SQL 2014 Standard Edition Clustering in AWS

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SQL 2014 Standard Edition Clustering in AWS

Michelle-138172

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October 30, 2015 at 12:25 pm

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I've been searching info on sql server clustering for 2014 standard edition on AWS, but it hasn't come up with a lot of options. Are there not many companies that need clustering in AWS?
The options I can find are SIOS Datakeeper and DH2i DxEnterprise. It seems the latter has to use SIOS Datakeeper technology to resolve shared storage problem. AWS Elastic File System (EFS) could be a good substitute for Datakeeper, but EFS is still in preview and it costs 3 times as much of regular storage.
So what do you do for Clustering, or simply High Availability, in AWS for standard edition? Thanks.

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Alan Burstein SSC Guru Points: 61141 More actions · Answer 1

Michelle-138172 (10/30/2015)
I've been searching info on sql server clustering for 2014 standard edition on AWS, but it hasn't come up with a lot of options. Are there not many companies that need clustering in AWS?

Yes, I work for a consulting company and we're setting up AWS HA solutions all the time. The trend is that more companies are moving to Azure and AWS.

The options I can find are SIOS Datakeeper and DH2i DxEnterprise. It seems the latter has to use SIOS Datakeeper technology to resolve shared storage problem. AWS Elastic File System (EFS) could be a good substitute for Datakeeper, but EFS is still in preview and it costs 3 times as much of regular storage.

I don't know anything about SIOS or DxEnterprise and it's been a year since I have done anything with SQL Server in AWS. Amazon has different storage tiers that you can use so there's no need for 3rd party storage.

So what do you do for Clustering, or simply High Availability, in AWS for standard edition? Thanks.

You can setup 2014 Std Edition on RDS or EC2. RDS is pretty much like having a VM - it's just offsite and someone else monitors the server, handles backups and stuff like that. I don't know anything about EC2 except that you can leverage EBS[/url]

Here's a real good PDF that will might find to be very helpful.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/quickstart-reference/microsoft/sql/latest/doc/Microsoft_WSFC_and_SQL_AlwaysOn_Quick_Start.pdf

"I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001

Michelle-138172 Hall of Fame Points: 3234 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks, Alan.

I have already set up single instances of SQL in AWS, but now looking to build redundancy for HA/DR. We use EC2 instead of RDS.

SQL clustering is only supported by Enterprise edition, which is way more expensive than Standard. I had checked the pdf you mentioned when we were setting up the system, but it wouldn't apply to Standard edition.

I was not talking about 3rd party storage, but third party clustering/HA setup and management for Standard edition. SQL clustering requires shared storage by different nodes, which is not currently available in AWS. EFS might work, but it's not released yet.

Alan Burstein SSC Guru Points: 61141 More actions · Answer 3

I'm sorry. I misunderstood your question. Like I said, I'm unfamiliar with SIOS and DxEnterprise. 🙁

"I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001

WorkasDBA SSCommitted Points: 1684 More actions · Answer 4

You can set up a SQL EC2 instance in another AZ or region, copy all the backups to S3(which is universal) and restore the backups.