How to perform a failover

Question

Post reply

How to perform a failover

Viewing 3 posts - 16 through 17 (of 17 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Perry Whittle SSC Guru Points: 233792 More actions · Answer 1

lsalih (5/16/2014)

Two things: As I mentioned, first go to C drive and type c:\>cluster group to see all the nodes connected to your cluster. This command only LIST groups, it does not do anything else. And 2) use the move command if you want to move a group. Here is a good link, http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2011/08/12/how-to-failover-the-cluster-group-and-available-storage-cluster-groups.aspx

On Windows 2012 the cluster.exe utility is deprecated and not installed by default. The Powershell comands I have provided represent the best way to identify and move the group

lkennedy76 (5/16/2014)

When SQL 2012 was setup did you\they setup AlwaysOn? Do you have a Availability Group group in SSMS?

There is no Always On group as confirmed by the OP, even if there were it would not make any difference. An FCI, whether it is an AlwaysOn replica or not, is still failed over as usual via the cluster service. FCI's as AO replicas represent a complex AO configuration and would only be used under special circumstances, especially as you are essentially re introducing the storage single point of failure.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

lkennedy76 SSChampion Points: 13679 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks Perry, I didn't see where he had confirmed that it was not AlwaysOn. I asked because I failover through the AG in AlwaysOn. I only use the failover admin console for my traditional SQL08 Clusters.

Here is a step by step failover for traditional SQL08 cluster with screen shots;

http://www.sqlservergeeks.com/blogs/AmitBansal/sql-server-bi/431/sql-server-failover-cluster-initiating-manual-failover

Here is an article explaining AoAG failover for future reference;

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff929171.aspx

Restrictions on Using The WSFC Failover Cluster Manager with Availability Groups

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do not use the Failover Cluster Manager to manipulate availability groups, for example:

•Do not add or remove resources in the clustered service (resource group) for the availability group.

•Do not change any availability group properties, such as the possible owners and preferred owners. These properties are set automatically by the availability group.

•Do not use the Failover Cluster Manager to move availability groups to different nodes or to fail over availability groups. The Failover Cluster Manager is not aware of the synchronization status of the availability replicas, and doing so can lead to extended downtime. You must use Transact-SQL or SQL Server Management Studio.

MCSE SQL Server 2012\2014\2016

Perry Whittle SSC Guru Points: 233792 More actions · Answer 3

lkennedy76 (5/16/2014)

Thanks Perry, I didn't see where he had confirmed that it was not AlwaysOn.

OP confirmed it here

GBeezy (5/15/2014)

Also, I looked into the option that an Availability group was used, but within SSMS, I attempt to expand the AlwaysOn High Availability section and I immediately get an error telling me I need to enable it before I use it.

Thanks Again!

lkennedy76 (5/16/2014)

I asked because I failover through the AG in AlwaysOn.

And that is correct. To move the Primary role from one replica to another it must be done via a failover with the SQL Server AO group. What you must not do is right click the role and manually move it to another node. Also, you must not change group or resource owners lists as these are automatically synchronsied during an AlwaysOn failover.

An FCI failover, whether it's an AlwaysOn replica or not, will always be outside of the AlwaysOn group control.

When an FCI holds the Primary role in an AlwaysOn group and there is a failover of the instance, the partner will come online and the AlwaysOn group will temporarily lose the Primary replica. Of course once the FCI is back online it will resume the Primary role.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