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Overcome Alwayson Availabilty Groups limitations with SIOS Datakeeper

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Overcome Alwayson Availabilty Groups limitations with SIOS Datakeeper

After hearing all of the great sessions at SQL PASS Summit on Availability Groups, are you thinking about biting the bullet to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition? Before you get your checkbook out, stop and ask yourself these questions and also, allow me to introduce SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition.

Do I use/need

  • to lower my SQL Server cost?
  • replication or log shipping?
  • to minimize the impact that replication has on the performance of my application?
  • Lync Server, Dynamics CRM or other applications that use distributed transactions?
  • to ensure that SQL Agent jobs such as database backups, optimizations, DTS and others continue to run regardless of the node in service?
  • to ensure that SQL login accounts are kept in sync between cluster nodes?
  • to minimize my administrative burden?

Alwayson Availabilty Groups Limitations

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to reconsider your options when it comes to your SQL Server HA/DR deployment. While AlwaysOn Availability Groups certainly have their place, you may want to consider the overhead associate with them. Read my previous article. Also, you really need to consider what applications will be utilizing the SQL Server database as not all applications support AlwaysOn Availability Groups. This includes many of Microsoft’s applications such as Lync Server and others (check your application documentation).

Introducing SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition

What I would propose instead is to consider building a traditional active/passive cluster which overcomes all of the Alwayson Availabilty Groups Limitations listed above. But instead of using shared storage, use the cluster integrated block level replication solution from SIOS Technology called SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition. Using this replication solution, you are able to eliminate the SAN as a single point of failure as well as eliminate all of the limitations associated with AlwaysOn Availability Groups listed above. When you consider the possibility of using high speed local storage solutions such as @Fusionio in conjunction with DataKeeper, you can have a high speed, highly available SQL Server cluster with a minimal investment in hardware and software. And best of all, this solution works with SQL 2005/2008/2008R2/2012 Standard Edition as well as Enterprise Edition. The cost saving alone on SQL Server licensing can more than pay for the solution. More on costs saving in my next post.

How Should I Start?

You can buy a 2 server pre-package solution that includes HP, Dell or Supermicro servers, Fusion-io ioDrives. DataKeeper software to help you deploy you first high speed, highly available SQL cluster. For more information see the press release here.

http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2012/About/News/PressReleases/PartnerPressRelease9.aspx

Like how Datakeeper help overcome Alwayson Availabilty Groups limitations? Read here for more success stories

Reproduced with permission from Clusteringformeremortals.com

Overcoming Performance Issues With SQL Server Alwayson Availability Groups

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Asynchronous vs synchronous replication on AlwaysOn

From attending the sessions at PASS Summit this week, it has become obvious that AlwaysOn is a hot topic with about six sessions dedicated to this solution . The one thing that I learned is that although the solution certainly has its applications, most of the successful deployments are based on using AlwaysOn in an asynchronous fashion. The reason people avoid the synchronous replication option is that the overhead is too great. During synchronous replication any write must be committed on the replica before it is committed on the source. In the testing that I have done, this overhead introduced can be as much as 68%.

For example, in a test where I have a database inserting about 1,000,000 rows per second and we measure the throughput on the log file, we see that with no mirroring in place we are writing about 400 MBps. Once we start replicating that database with AlwaysOn Availability Groups across a 10 Gbps LAN, we see about a 68% drop off in performance, with this particular database slowing down to about 250,000 inserts per second.

Asynchronous vs synchronous replication on AlwaysOn
Figure 1 – MBps written to a SQL Server database before and after AlwaysOn Synchronous Mirroring

If you are considering the solution as a replacement to your failover cluster, this drop off should be of a major concern to you. In order to achieve the automatic failover that you are accustomed to in failover clustering, you must use synchronous mirroring, which means that you must live with this performance hit. Generally this is not going to be acceptable, which is probably why you don’t hear the experts recommending such configurations on a regular basis.

So what should you do?

Should you stick with you traditional failover cluster and a SAN? What if you want to take advantage of fast, high speed storage such as Fusion-io? In that case, you can’t use a traditional cluster…or can you?

