Always on Highavailability

There are several prerequisites that need to be done to

ensure a successful deployment. These prerequisites focus on
your Windows environment, the SQL instances, and the
databases to be included in your AlwaysOn group.

Windows:
Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2008R2 is the minimum Windows Server
edition allowed for deploying AlwaysOn. However, it is strongly recommended that
you use Windows Server 2012instead, as there are many issues and headaches
associated with 2008R2. Click here for a more in-depth
explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jxQERXPM9s
Windows Server Failover Cluster. WSFC must be installed on every replica
(primary and secondaries) in the AlwaysOn group. This is done through Server
Manager > Add Roles & Features > Add Failover
Clustering. https://youtu.be/X4gVaN-i_dE
And each SQL Server that hosts an availability group replica must reside on separate
nodes of a single WSFC cluster.
.Net 3.5.1 or greater. If .net 3.5.1 or greater is not already installed on your primary
and secondary replicas, you will need to install this. This can be installed at the same
time you install your Windows Failover Cluster (via Server Manager > Add Roles &
Features > Add Failover Clustering):
Windows hotfixes. You need to install all available windows hotfixes on every
replica prior to deploying AlwaysOn. This is particularly important if you are using
Windows Server 2008R2, as most of the hotfixes are aimed toward that
version.   Again, it is strongly recommended that you use Windows Server 2012 on all of
your replicas instead. Here is a list of the available hotfixes at this
time: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ff878487(v=sql.110).aspx#WinHotfixes
Windows Domain.   All replicas in your AlwaysOn group must be in the same
windows domain. They must be able to communicate with each other.
No domain controller. None of your replicas can be a domain controller. AlwaysOn
groups are not supported on a domain controller.
Windows Firewall. Most likely you will need to adjust your Windows Firewall setting
to allow the replicas to communicate with each other.
Sufficient Disk Space. You don’t have to have identical hardware on each replica,
but you do need enough disk space to hold all of your databases, and to account for
the growth of those databases.   As your databases on the primary replica grow, the
replicated databases on your secondaries will also grow the same amount. And if
you have other databases on your secondary replicas that are not part of your
AlwaysOn group, your disk space must account for the size and growth of those
databases as well.
Sufficient Resources. Again, you don’t have to have identical hardware on each of
your replicas, but you need to have sufficient resources on your secondaries to
handle the same workload as your primary. If you’re thinking that “we’ll use our
good, powerful server as the primary replica, and use the slower, weaker server as a
secondary” with the thought that if we do have to fail over, we will just know up
front that the performance will be a little slower while we get the primary server
back up and running… well guess what. You’re right. It will be slower performance if
you have to fail over. But it will also be slower if you don’t fail over! That’s because
the primary sends transactions to the secondary, and with synchronous data
replication, the primary has to wait for the secondary to harden the log before it can
move on to the next task. So your primary will only operate as fast as your slowest
secondary.   Your AlwaysOn group is only as fast and strong as your weakest link.  
So be very familiar with your workload, and try and make sure your replicas are
equally yoked.
Instance:
SQL Server 2012 or 2014 Enterprise Edition. For testing or development purposes,
you can install Developer or Evaluation edition, but for a production environment,
you must install Enterprise edition. Standard edition will not work.
Database Collation. Databases in your AlwaysOn group must use the same
collation…they cannot differ across replicas.
SQL Server Collation. All replicas in your AlwaysOn group must use the same SQL
Server collation.
Active Directory Services. No replicas can run Active Directory services. This is not
supported with AlwaysOn.
Database Mirroring Endpoint. Each instance needs a database mirroring
endpoint. If you have more than one instance on your server, you will need to
create an additional endpoint so the instances can communicate with each other.
Here is instructions on how to do that:  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms187811(v=sql.110).aspx
SQL Service Account. Your account that runs SQL Services must be a domain
account. Do not use the local machine service account. The SQL service account
must be able to access every replica, and therefore must be a domain account.
Also, this account must belong to the Administrators Group on each of the
replicas.
And this SQL service account needs connect permissions (given through SSMS).
Right click on the SQL Service login to open the properties dialog box, go to the
Securables page, and make sure the ‘Connect SQL’ Grant box is checked. Do this on
all your instances:

