messages reported in the SQL server log:
"Database 'master' is upgrading scriptDatabase 'master' is upgrading script........."
And if you try and connect to the instance whilst this is occurring you will see these messages in the log
We are running different versions as we are trying to resolve issues with CDC and the generation of execution plans which is documented bug by Microsoft, however we are trying to avoid the creation of plan guides for each function involved in CDC as there is over 100 tables involved.
Login failed for user 'xxx\xxxxxxx'. Reason: Server is in script upgrade mode. Only administrator can connect...
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
April 19, 2016 at 10:23 am
I'm confused, are you using clustering or mirroring?
April 19, 2016 at 11:22 am
We are using clustering in a 2 node active \ passive configuration.
However having just re-read the thread I can see why your confused. I see now the OP is using mirroring, the fact they used the term failover threw me off when reading their reply, I automatically thought they meant clustering.
That'll teach me to skim over replies :doze:
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
April 19, 2016 at 7:09 pm
Thank you for all the help
We are using Mirroring.
Jeff
April 20, 2016 at 3:04 am
RTaylor2208 (4/19/2016)
GilaMonster (4/19/2016)
RTaylor2208 (4/19/2016)
During fail over though the instance will take slightly longer to come online as it will perform an upgrade \ downgrade between versions. You'll see this reported in the SQL server event log along the lines of "Upgrading ......." no matter whether its up or down grading."Upgrading ..." in the error log means changing the DB file structure and bumping the internal database version, and that cannot be undone, but that's only done when upgrading the major versions, ie 10.50.6000 to 11.00.nnnn.
I'll have to disagree with you on this one as we have a production cluster that we are still trying to resolve issues with so we can run the same version.
"Database 'master' is upgrading scriptDatabase 'master' is upgrading script........."
There's a difference between that (which is indeed related to service packs and is NOT upgrading the DB's version or structure, and probably means that a patch on one of the nodes didn't take correctly at some point in the past) and upgrading the database version, which means changing the DB's structure.
What you have cannot happen with mirroring, since mirroring is two separate instances with two separate sets of databases. With mirroring the only time you'll see messages relating to upgrading DBs is when the principal is a lower major version to the mirror (legal, but only supported for rolling upgrades) and those messages look something like
"Converting database ‘Database Name’ from version 611 to the current version 782."
That's a one-way process, once upgraded it cannot go back to a lower version, and only occurs with major version changes (there was a SP that could cause it in the SQL 2005 days, not a good thing)
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
April 24, 2016 at 11:34 am
I can confirm I was able to failover from a 10.50.6529 version to a 10.50.6000 (sp3) version. I wouldn't recommend keeping the difference in versions but if you make a mistake its nice to know the database/server wont go south.
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