Guys/Gals

With all the 3rd party tools available out there to achieve some level of
High Availability, why would one still consider Clustering i.e. using MSCS ?
Clustering is no cakewalk to setup and administer, yet there are other tools
in the market that seem easier to implement.. from NSI,Neverfail,etc...

Assuming cost is not a problem, what solution is the most safest to
implement and administer ? Should i just get a 3rd party tool ? If so, which
ones work best with SQL and which ones have issues ? Or would i even
consider clustering ?

--------------------
..phx.gbl

Hello Hassan,

Let me start of by saying that clustering is not as hard as it seems,
especially with Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 onwards, its even better
in Windows 2003.

With SQL Server 2000, the setup is cluster aware, so it is not as
complicated as it used to be in SQL Server 6.5 and 7 days.

There are many whitepapers available that document step by step how to
setup a Windows cluster, and also SQL Server 2000 in a cluster.

Check the following links:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../failclus.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/sqlhalp.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...reskit/en-us/s
ql2kres.mspx



The one thing with clusters is that it is expensive as the hardware you
utilize must be on the HCL list and you require shared storage, etc.

Before you even consider 3rd party tools to achieve some level of high
availability you can consider some of the in built features of SQL Server,
such as log shipping in the enterprise edition of SQL Server 2000 or
transactional replication.

Log shipping
---------------

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../logship1.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../logship2.mspx



I hope this information helps you in making your decisions.


Regards,

Shashank Pawar
SQL Server Support Engineer, Microsoft
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