SQL Server 2016 High Availability Unleashed (includes Content Update Program)

Paul Bertucci is the founder of Data by Design (www.dataXdesign.com) a database consulting firm with offices in the United States and Paris, France. He has more than 30 years of experience with database design, data modeling, data architecture, data replication, performance and tuning, distributed data systems, big data/Hadoop, data integration, high availability, disaster recovery/business continuity, master data management/data quality, and system architectures for numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Intel, Coca-Cola, Symantec, Autodesk, Apple, Toshiba, Lockheed, Wells Fargo, Merrill-Lynch, Safeway, Texaco, Charles Schwab, Wealth Front, Pacific Gas and Electric, Dayton Hudson, Abbott Labs, Cisco Systems, Sybase, and Honda, to name a few. He has written numerous articles, company and international data standards, and high-profile courses such as “Performance and Tuning” and “Physical Database Design” for Sybase and “Entity Relationship Modeling” courses for Chen & Associates (Dr. Peter P. Chen). Other Sams books that he has authored include the highly popular Microsoft SQL Server Unleashed series (SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014), ADO.NET in 24 Hours, and Microsoft SQL Server High Availability. He has deployed numerous traditional database systems with MS SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, and Oracle database engines, big data databases with Hadoop, and non-SQL databases (value pair) such as Oracle’s NoSQL and Cassandra NoSQL. He has designed/architected several commercially available tools in the database, data modeling, performance and tuning, data integrity, data integration, and multidimensional planning spaces. Paul is also an experienced leader of global enterprise architecture teams for multi-billion dollar companies and lead global teams in data warehousing/BI, big data, master data management, identity management, enterprise application integration, and collaboration systems. He has held positions such as chief data architect for Symantec, chief architect and director of Shared Services for Autodesk, CTO for Diginome, and CTO for both LISI and PointCare. Paul speaks regularly at many conferences and gatherings worldwide, such as SQL Saturday’s, Ignite, TechEd, MDM Summit, Oracle World, Informatica World, SRII, MIT Chief Data Officer symposium, and many others. Paul received his formal education in computer science and electrical engineering from UC Berkeley (Go, Bears!). He lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (Oregon) with the three children who still live at home (Donny, Juliana, and Nina) and lives near the other two, “working” adult children, Marissa and Paul Jr., who live in Portland. Paul can be reached at pbertucci@dataXdesign.com.

Introduction     xvii
Part I:  Understanding High Availability
1  Understanding High Availability     1
Overview of High Availability     1
Calculating Availability     6
    Availability Example: A 24×7×365 Application     6
    The Availability Continuum     8
Availability Variables     10
General Design Approach for Achieving High Availability     13
Development Methodology with High Availability Built In     14
    Assessing Existing Applications     16
    What Is a Service Level Agreement?     17
High Availability Business Scenarios     18
    An Application Service Provider     18
    Worldwide Sales and Marketing—Brand Promotion     19
    Investment Portfolio Management     20
    Call-Before-You Dig Call Center     20
Microsoft Technologies That Yield High Availability     21
Summary     22
2  Microsoft High Availability Options     23
Getting Started with High Availability     23
    Creating a Fault-Tolerant Disk: RAID and Mirroring     26
    Increasing System Availability with RAID     27
    Mitigating Risk by Spreading Out Server Instances         33
Microsoft Options for Building an HA Solution     35
    Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC)     36
    SQL Clustering     37
    AlwaysOn Availability Groups     39
    Data Replication     40
    Log Shipping     41
    Database Snapshots     42
    Microsoft Azure Options and Azure SQL Databases     43
    Application Clustering     45
Summary     46

Part II:  Choosing the Right High Availability Approaches
3  Choosing High Availability     47
A Four-Step Process for Moving Toward High Availability     47
Step 1: Launching a Phase 0 HA Assessment     49
    Resources for a Phase 0 HA Assessment     49
    The Phase 0 HA Assessment Tasks     49
Step 2: Gauging HA Primary Variables     52
Step 3: Determining the Optimal HA Solution     53
    A Hybrid High Availability Selection Method     53
Step 4: Justifying the Cost of a Selected High Availability Solution     75
    ROI Calculation     75
    Adding HA Elements to Your Development Methodology     76
Summary     76

Part III:  Implementing High Availability
4  Failover Clustering     79
Variations of Failover Clustering     80
How Clustering Works     81
    Understanding WSFC     82
    Extending WSFC with NLB     86
    How WSFC Sets the Stage for SQL Server Clustering and AlwaysOn     87
