Designing a High-Availability Solution for Your SharePoint Infrastructure

1. AIT008 Interactive Theatre Designing a High-Availability Solution for Your SharePoint Infrastructure Victor Isakov Database Architect / Trainer

2. Victor Isakov Database Architect | Trainer Interactive Theatre SQL Server Solutions www.sqlserversolutions.com.au Email: Blog: Twitter: LinkedIn: victor@sqlserversolutions.com.au www.victorisakov.com @victorisakov www.linkedin.com/in/victorisakov • Victor Isakov • Database Architect / Trainer

3. Victor Isakov • Victor Isakov is a Database Architect / Trainer who enjoys a reputation of being one of the most knowledgeable subject matter experts on SQL Server and related technology. Victor has provided consulting and training services around the world for over 15 years. Victor Isakov has authored a number of books on SQL Server and worked with Microsoft to develop the SQL Server exams and certification. • SQL Server / Business Intelligence / SharePoint Training • SQL Server / Business Intelligence / SharePoint Consulting • Performance Tuning / Troubleshooting • SQL Server Infrastructure Reviews (“Health-checks”) • Solution Architecture Design / Review

4. Abstract Designing a High-Availability solution for SharePoint at the SQL Server level has traditionally been difficult due to a different release cadence. In this session Victor Isakov (MCA, MCM, MCT, MVP) will present on the different SQL Server high-availability technologies available for a SharePoint farm. Victor will discuss their respective pros and cons, as well as Microsoft’s strategic direction in this space, which will help you decide what high availability solution suits you best..

5. Agenda • High-Availability • Log Shipping • Clustering • Database Mirroring • Availability Groups

6. High-Availability • What is the first question to ask when designing your high-availability solution? • What’s the budget? • What availability do we require? • Don’t forget to define “downtime” with all stakeholders • Do you require automatic failover? • Important to engage all stakeholder as early as possible • Set realistic expectations

7. High-Availability Recommendations • Make sure you understand how the technology works • Make sure your IT staff understand how the technology works • People • Process • Implement a POC • Make sure you understand licensing requirements!

8. Log Shipping • Uses proven “primitives” to “ship” the transaction log from the primary to the secondary server • Backup log, copy, restore • Secondary database cannot be accessed when next transaction log is applied • Recovering • Standby • Manual failover

9. Clustering • Scope of protection: instance level • Requires shared storage • Enterprise Edition has some additional benefits that will aid “faster” failover

10. Clustering

11. Clustering: Pros • Available in Standard Edition • 2 node cluster • Automatic failover • Easy to administer: • Cluster Manager • Patching • Works with all database recovery models • Very, very mature technology

12. Clustering: Cons • Requires “validated” hardware • Shared Storage • Industry perception that “it is too complicated”, “too difficult to administer” • Un-utilised hardware • Cannot scale-out database solution

13. Database Mirroring • Introduced in SQL Server 2005 • Scope of protection is at the database level • Modes: • Asynchronous • Synchronous • Automatic fail over possible • Requires witness server

14. Database Mirroring

15. Database Mirroring : Pros • Does not required “validated” hardware • Software only solution • No dependency on shared storage • Available in Standard Edition

16. Database Mirroring : Cons • Database has to be using full recovery model • Only one mirror • Mirror cannot be accessed • Failover at database level • Scalability • DEPRECATED IN SQL SERVER 2012

17. Availability Groups • Introduced in SQL Server 2012 • Scope of protection: group of databases • “Evolution” of database mirroring • Automatic Failover • Up to 2 • Modes: • Asynchronous • Synchronous • Up to 3

18. Availability Groups

19. Availability Groups: Pros • Can have up to 4 replicas • Replicas can be accessed as read-only • Improved architecture for multiple databases • Can offload administrative tasks from primary replica • Database backups • Database consistency checks

20. Availability Groups: Cons • Only available in Enterprise Edition

21. Availability Groups Example • Install Windows Server failover cluster role • Install SQL Server • Enable availability groups • Create an availability group • Create a client access point • Install and configure SharePoint Server 2010 • Add the SharePoint databases to the availability group

22. Summary • Avoid using Database Mirroring • Clustering • Availability Groups present some interesting new opportunities

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