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Active/Active cluster on win 2003 server. Need some help

  • February 1, 2005 at 1:27 am

    #163528

    Hello all,

    It's my first time when I got such task, so please be patience  I need to configure active/active 2 node sql server cluster on win2003 server. I've read a lot of articles about the clustering, but only a little part of them directly describe the active/active type. So any help would be apprecate

    I have two servers and shared disk array, which I can divide into 4 disks(is it enough?)(for example I and H drives depends to db1 data and log files; K and L to db2)

    So if I correctly understood, all goes in that way: I have to install one sql 2000 server named instance on one node(s1 with db1) and second named instance on the other node(s2 with db2). Then on the s1 I have to install virtual sql named instance vs1/first, where the s1 would be the primary and s2 the secondary, and on the s2 I have to install second virtual sql named instance vs2/second, where s2 would be the primary and s1 - secondary.

    Now if the server s1 failover to s2 what happens? s2 takes control of db1 data and log files, which resides on the drives I, H, and what about s1 serveragent, msdb and db1 jobs?? Or maybye my understanding about this is like in the stone-age

    And the second thing: There is the third server s3 which stands here for log shipping purpose. S1 and S2 make backups and s3 copies and restores them. Now when S1 failover to S2, what hapens with S1 TRN? I think that s3 then restores s2 TRN only. Am I right?

    Thanks in advance for any help

  • February 1, 2005 at 5:03 am

    #539893

    Let me see if I understand.

    You would like to install a SQL cluster that has the same data active(delayed by logshipping) on a cluster.

    In other words a Active/Passive and Passive/Active on the same cluster?

    Lukas Botha

  • February 1, 2005 at 6:04 am

    #539902

    Ok, maybye I explained my problem not clearly enough. I'll try again

    There are three nodes: S1, S2, S3. S3 is designated almost for log shipping only(standby server). S1 and S2 are sql 2000 servers and they are in the cluster. They run different db's at once(active/active) for example s1 run db1 and s2 run db2. Now s1 failover to s2. That means s2 run both dbs now: db1 and db2. S2 makes backups of db2 without problems and they are restored on s3. But what happens with db1 transaction log backups? Will server s2 know that it must do db1 backup job? If so then from where?

    And the second question. What happens with db1 logins after the failover proccess? haw are they  transfered to s2? The info about them resides on the s1 master and msdb databases, not in db1

    I hope it is a little bit clearlier for you. If not let me know

  • February 1, 2005 at 6:21 am

    #539907

    you actually have 5 server... S1 , S1S(Standby on S2) , S2 ,S2S (Standby on S1) AND S3

    As fas as i'm aware the standby server(S1S) will start all the databases of the failed server (S1) this will include all jobs and security that was configured on the failed server(S1). Your drive lettering need to be the same on both servers after the failover, so that the logbackup still writes the the same place.

    Hope that explains.

    Lukas Botha

  • February 1, 2005 at 6:36 am

    #539911

     

    So how i understood from yours explain there are two virtual servers V1 and V2. V1 has primary s1 and secondary s2(s1s). V2 has primary s2 and secondary s1(s2s). And they make copies all the time (s1 copies its db1, msdb, master... to s1s and s2 copies its db2 and others to s2s)? Or only on the failover proccess

  • February 1, 2005 at 6:43 am

    #539914

    continued...

    And what about log shipping to s3? After failover proccess will it work normal? I mean S3 will copy s1 and s2  *.TRN to s3 where they will be restored in normal sequence

  • February 1, 2005 at 6:57 am

    #539921

    In short .. no

    What happens is:

    The database files are stored on the external disk, if the server fails over, The S1 access the that drive is terminated, the heartbeat or lack thereof tells the S1S server to start. It uses the same files as what S1 used, it just runs from the S2 server.

    Your log shipping jobs should continue to run as the are scheduled and these schedules are kept in msdb. If your SQLAgent is started for S1S then it should kick off you log shipping jobs.

    Lukas Botha

  • February 1, 2005 at 7:10 am

    #539925

    I'm sorry to trouble you but how is it... There must be only one virtual server or two, if I need to run two separate db at one time on different servers ( S1 and S2)?

    You tell me that there are external drives and db files are kept there. Yes I agree with you about users db, but where are kept all system dbs? I thougt that on S1 local drive( or not?). So when S1 fails local drive fails too and all system dbs become unavailable. I'm I right or not?

  • February 1, 2005 at 2:51 pm

    #540039

    When you configure a cluster, it is referred to by its virtual name and not the physical name. Say you have two servers s1 and s2. and you have two instances v1 and v2.  say you have two shared drives e and f where e drive has the data/backup files for v1 and f has data/backup files for v2. When sql server backs up, it refers to the instance and not the physical server. Hence you will refer to \\v1\e$ . You don't have to worry about where the instance is located as the drives will always fail over with the instance.

  • February 3, 2005 at 6:47 am

    #540353

    Thanks for your replies. I've read a lot since my first post on this topic, but I still have one question:

    Active/Active configuartion on two nodes... Do I need to install 2 separate sql sevrer 2000 named instances on separate disks on the shared disk array and then to install 2 virtual server instances on other 2 separate disks on the shared disk array? One disk for quorum. So I need 5 separate logical disks on the shared disk array?

    I think that there was the last my stupid question on this topic

    Thanks for any help

  • February 3, 2005 at 10:43 am

    #540454

    No, you will install SQL only twice, once each for each instance. When you install SQL, it will give you an option of installing on a virtual server or local server.You will specify a unique virtual SQL name for each instance. Moving further, you will specify the instance name you would like to name.

    Regarding disk, each instance should have atleast one shared disk. You can have more than one disk if you want but the disks cannot be shared between two instances. When your SQL fails, it will failover all the  resources it is dependent on to the other node. Hence the drive would also be failed over to the second node.

    below is an example.

    servernames : axdb101a & axdb101b

    Virtual names : axvs101a & axvs101b

    instance name : inst1 & inst2

    when you access from your applcation, you will refer to axvs101a\inst1 and axvs101b\inst2. you cannot connect to axdb101a\inst1.

     

  • February 4, 2005 at 12:03 am

    #540605

    Ok. Thanks all who tried to help me. It looks like I've got what I needed

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