    Installing Failover Clustering     89
A SQL Clustering Configuration     94
An AlwaysOn Availability Group Configuration     95
Configuring SQL Server Database Disks     96
Summary     97
5  SQL Server Clustering     99
Installing SQL Server Clustering Within WSFC     100
Potential Problems to Watch Out for with SQL Server Failover Clustering     113
Multisite SQL Server Failover Clustering     114
Scenario 1: Application Service Provider with SQL Server Clustering     114
Summary     117
6  SQL Server AlwaysOn and Availability Groups     119
AlwaysOn and Availability Groups Use Cases     119
    Windows Server Failover Clustering     120
    AlwaysOn Failover Clustering Instances     120
    AlwaysOn and Availability Groups     122
    Combining Failover with Scale-out Options     125
Building a Multinode AlwaysOn Configuration     125
    Verifying SQL Server Instances     126
    Setting Up Failover Clustering     126
    Preparing the Database     129
    Enabling AlwaysOn HA     129
    Backing Up the Database     130
    Creating the Availability Group     131
    Selecting the Databases for the Availability Group     132
    Identifying the Primary and Secondary Replicas     133
    Synchronizing the Data     135
    Setting Up the Listener     138
    Connecting Using the Listener     141
    Failing Over to a Secondary     141
Dashboard and Monitoring     143
Scenario 3: Investment Portfolio Management with AlwaysOn and Availability Groups     145
Summary     148
7  SQL Server Database Snapshots     149
What Are Database Snapshots?     150
Copy-on-Write Technology     154
When to Use Database Snapshots     155
    Reverting to a Snapshot for Recovery Purposes     155
    Safeguarding a Database Prior to Making Mass Changes     157
    Providing a Testing (or Quality Assurance) Starting Point (Baseline)     157
    Providing a Point-in-Time Reporting Database     158
    Providing a Highly Available and Offloaded Reporting Database from a Database Mirror     159
Setup and Breakdown of a Database Snapshot     160
    Creating a Database Snapshot     161
    Breaking Down a Database Snapshot     165
Reverting to a Database Snapshot for Recovery     166
    Reverting a Source Database from a Database Snapshot     166
    Using Database Snapshots with Testing and QA     167
    Security for Database Snapshots     168
    Snapshot Sparse File Size Management     168
    Number of Database Snapshots per Source Database     168
    Adding Database Mirroring for High Availability     168
What Is Database Mirroring?     169
    When to Use Database Mirroring     171
    Roles of the Database Mirroring Configuration     171
    Playing Roles and Switching Roles     172
    Database Mirroring Operating Modes     172
Setting Up and Configuring Database Mirroring     173
    Getting Ready to Mirror a Database     174
    Creating the Endpoints     176
    Granting Permissions     178
    Creating the Database on the Mirror Server     178
    Identifying the Other Endpoints for Database Mirroring     180
    Monitoring a Mirrored Database Environment     182
    Removing Mirroring     185
Testing Failover from the Principal to the Mirror     187
    Client Setup and Configuration for Database Mirroring     189
Setting Up DB Snapshots Against a Database Mirror     190
    Reciprocal Principal/Mirror Reporting Configuration     190
Scenario 3: Investment Portfolio Management with DB Snapshots and DB Mirroring     192
Summary     194
8  SQL Server Data Replication     195
Data Replication for High Availability     195
    Snapshot Replication     196
    Transactional Replication     196
    Merge Replication     196
    What Is Data Replication?     198
The Publisher, Distributor, and Subscriber Metaphor     199
    Publications and Articles     200
    Filtering Articles     201
Replication Scenarios     205
    Central Publisher     206
    Central Publisher with a Remote Distributor     207
Subscriptions     208
    Pull Subscriptions     208
    Push Subscriptions     209
The Distribution Database     209
Replication Agents     210
    The Snapshot Agent     210
    The Log Reader Agent     212
    The Distribution Agent     212
    The Miscellaneous Agents     213
User Requirements Driving the Replication Design     213
Setting Up Replication     214
    Enabling a Distributor     215
    Publishing     217
    Creating a Publication     217
    Creating a Subscription     220
Switching Over to a Warm Standby (Subscriber)     226
    Scenarios That Dictate Switching to the Warm Standby     226
    Switching Over to a Warm Standby (the Subscriber)     227
    Turning the Subscriber into a Publisher (if Needed)     227
Monitoring Replication     227
    SQL Statements     228
    SQL Server Management Studio     228
    The Windows Performance Monitor and Replication     230
    Backup and Recovery in a Replication Configuration     231
Scenario 2: Worldwide Sales and Marketing with Data Replication     233
Summary     236
9  SQL Server Log Shipping     237
Poor Man’s High Availability     237
    Data Latency and Log Shipping     238
    Design and Administration Implications of Log Shipping     239
Setting Up Log Shipping     240
