SQL Server and VMware Replication

• nikhil.desai1

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  February 9, 2016 at 3:02 am

  #324159

  Hi,

  I have one VMware servers DC which will be replicated to DR i.e. entire VM will be replicated via vShpere

  Suppose if MS-SQL Server 2012 is install at DC then whether entire SQL Server (including services and SQL db files) will replicated at DR site via VMware replication

  or I need to do additional configuration to replicate SQL Server at DR along with VMware replication.

  Regards,

  Nikhil P Desai

• dwjv

  SSC Rookie

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  February 9, 2016 at 7:09 am

  #1857370

  Interesting question, and one I've been faced with a few times. I guess it depends on how the VMware replication is configured. Is it synchronous or asynchronous? There is a potential to lose data (in theory) if it's asynchronous and the host crashes right after a transaction is committed on the primary before the block is replicated to the secondary.

  Personally, I'd prefer to have mirroring/always on as the DBA is in control of the failover. You then have other benefits too (rolling upgrades, piecemeal failovers etc.)

  EDIT: Think I misunderstood the question: yes, if every VMDK/LUN (or whatever) is replicated at the SAN level, ie, the entire VM, it should come up in the DR site with the same services - it will appear to be a crashed server though (an so recovery will be required on the DBs).