We have just setup two servers running a copy of SQL 2000 on Windows 2000
server. Each of these servers is running vendor software that interrracts
with the databases. One server is primary and one is backup. Clients only
interract with the vendor process on the servers and not the SQL directly.


Some general questions on SQL 2000 high availability options...

Does Active/Passive and Active/Active refer to clustering options that
require that the servers be clustered on the OS level? Is this the only
option that keeps the databases syncronized in real time?

Is replication a good method if the failover will be done manually?


Thanks!

Karl Albrecht

Active/Active and Active/Passive are obsolete concepts from SQL 7.0 when
each SQL instance had a primary owner host node and a partner owner node.
Under SQL 2000, all nodes are interchangable in a cluster. Some people
mistakenly use teh terms to refer to single and multiple instance SQL
clustering.

Clustering involves a single data store on a 'shared' storage system (SCSI
Array, SAN, etc. NOT NAS). Shared is not exactly correct since the cluster
software arbitrates ownership so that only one host node owns the
resource(s) at a time. Therefore, you have to have a working MSCS cluster
in order to create a SQL cluster.

Replication is not a good technique for creating a warm standby server.
Replication has VERY limited ability to handle schema changes without a
total resynch. It also does not replicate stored procedures or views.


--
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com

I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org

"Karl Albrecht" <karlman (AT) pacbell (DOT) net> wrote

Geoff, you can replicate stored procs and views.

--
Tom

---------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA
SQL Server MVP
Columnist, SQL Server Professional
Toronto, ON Canada
www.pinnaclepublishing.com/sql


"Geoff N. Hiten" <SRDBA (AT) Careerbuilder (DOT) com> wrote

Active/Active and Active/Passive are obsolete concepts from SQL 7.0 when
each SQL instance had a primary owner host node and a partner owner node.
Under SQL 2000, all nodes are interchangable in a cluster. Some people
mistakenly use teh terms to refer to single and multiple instance SQL
clustering.

Clustering involves a single data store on a 'shared' storage system (SCSI
Array, SAN, etc. NOT NAS). Shared is not exactly correct since the cluster
software arbitrates ownership so that only one host node owns the
resource(s) at a time. Therefore, you have to have a working MSCS cluster
in order to create a SQL cluster.

Replication is not a good technique for creating a warm standby server.
Replication has VERY limited ability to handle schema changes without a
total resynch. It also does not replicate stored procedures or views.


--
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com

I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org

"Karl Albrecht" <karlman (AT) pacbell (DOT) net> wrote

Actually, you can cluster to a shared resource on a NAS. We have a NetApp
880 Filer and have been running SQL clusters quite nicely using Snapdrive
over Gig fiber for a couple of years using the procedures outlined at this
NetApp link:
http://www.netapp.com/tech_library/3248.html#2.


"Geoff N. Hiten" <SRDBA (AT) Careerbuilder (DOT) com> wrote