Chris Henley is a fun and energetic representative of Microsoft. He works on the Developer Platform Evangelist team at Microsoft as an IT Professional Evangelist in the western region and is the co-author of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference from Sybex press. Chris is a regular speaker and presenter at user groups, Technet events, and major conferences around the US.
He has extensive experience in the world of computer networks. He is passionate about the way that technology helps people. He has an entertaining and insightful style of communicating technical information and of making difficult concepts easy to understand. He is an expert in server architecture and network design. He loves to push the envelope of what we think about computers, and what software can do. Chris spends his spare time playing XBOX360 with his wife and kids, fly fishing, camping, hiking, and searching for the best chocolate cake on planet earth.
SQL 2005 Database Mirroring
At heart I am a real geek. I love to find out what is going on in the world of emerging technology. Hours and hours can slip away without notice while I am immersed in the wonders of the way software works. (Or sometimes doesn’t work) I have been working with SQL 2005 recently and I have to say “I Love It!” There is one feature that seems to keep popping up everywhere I look. Mirroring. Mirroring. Mirroring.
Did I mention the hottest thing to hit the SQL 2005 release this year was Mirroring.
I wanted to spend a couple of minutes highlighting this feature and providing relevant information on the setup and operating scenarios which might result from database mirroring.
The Summary
Database mirroring in SQL 2005 introduces the option to share transactions between 2 servers called a principal and a mirror. The transactions can be shared in a synchronous or an asynchronous format. (The servers either wait for one another to commit transactions before moving on to additional transaction log processing, or the principal notifies the mirror of pending transactions and simply moves on without waiting for the mirror to catch up.) Each method has advantages and disadvantages. The sharing of transaction logs between server instances makes it possible for failover to occur. Failover can take on 3 forms. Automatic, manual, and forced. In order for automatic failover to occur there must be an additional server added to this mix called a witness. The witness server participates along with the principal and the mirror in forming a Quorum. (Voting Majority) Together the quorum makes decisions about failover and role changes in the event of a server failure.
The Resource
I have read a lot of stuff on SQL 2005 and database mirroring. Here is what I would consider the definitive resource. It is a white paper from the TechNet side of the house. It is very easy reading and the quality of the descriptions and level of detail is perfect for the topic. I won’t lie to you it is a few pages in length but worth every minute of the time you will spend reading it.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/dbmirror.mspx