The good news is that you can build a cluster without a SAN and do it all without the expense, limitations and overhead associate with AlwaysOn Availability Groups (more on the limitations and expense in my next blog post). By using DataKeeper Cluster Edition you can build clusters without shared storage AND the overhead associated with Synchronous replication is closer to 10% vs. the close to 70% we see with AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Come to booth 351 at #SQLPASS and I’ll be glad to demonstrate how the solution works.

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/11/09/how-to-overcome-the-performance-problems-with-sql-server-alwayson-availability-groups-sqlpass/

Hurricane Sandy Disaster Recovery For Business

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The accident taught us the importance of Disaster Recovery. Have you prepared well for it?

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affect by this massive storm. Although I live in NJ, my neighborhood remained relatively unscathed other than some downed trees and power lines. The pictures coming in from the coastal communities up and down the eastern seaboard show that many people did not fare as well. I’m hopeful that most of the damage is property that can be rebuilt, but I am sorry to hear that some people lost their lives and I can only imagine the pain of their friends and family – I am truly sorry for their loss.

Need help with Disaster Recovery?

As an employee of a company that specializes in disaster recovery software, I am also privy to many stories of companies that lost data that cannot be replaced. Many of these companies never recover from such catastrophes, but those that do are usually the ones who immediately look to put into place a plan that includes some sort of real-time data protection that includes replicating their critical data offsite or to some cloud repository so they are never caught in such a predicament again. If that is your story or even if you were lucky enough to avoid disaster this time but want to prepare ahead, please contact me immediately so I can help you assess your risks and recommend some data protection and DR solutions to help mitigate the risks.

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/10/30/hurricane-sandy-disaster-recovery-for-business/

Achieving High Performance And High Availability For SQL Server

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Register here to learn how high performance and high availability for Microsoft SQL Server can be achieved with solutions from Fusion-io and SIOS. This powerful combination delivers high-speed storage and high availability for SQL Server without the limitations of single copy clusters or AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Make the switch and enjoy:

  • Cost savings
  • Higher database performance
  • Smaller floor space requirements
  • Lower cooling and power demands

… all without sacrificing availability.

The end result: faster performance at a fraction of the cost of a typical SAN with 100% data availability.

Ready to learn about how Fusion-io and SIOS could achieve better results with Microsoft SQL Server. Hear from our featured Speakers:

Dave Bermingham is recognized within the technology community as a high availability expert and has been a Microsoft MVP in Clustering for the past three years. David’s work as Sr. Technical Evangelist at SIOS has him focused on delivering high availability and disaster recovery solutions. David holds numerous technical certifications and has over twenty years of technology experience focused on application availability.

Jamila Gunawardena is a Senior OEM Sales Engineer for Fusion-io. Jamila has over 15 years experience in Software Engineering and System Design with expertise in Internet, Bioinformatics, and Semiconductor DFM solutions. Currently, Jamila is focused on ISV and appliance partnerships at Fusion-io.

Geoff Hiten is a Microsoft SQL MVP and is currently an Infrastructure Architect for Intellinet. Geoff began working with SQL Server in 1992 with version 4.2 and has used every version since. He specializes in high-availability and high-performance SQL systems. Geoff is heavily involved in the Microsoft SQL Server Community and was initially awarded MVP status in 2004. Geoff was appointed in 2011 to fill an interim Director position at the National PASS organization.

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/09/12/achieving-high-performance-and-high-availability-for-sql-server/

Installing Windows Server 2012 RC On VMware Workstation Step-By-Step

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My take on Windows Server 2012 RC

With Windows Server 2012 RC being released just yesterday, I wanted to see if I could still install it on VMware Workstation as I had done with the Beta version before. The good news is that everything works beautifully. Here is a nice picture of my Windows Server 2012 RC running in VMware Workstation 8.

Installing Windows Server 2012 RC On VMware Workstation Step-By-Step

I was also able to install the Hyper-V Server 2012 RC as well without a problem.

Installing Windows Server 2012 RC On VMware Workstation Step-By-Step

There certainly are a few tricks to be aware of in order to get them to install, so please reference my previous article for the detailed instructions here.

It probably will only be a matter of time before I put Windows Server 8 RC on my laptop and switch to Hyper-V instead of VMware Workstation, but I’ll probably save that for another day when I don’t have some work to get done!

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2012/06/01/installing-windows-server-2012-rc-on-vmware-workstation-step-by-step/