SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering
SQL Server Technical Article
Writers: Mike Weiner, Paul Burpo, Max Verun, Joseph Sack, Justin Erickson
Contributors: Sanjay Mishra, Jason Wu, Uttam Parui
Technical Reviewers: Prem Mehra, James Podgorski, David Whitney, Richard Tkachuk, Sethu Kalavakur, Cindy Gross, Neal Graves, Farzan Ratistari, Ayad Shammout (Caregroup Healthcare Systems), David P. Smith (ServiceU Corporation)
Summary: This white paper complements the existing documentation on planning, implementation, and administration of a SQL Server 2008 failover cluster, which can found in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Books Online. There are links to relevant existing content throughout the paper, which is intended primarily for a technical audience. This white paper covers failover cluster architecture and concepts for Windows Server and SQL Server 2008; installation of a SQL Server 2008 failover cluster; upgrades and updates to SQL Server 2008 failover clustering; and maintenance and administration of SQL Server 2008.
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Contents
1
Introduction 3
Overview of Windows Server Failover Clustering 3
Topology and Architecture of a SQL Server Cluster 4
Failover Cluster Resource Group 4
Health Detection 5
Resource and Resource Group Properties 5
Resource Properties 5
Resource Group Properties 7
Common SQL Server Failover Deployments 7
Single Failover Cluster Instance 7
Multi-Instance Failover Cluster 8
Multi-Site Failover Cluster 8
Guest Failover Cluster 9