Multiple Availablity Groups on One Instance

  • From what I understand, one SQL Server 2012 instance can host multiple availability groups. That should allow, for example, the following situation - one SQL Server 2012 instance containing three primary replica databases - each one part of a different availability group - and each availiability group's secondary replica located on a separate SQL Server 2012 instance.

    Does it work the other way around as well? Can you have three SQL Server 2012 instances, each with one primary replica database and have all three secondary replica databases on one SQL Server 2012 instance? So instead of, as above, going from 1 primary server to 3 secondary servers, this time we're going from 3 primary servers to 1 secondary server? The one secondary server would then contain all three secondary replicas for each of the 3 separate primary replicas.

    This would mean that the single server (where all three secondary replicas reside) was part of three separate Windows Server Failover Clustering clusters.

    Is this scenario possible?

    Thanks for any insight.

    Willem

  • As far as I know, this setup should not be a problem

    Have you made any progress with it?

  • I apologize for the delay - last week was a bear! The answer is that I've not made any progress with it, mostly because of last week. However, my question was asked primarily to find out if there had been anyone that had found out that the configuration I wanted was definitely impossible. The reading that I had done up to that point always described a configuration of Always On from one primary server to multiple secondary server. Rather than bang my head against the wall trying to implement something that was already known to be impossible, it thought I'd ask the question and find out first.

    Thank you for the confirmation. We are in the middle of setting up a 2012 proof-of-concept environment and I will set up Always On in the manner I described in the original post.

    Willem

  • Hi, Did this work for you? We are also looking for similar environment.

  • Nalini,

    The POC project ended up being scrapped so I never got to the point of trying out my '3-to-1' Always-On situation - the vanilla '1-to-3' situation, the one everyone talks about, worked just fine. What I do remember is that it was relatively easy to set up an Always-On scenario so you can find out answers to your questions pretty quickly, especially if you are running Virtual server on a SAN.

    Let me know if you have any questions. It's been a while but I'll work with you to figure things out.

    Willem

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