January 26, 2011 at 5:00 am
I want to create sql 2008 R2 cluster on windows 2008 with 3 instances, 2 productions instances on node A and 1 dr instance being mirrored from an external site on the node B.
Would this still be classes as an active/passive or does it become active/active and how many sql licenses would I need for this scenario ?
Many Thanks in Advance
January 26, 2011 at 1:25 pm
RajaStyle123 (1/26/2011)
I want to create sql 2008 R2 cluster on windows 2008 with 3 instances, 2 productions instances on node A and 1 dr instance being mirrored from an external site on the node B.Would this still be classes as an active/passive or does it become active/active and how many sql licenses would I need for this scenario ?
Many Thanks in Advance
if you have 2 instances installed on node a and 1 on node b then effectively it is an active\active cluster.
The fact that node b has a DR instance may change things, but the DR instance is fed by an external instance of SQL Server. Probably best to consult MS on this one
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January 26, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Also if you configured the cluster so that the two production instances could run on different nodes you would need to license both nodes.
The DR node for an external site is a tricky one if the external site is not your company, I agree with Perry consult MS on that one. If the external site is your company and the DR node will only ever be active when the primary is down you would not need to license it.
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January 26, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I would recommend talking to your MS rep about this to make sure, but I think your passive node would not have to be licensed.
With that said, I probably would license it anyways just to be safe. That way, I wouldn't have to worry about failing over a single instance and being out of compliance.
The way I look at it is once I go to a multi-instance cluster, all nodes in the cluster need to be fully licensed so we can use all nodes to host any instance at any time.
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January 26, 2011 at 5:00 pm
So, you're confusing active/passive with nodes. On a cluster, all three instances are on both nodes.
If you have one node active and taking clients, then you need one license for that node (not sure about instances here, changes by version). So you either need 1 or 3 licenses, depending on how MS views the multi-instance nature for your version.
If you are receiving mirror data on the second instance, I suspect that you are OK, but what if node 2 fails? If the mirror fails over, then will that impact your cluster performance? If not, why not just pick up the mirror data on the main node and let everything live there?
If it does, then why wouldn't you have one active instance and the mirror on node 1, and the other active instance on Node 2?
If you're trying to get out of licensing, I think you might find yourself in a weird situation at some point. If MS Licensing OKs this, and you need to check with your local MS office, get something in writing.
January 26, 2011 at 5:13 pm
George Sibbald
If the external site is your company and the DR node will only ever be active when the primary is down you would not need to license it.
This is my understanding too
With regard to multi instance, the server\processor licence covers multi instance up to the max number of instances allowed (differs per edition).
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