Using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups allows for high availability and disaster recovery of SharePoint 2013 farms. It provides zero data loss failover between nodes and readable secondary replicas. The document outlines the requirements and provides a step-by-step guide to implementing AlwaysOn Availability Groups for a SharePoint farm, including creating an availability group, adding databases, and creating an availability group listener.

1. Using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn
Availability Groups for SharePoint
2013 Farms
Michael Noel
@MichaelTNoel

3. Michael Noel
• Author of SAMS Publishing titles “SharePoint 2007 Unleashed,” the upcoming
“SharePoint 2010 Unleashed,” “SharePoint 2003 Unleashed”, “Teach Yourself
SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes,” “Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed,” “Exchange
Server 2010 Unleashed”, “ISA Server 2006 Unleashed”, and many other titles .
• Partner at Convergent Computing (www.cco.com / +1(510)444-5700) – San
Francisco, U.S.A. based Infrastructure/Security specialists for
SharePoint, AD, Exchange, Security

4. What we will cover
SQL 2012 AlwaysOn
• What is SQL 2012 AlwaysOn?
– AlwaysOn Failover Clustering
– AlwaysOn Availability Groups
• Why AlwaysOn Availability Groups for
SharePoint?
• Requirements and Prerequisites
• Step by Step guide to implementing AlwaysOn
Availability Groups
• Demonstration

5. SQL 2012 AlwaysOn
Hype or Reality?
• Two distinct technologies that share the same name
• AlwaysOn Failover Clustering is a different thing!
– A Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) uses traditional Shared
Storage Clustering (one copy of data shared by multiple
nodes)
– Same marketing name, but completely different
technology
• AlwaysOn Availability Groups correspond to the new
version of SQL Database Mirroring – High Availability
and Disaster Recovery at the Data Tier

6. History of AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Background and Predecessor Technologies
• Original concept was log shipping in SQL 2000 –
making a duplicate copy of your databases on another
server
• Mirroring itself introduced in SQL 2005 SP1, improved
in SQL 2008 and SQL 2008 R2
• Works by keeping a mirror copy of a database or
databases on up to four additional SQL instances.
• AlwaysOn Availability Groups introduced with SQL
2012, added up to four mirror copies, and more
• This is a huge change to data tier design for
SharePoint

7. Comparison of AlwaysOn with other SQL HA
Greatly Improved HA and DR
Potential Potential
High Availability and Disaster Recovery Automatic Readable
Data Loss Recovery
SQL Server Solution Failover Secondaries
(RPO) Time (RTO)
AlwaysOn Availability Group - synchronous-commit Zero Seconds Yes 0-2
AlwaysOn Availability Group - asynchronous-commit Seconds Minutes No 0-4
AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instance NA Seconds Yes NA
-to-minutes
Database Mirroring - High-safety (sync + witness) Zero Seconds Yes NA
Database Mirroring - High-performance (async) Seconds Minutes No NA
Log Shipping Minutes Minutes No Not during
-to-hours a restore
Backup, Copy, Restore Hours Hours No Not during
-to-days a restore

8. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Design Options
• Create up to four additional copies of each database
on a different SQL node
• Copies can be a mix of synchronous (exact copy) or
asynchronous (works across low latency link, but only
supports content DBs and Secure Store DB)
• Create a synchronous copy when connectivity is 1Gb
or greater and latency is no more than 10ms
• Create asynchronous copies across WAN links, for
Disaster Recovery or when architecting a read-only
farm

9. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Read-only Farms
• Unlike SQL Mirroring, AlwaysOn Availability Groups
allow for read-only access to the content on a remote
SQL instance
• Allows for the DR copy of the data to be used as part
of a view-only SharePoint farm in a remote location
• Requires a separate SharePoint farm from the
production read/write farm

10. Design Options for SQL 2012
Sample Design
• Two AGs
• Content AG
with four
replicas – Synch
and Asynch
• Service
App/Farm DBs
on separate
AG, 2 Synch
copies only
• Read-only farm
in remote office
attached to
content DB
copy
• DR farm in
remote DC on
standby to
connect to
content DB
copy

11. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Database Support
• All SharePoint 2013 (and nearly all SharePoint 2010)
databases now support Synchronous Replication (either
via Mirroring or AOAGs)
• Only Content Databases and the Secure Store Database
support Asynchronous Replication
• This is why it is considered best practice to create at least
two AOAGs for SharePoint…one for the Content
Databases, which can be replicated to remote
locations, etc., and one for the remainder of the
databases, which can only be replicated locally
• This is a key point, remember, you CANNOT replicate
databases synchronously unless you have 1Gb+ bandwidth
and less than 10ms of latency!

12. AlwaysOn Availability Groups for SharePoint
Improving Data Tier High Availability and Disaster Recovery
• Completely changes the design options for the data tier
• Allows for ‘Exchange Server’ like multi-copy database server failover
on multiple replicas at the same time
• The equivalent of running a constant backup of your databases
• Can be used to create HA/DR copies of your SharePoint databases
• SharePoint no longer needs to be ‘aware’ of the mirrored copy (in
fact, it won’t failover if you configure it manually in SPCA.)
SharePoint connects to the listener (Client Access Point) which is
clustered
• SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 supports SQL 2012 fully
CAVEAT: Be sure to understand that synchronous mirroring copies need
to be in close proximity and have very good bandwidth, as data needs to
be written into all replicas before the transaction is committed.
SharePoint will lock up if there are any interruptions at the data tier.

13. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Version Requirements
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (w SP1 ideally, as patches are
required) – Enterprise Edition
– One per node
– Can use Virtualization licensing options
– Should also work on Windows 8 Server
• SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition
– MS has moved away from per-socket licenses. Licenses
are now 1/4th the cost, but are now per each core.
– Legacy licenses of SQL 2008/2005 Enterprise are
‘grandfathered in’ if you have upgrade assurance

14. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Prerequisites and Requirements – Windows OS
• Cannot be installed on a Domain Controller
• Must be either x86 (non-WOW64) or x64 Windows Server 2008 or later versions.
• Must be a node in a Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) cluster.
• Ensure that WSFC cluster contains sufficient nodes to support your availability group
configurations.
• Ensure that all applicable Window hotfixes have been installed on every node in the WSFC
cluster, including SP1 for Windows 2008 R2 ideally. Additional patches required for SQL 2012
AlwaysOn Availability Groups include the following:
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976097 (Asymmetric Storage)
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494036 (Node Weight Fix)
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907 (SCSI Device Test Failure)
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2616514 (Unneeded Reg Key Change Notifications)
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2654347 (Net 35 Always On Features)
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980915 (IPSecConnection Delay) - Not needed if not using IPSec
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2578113 (IPv6 Long Failover) - Not needed if you aren’t using IPv6
– http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582281 (Slow Failover with No Router) – Not needed in most
scenarios, review to determine if it applies to you
• NOTE: SP1 for SQL 2012 is out and supersedes some of these patches. Good to
double-check, however

15. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Prerequisites and Requirements – SQL Server
• If you plan to use a SQL Server failover cluster
instance (FCI) to host an availability replica, ensure
that you understand the FCI restrictions and that the
FCI requirements are met (Manual config required)
• All the server instances that host availability replicas
for an availability group must use the same SQL Server
collation.
• If any databases that use FILESTREAM will be added to
an availability group, ensure that FILESTREAM is
enabled on every server instance that will host an
availability replica for the availability group.

16. AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Cluster Witness and Voting Fundamentals
• Automatic failover clustering requires
servers to have the proper number of votes
to ‘turn on’ a database copy.
• There must always be a majority of votes to
enable the node.
• If a majority cannot be reached (for
example, if there are only an even number
of votes) the DBs will remain offline.
• File Servers can act as File Share
Witness (FSW) servers
(additional votes.)
• This avoids split-brain scenarios
where multiple copies of a DB
are online.
• Be sure to give the Cluster
Computer Account Full control
to the FSW Share

17. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 1: Create Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC)
• Install Windows Server 2008 R2
w/SP1 on multiple nodes
• Patch with Critical, Security, and the
specific OS patches listed in previous
slide
• Enable the Failover Cluster Feature
on each node
• Use the Failover Cluster Manager
Wizard to create a cluster.
• Name the cluster a unique name
that will be separate from the
instance name that will be used for
SharePoint

18. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 2: Prepare Nodes
• Install .NET Services 3.5 Feature on each SQL node
• Install SQL 2012 Enterprise Edition Database Services (Also recommend
adding SQL Management Tools – Complete)
• Ensure proper Windows Firewall ports are open
• Service Account for SQL
– Use the same service account for all nodes
– Don’t use Network Service
– If using Kerberos, make sure all SQL names have SPNs associated with
the service account
• Make sure databases are set to FULL recovery mode
• Ensure that the file paths and drive letters are consistent throughout all
instances (ideally, or config will have to be manual)
• Copy or Create SharePoint databases on Primary node only (use SQL Alias to
change name later)
• Perform a full backup of your SharePoint databases
• Create a file share location that is accessible by all nodes that will be used
for the shared backups (i.e. SQL1Backups)

19. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 2: Enable AlwaysOn on each SQL Node
• Enable AlwaysOn High
Availability in SQL Server
Configuration Manager
• Repeat on Each Node
• Restart SQL Services

20. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 3: Create the Availability Group
• Ideally use the New Availability
Group Wizard, it automates the
process

21. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 3: Create the Availability Group – Continued…
• Be sure to have a
shared network
location for the
backup files
(Created in earlier
step)
• Depending on size
of databases, this
could take a while
• Backups can also
be pre-staged
(Join Only)

22. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 3: Create the Availability Group – Continued…
• Validation
should show all
green (some
exceptions)
• The listener
(‘SQL’ in this
example) will
be created
later, and is
required for
SharePoint to
connect to

23. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Step 4: Create the Availability Group Listener
• After the wizard
completes, manually
create the Availability
Group Listener
• This is the shared
name that SharePoint
will connect to and will
provide failover (Also
called the ‘Client
Access Point’)
• Modify the DNS record
for this listener to have
a low TTL (60 seconds
or less) for cross-
subnet failover
scenarios

24. Creating AlwaysOn Availability Groups
Manual Process: Adding a DB to an Availability Group
• Required in specific situations, such as when a DB is
encrypted
• First, add the DB to the primary server (where the DB is
attached to with the following syntax:
– ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP SPDBCONTENT
– ADD DATABASE SPF1_Content_TDE
– GO
• Then restore the DB onto the secondary server, ensuring
that you choose ‘RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY’ from the
Options tab
• Finally, add the DB to the AG on the Secondary server
– ALTER DATABASE SPF1_Content_TDE SET HADR AVAILABILITY
GROUP = SPDBCONTENT;
– GO

26. Session Summary
SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups for SharePoint 2010
• Throw away all previous data tier designs for SharePoint!
• SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups are the preferred
design option for High Availability and Disaster Recovery at
the data tier
• SQL 2012 is fully supported by SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1
databases – but remember that only content databases and
the secure store DB support asynchronous replication!
• Best Practice is to create at least two AGs for SharePoint –
One for Content DBs and the other for the remainder of the
farm DBs.
• Follow closely the guidelines, ensure data paths are the
same, double-check security requirements

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Thank you!

28. Michael Noel
Twitter: @MichaelTNoel
www.cco.com
Slides: slideshare.net/michaeltnoel
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