Tom's blog

In this guide, I will instruct step-by-step on how to create an HADR configuration between Denali SQL servers. For more information about this new high availability type see my post: CTP1 for SQL ‘Denali’ available for download

First a little overview of my test environment, I’m running Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V on a laptop. The host is also a domain controller and has the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target running to provide shared disk storage via iSCSI to my guest machines. The iSCSI Software Target is part of Storage Server, but can be installed separately.

I have 4 Hyper-V guests running, 2x 2 nodes within a Windows Failover Cluster (requirement for Denali HADR) with denali clustered.

So let’s start with our setup:

1. Enable the HADR service on both clustered denali instances 

• Open SQL Server Configuration Manager
• Select SQL Server Services
• Right-click on your SQL Server, in my case SQL Server (INST1) and select Properties
• Select the SQL HADR tab and click the checkbox Enable SQL HADR Service
• Click Ok on the warning dialog box
  
• Restart your SQL Services (Attention: SQL HADR requires a Windows Failover Cluster, so do not stop the service through the Services Control Panel, but go to the Failover Cluster Manager, select your SQL Server Instance, and take it offline. When everything is offline, bring it online again)

2. Create an Availability Group

• Open SQL Server Management Studio
• Select Management
• Right-click Availability Groups and select New Availability Group
• Click Next
  
• Give your new Availability Group a name and click Next
• Select which user databases you want to add to your Availability Group. If your database is not listed, you can select Show user databases not meeting requirements. This will give you the reason why a certain db cannot be added to the AG. Then click Next 
• In the Specify Replicas screen, you can add the instances you want to be enable as HADR in the secondary role, after you have done this, click Next
  
  
• Next you have the overview screen, click Finish to start configuring the HADR setup
  
• Next you get a progress screen, click Next to finish the HADR setup.
  

That’s it for this guide. I will continue playing with HADR and post some reviews afterwards.

Your remarks are welcome.

Tom