Yes again. The only gotcha for those coming from failover clusters is that there is no concept of "failback". In FCIs you can set up so that if...

Exactly.

You do if you use the listener name in a connection string, though, and again, if he is wanting to see his connections move as things fail over, he is...

Beatrix Kiddo (4/22/2016)

The listener (rather than the primary)...

It isn't even SQL Server, it's MySQL. Person has no clue.

You could look at it that way if it helps. To say you have 2 automatic failovers does not mean failover paths. It means you can define two...

But failing over won't suddenly make those secondary connections appear, which is what his question implied. The only way that the secondary will receive connections is if the primary...

"Automatically start accepting connections" implies failover. It must be primary to receive connections. If it is not primary it will not accept connections. Again, if it did,...

R1 is one auto failover. R2 is a second. That's two. It's not the paths they count, it's the number of partners.

Either of those could work. I guess the question has to be asked what do you expect to be real circumstances. Do you think you will have cases...

Wait a sec, I just realized you have not discussed your use of quorum. If you actually take down both of those nodes, you will NEVER get failover unless...

That would be the safest way to do it.

I have never tested it to know. If you install 2008 first and then 2014, I can tell you that would work.

I would not install 2008 on top of 2014. You can go forward but not reverse. You risk blowing up your 2014 install if you install 2008 on...

R2 will not go to R3 unless R3 is set for Automatic Failover. Check your settings on the group to see which systems are set for automatic. Those...