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AskSQLTeam
Ask SQLTeam Question
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 Posted - 2006-10-02 : 07:53:40
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| Scott writes "Please forgive my ignorance, but I have no idea how to do what I have been tasked to do. Our company uses a SQL based erp system that our e-commerce site interfaces with. I recently finished a major version upgrade of the erp, but was able to convince my boss that instead of upgrading the current server that we should put the upgrade on a new server, just in case there were any problems (been there before with this software). Now that I know the new server is stable, I want to use the old server to mirror the new one so I have a fallback machine. Ideally it would be real time so I wouldn't lose any transactions should the primary server fail. My question is: How do I automatically mirror the SQL database on a seperate server?Specs are:Both servers are:Dell dual xenon 3.0 ghz2gb RAM5 HD RAID 10 with hot spareGigabit NICNew server:Windows Server 2003 R2 Std EditionSQL Server 2000 Std EditionOld serverWindows Server 2003 Std Edition with latest service packSQL Server 2000 Std EditionThanks in advance for your suggestions and help.Scott" |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-10-02 : 09:09:39
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| You could probably do with having a read around "log shipping" for a kick off.Not real time, but might be good-enough, and is probably the most popular way of achieving this (read: affordable and not hugely complicated!!)Basically the main server makes Transaction Log backups every few minutes, those get copied to the Standby Server, and restored (in STANDBY mode), and if the main server breaks you just run a command on the Stand By to change STANDBY mode to NORMAL mode and you are away - albeit missing the last few minutes transactions.In fact, if your dissaster is that a disk failure has trashed your main server's database, but the machine is otherwise still running, you will probably even be able to take it offline (i.e. prevent more updates) take one final TLog backup, copy & restore that to the StandBy and you won't lose anything.But Active-Active Clusters and all that stuff is a lot more money/effort/etc.Either way, you need some regular Fire Drills to make sure the wondrous thing you wind up building actually works in practice - and the price/inconvenience of those is going to make your manager wince!And when something major breaks and there is no drama, thanks to all your efforts, no one is going to know how bad it would have been "in the old days" - so there is no upside in creating a demo-disaster either!If management does nothing then creating a demo-disaster will have a major effecting on management's thinking of course ... probably starting with you exiting Stage Left!Kristen |
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Autocopy database to backup server - Newbie question