We've now come to the point where we need to install and configure the Windows cluster role. Even though SQL AAGs don't use shared disks like a traditional failover cluster, AAGs do rely on the Windows cluster service. We will also be implementing the Cluster Aware updating feature. This is...
So here we are, at the end of a somewhat long journey. Yes, this is the last installment in the SQL 2012 Failover cluster series. However, two very important settings are configured. The first is Kerberos, which is the preferred authentication protocol (vice NTLM). In fact, some software will break...
The SQL 2012 failover cluster series is finally starting to wind down. While this is not the last installment, it's pretty darn close. In this session we configure some critical SQL maintenance checks and run a configuration check script to see how badly our SQL server is configured. A big...
In this installment of the SQL 2012 failover cluster guide we are configuring two very important parameters: SQL server max memory and email alert notifications. Both settings are often overlooked, yet are critical to a properly performing and healthy SQL server cluster. Blog Series SQL 2012 Failover Cluster Pt. 1:...
One of the most important aspects of SQL performance is TempDB. Applications can use TempDB as a scratch space, and in most cases you should not rely on just a single TempDB file. Current best practices is to create 1/4-1/2 the number of TempDB files that you have processor cores....
I'm a big proponent of using the Windows firewall on all computers, be they clients or servers. It may not be perfect, but it's better than nothing. Layered defenses are key in the enterprise, so protecting each host may save your bacon some day. Many programs automatically add Windows firewall...
Yes, we are finally at Part 7 of the SQL 2012 failover cluster install. Now that your first node is healthy, we can join the second node to the cluster. The installer process is fairly different, since it will detect your existing cluster and ask you far fewer questions. It...
This is Part 6 of the SQL failover cluster installation, where we finally get to install the SQL Server database engine and related tools. It's been a tedious road, and you likely ran into some cluster creation issues. This is not for the faint of heart, and should not be...
This is Part 5 of the SQL 2012 failover clustering series where we setup two service accounts. One is for the database engine and the other is for the SQL agent. In order for Kerberos to work properly, and for the cluster to work at all, they must be Active Directory...
This is part four of the SQL 2012 failover cluster installation series. In this installment we will create the Microsoft cluster and add the storage resources. If you are using two VM NICs then we will also tweak their configuration. While this process is fairly straight forward, it can be...
In Part 1 of this short series of configuring Windows Server 2012 SMB transparent failover we configured two VMs using the vSphere 5.1 web client to access shared RDMs. Then mounted and formatted on one node with a 16KB allocation size, to better optimize shadow copies for share folder performance. Now that...
Windows Server 2012 is Microsoft's biggest server OS release since Windows 2000. The number of features, enhancements, and optimizations is mind boggling. One major area of focus was SMB, which is Server Message Block. SMB is the protocol used to access file shares across the network. SMB 3.0 was introduced with...