• mlorek (10/23/2014)


    Thanks for the replies. Yes we have the funding we actually have a rather large budget and get a educational price break that is amazing. We usually only install standard edition unless memory or functionality requires enterprise but the licensing is not a factor and we do have software assurance purchased. Being new to this I am overwhelmed with clustering, replication, AG, log shipping, mirroring etc and just want a solid way of replicating the db out for safe keeping but am getting so confused as to what the best option is, none of them seem very hard to setup I just want to pick the correct option.

    You may not think they are hard to set up, but some of your options are indeed complex, and have LOTS of caveats, provisos, limitations, GOTCHAS, etc!!! I can't count the number of clients and forum posters who have messed up their HA/DR (WAY more than have gotten it right, I promise). PLEASE see if there is money in the budget to get a qualified consultant on board to help you a) figure out what you REALLY need and b) help you pick the right option(s) and c) help you plan, implement, test and set up maintenance/monitoring for it!! Remember, if you mess this up the BEST that can happen is that you are offline for an extended period, very likely with some data loss. The worst is a complete and total loss of all data - unrecoverably so.

    Some thoughts: how long can you be off line if you lose your primary DC? How much data can you afford to lose? Do you want completely automatic failover? Can you afford your choices or do you have control over them? What is the bandwidth and latency of the network pipe between DCs? What is your backup and retention policy? Will you need to access the secondary for any purposes? The list goes on and on...

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service