    Before Creating Log Shipping     241
    Using the Database Log Shipping Task     242
    When the Source Server Fails     252
Scenario 4: Call Before Digging with Log Shipping     252
Summary     255
10  High Availability Options in the Cloud     257
A High Availability Cloud Nightmare     258
HA Hybrid Approaches to Leveraging the Cloud     259
    Extending Your Replication Topology to the Cloud     260
    Extending Log Shipping to the Cloud for Additional HA     262
    Creating a Stretch Database to the Cloud for Higher HA     264
    Using AlwaysOn and Availability Groups to the Cloud     265
    Using AlwaysOn and Availability Groups in the Cloud     267
    Using Azure SQL Database for HA in the Cloud     268
    Using Active Geo Replication     270
    HA When Using Azure Big Data Options in the Cloud     271
Summary     271
11  High Availability and Big Data Options     273
Big Data Options for Azure     274
    HDInsight     276
    Machine Learning Web Service     276
    Stream Analytics     276
    Cognitive Services     276
    Data Lake Analytics     277
    Data Lake Store     277
    Data Factory     278
    Power BI Embedded     278
    Microsoft Azure Data Lake Services     278
HDInsight Features     279
    Using NoSQL Capabilities     279
    Real-Time Processing     280
    Spark for Interactive Analysis     280
    R for Predictive Analysis and Machine Learning     280
    Azure Data Lake Analytics     281
    Azure Data Lake Store     282
High Availability of Azure Big Data     283
    Data Redundancy     283
    High Availability Services     285
How to Create a Highly Available HDInsight Cluster     285
Accessing Your Big Data     295
The Seven-Step Big Data Journey from Inception to Enterprise Scale     297
Other Things to Consider for Your Big Data Solution     299
Azure Big Data Use Cases     300
    Use Case 1: Iterative Exploration     300
    Use Case 2: Data Warehouse on Demand     300
    Use Case 3: ETL Automation     301
    Use Case 4: BI Integration     301
    Use Case 5: Predictive Analysis     301
Summary     301
12  Hardware and OS Options for High Availability     303
Server HA Considerations     304
    Failover Clustering     304
    Networking Configuration     306
    Clustered Virtual Machine Replication     307
    Virtualization Wars     307
Backup Considerations     308
    Integrated Hypervisor Replication     310
    VM Snapshots     310
    Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)     311
Summary     311
13  Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity     313
How to Approach Disaster Recovery     314
    Disaster Recovery Patterns     316
    Recovery Objectives     321
    A Data-centric Approach to Disaster Recovery     322
Microsoft Options for Disaster Recovery     323
    Data Replication     323
    Log Shipping     325
    Database Mirroring and Snapshots     326
    Change Data Capture     327
    AlwaysOn and Availability Groups     328
    Azure and Active Geo Replication     330
The Overall Disaster Recovery Process     330
    The Focus of Disaster Recovery     331
    Planning and Executing Disaster Recovery     338
Have You Detached a Database Recently?     339
Third-Party Disaster Recovery Alternatives     339
    Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)     340
Summary     340
14  Bringing HA Together     341
Foundation First     341
Assembling Your HA Assessment Team     343
Setting the HA Assessment Project Schedule/Timeline     344
Doing a Phase 0 High Availability Assessment     345
    Step 1: Conducting the HA Assessment     346
    Step 2: Gauging HA Primary Variables     348
    High Availability Tasks Integrated into Your Development Life Cycle     350
Selecting an HA Solution     352
Determining Whether an HA Solution Is Cost-Effective     354
Summary     357
15  Upgrading Your Current Deployment to HA     359
Quantifying Your Current Deployment     360
    Scenario 1 Original Environment List     361
Deciding What HA Solution You Will Upgrade To     363
    Scenario 1 Target HA Environment List     365
Planning Your Upgrade     367
Doing Your Upgrade     368
Testing Your HA Configuration     369
Monitoring Your HA Health     370
Summary     372
16  High Availability and Security     373
The Security Big Picture     374
    Using Object Permissions and Roles     376
    Object Protection Using Schema-Bound Views     377
Ensuring Proper Security for HA Options     380
    SQL Clustering Security Considerations     380
    Log Shipping Security Considerations     381
    Data Replication Security Considerations     383
    Database Snapshots Security Considerations     384
    AlwaysOn Availability Group Security Considerations     384
SQL Server Auditing     385
    General Thoughts on Database Backup/Restore, Isolating SQL Roles, and Disaster Recovery Security Considerations     388
Summary     389
17  Future Direction of High Availability     391
High Availability as a Service (HAaaS)     391
100% Virtualization of Your Platforms     392
Being 100% in the Cloud     394
Advanced Geo Replication     395
Disaster Recovery as a Service?     396
Summary     397
Conclusion     398
Index     399