Home Forums SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2016 - Administration Multiple AG groups in one Windows failover cluster? RE: Multiple AG groups in one Windows failover cluster?

  • January 2, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    #1974131

    Blue Mancunian - Tuesday, December 12, 2017 4:50 AM

    In an organisation I found the following setup: 
    Six VMs SQL1 to SQL6 in the same domain, each host two instances. They are in four AG groups, each AG contains 10-20 databases.
    AG1: 
    SQL1\INS1, SQL3\INS1, SQL5\INS1
    AG2: 
    SQL1\INS2, SQL3\INS2, SQL5\INS2
    AG3:
    SQL2\INS3, SQL4\INS3, SQL6\INS3
    AG4:
    SQL2\INS4, SQL4\INS4, SQL6\INS4

    However, all the AG groups and all the servers are in one Windows failover cluster CLUS1. SQL5 and SQL6 are in DR data center so they don't have quorum vote. Quorum Modes is Node and File Share Majority.

    I would like to hear your opinions and pros/cons to have all AG groups and servers/nodes in one cluster (license cost, perfromance, high availability and etc.)

    * They don't use Failover Cluster Instance of SQL Server. Only AG groups and Windows Server Failover Cluster.

    Many thanks!

    Just a few questions before pro's/cons:

    Is each AG in synchronous mode in the same Data Center and asynchronous mode for DR?
    VM's or physical? Hyper-V or VMware?
    What kind of storage are you using?
    How are your disks setup per box?
    Are all data/log files on the same drive but different folders?
    What's the average size and usage of databases?
    Are there listeners setup? if yes which ports are you using for each listener?

    Alex S