If a customer has a na application that accesses SQL
server running on a single machine (Windows 2003 Server)
and then decided to implement an active/passive server
cluster with SQL Server Enterprise, does the application
that accesses the database need to change? I am not sure
what is meant by "cluster-aware applications". Isn't
clustering supposed to be transparent to the application?
I read a line in "Server Clusters: Architectural Overview"
that said:

"Server clusters also provide the --> APPLICATION
INTERFACES <-- and tools needed to develop new cluster-
aware aaplications that can take advantage of the high
availability features of server clusters"

Thanks,
Todd

Hi

The biggest issue is when the cluster fails over from one node to another.

The client application must re-connect to the cluster again as the
connection will be broken when the failover occurs.

Any transaction that was running on behalf of the client would have been
rolled back and the application will have to re-submit it.

Regards
--
--------------------------------
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Epprecht Consulting (PTY) LTD
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mobile: +27-82-552-0268
IM: mike (AT) NOSPAMepprecht (DOT) net

Specialist SQL Server Solutions and Consulting

<anonymous (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

A cluster aware application is an application that will function on a
cluster and failover when necessary. As an example, a virtual SQL Server
2000 server is cluster aware iin that it will fail back and forth. By the
same token, Excel is not. If SQL Server 2000 and Excel are both running on
node 1 and node 1 crashes SQL Server will failover to node 2, but Excel
will not.

Rand
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

This is an interesting topic. If I want to inspect the applications on my network to determine whether or not they are cluster aware, what would I look for.

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