 
Databases:
Full Recovery Model. Make sure your databases are in Full Recovery Mode, not
Simple or Bulk Logged. Also, these databases must be taken out of any tlog backup
maintenance process while the AlwaysOn group is being created.
User database. Databases included in your AlwaysOn group must be user
databases. System databases cannot participate in AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
Read/Write database. Read-only databases cannot belong to an AlwaysOn group.
 Multi-user database. Databases must be in multi-user mode, they can’t be in single
user mode.
Don’t use AUTO_CLOSE. Check the properties of your databases, and make sure
this option is set to ‘False’.
DB in only one Availability Group. Databases may only belong to one availability
group at a time. You can have more than one AlwaysOn Availability Group on your
instance, but databases cannot belong to more than one group.
Not configured for database mirroring. Your databases cannot be enabled for
database mirroring. Make sure this feature is not enabled.
Full Backups. Make sure full backups of each of your databases are made prior to
installing AlwaysOn.
Allow Remote Connections. This can be done in SSMS either through the Instance
properties, or by using sp_configure, which ever you prefer.
EXEC sp_configure ‘remote access’, 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

After you make sure you have everything in your environment

ready to go and all the prerequisites that need to be done
before deployment have been done, we are ready to install
the AlwaysOn Availability Group!
The following steps need to be performed in this order:
1.  Add Windows Failover Clustering (WSFC) to each replica (server)

2. Configure WSFC on your primary replica

3. Configure SQL Server on each replica

4. Configure Logins & Replicas

5. Install AlwaysOn
1. Add Windows Failover Clustering:
On each replica, open Server Manager > click Add Roles & Features > select Add
Failover Clustering > click Install
Proceed through the wizard, and when you get to the Select Features page, select
the Failover Clustering checkbox.
And if you don’t already have .NET Framework 3.5.1 or greater installed on your
server, select that checkbox as well to install. (If you do need to install the .NET
Framework, you will need to reboot the machine after installing).
Proceed next through the wizard and click Install to finish the wizard. You will need
to do this on every replica in your AlwaysOn

group. 
2. Configure Windows Failover Cluster (WSFC)
On your primary replica, open the Server Manager console > open Failover
Cluster Manager
Click on Validate Configuration.
Add the names of all the SQL Servers you want to configure as replicas in your
AlwaysOn
group. 
On the Testing Options page, click Run all tests (recommended). It is normal to
see some warning messages, especially if you decide to use shared storage.

After the validation and summary is complete, the Create Cluster Wizard will open.

In the Access Point for Administering the Cluster dialog box, enter the
virtual cluster name (not the server or instance name), and the virtual IP
address of your cluster.
Proceed next through the wizard, and your cluster will be created. The secondary
nodes will be added to the cluster, and your cluster should now show up on all
replicas (through Failover Cluster Manager). You don’t have to go through these
steps on the other replicas…you’re all done with setting up the cluster.

3. Configure SQL Server

Assuming you have already installed SQL Server 2012 or 2014 Enterprise edition on
all of your replicas, and have installed it as stand-alone instances, we are ready to
configure SQL Server. On each of your replicas, open SQL Server Configuration
Manager.
Expand the SQL Server Network Configuration node, and click on Protocols for
MSSQLSERVER. You will see in the right panel of the dialog box the TCP/IP entry.
Right click on the TCP/IP entry and
select Enable. 

While you are still in SQL Server Configuration Manager, right click on SQL Server
Services to open the Properties dialog box.   Navigate to the AlwaysOn High
Availability tab, and select EnableAlwaysOn Availability Groups

checkbox. 
Restart the SQL Server Service after making these changes.
Do these steps on all of your replicas.

4. Configure Logins and Replicas

If it isn’t there already, add your SQL Service account (which should be a domain
account – not the local machine service account) as a SQL login through SQL
Management Studio (SSMS).
Add your SQL Service account to the Administrators group on each replica (via
Computer Management)
Give connect permissions to the SQL Service account through SSMS: Right click on
the SQL Service login to open the Properties dialog box. Navigate to
the Securables page, and make sure the Connect SQL Grant box is checked. You
will do this on every
replica. 

Make sure all your replicas Allow Remote Connections. You can do this through
SSMS in the instance Properties, or by using sp_configure.
EXEC sp_configure ‘remote access’, 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
 Make any necessary adjustments to your Windows Firewall, to allow the replicas to
communicate with each other.
Create a File Share (through Server Manager) that your SQL Service account and all
your replicas can access with read/write permissions. This file share will be used for
the initial backup/restore process that happens when your databases are joined to
the AlwaysOn group during setup.   There are other options to join your databases
to the AlwaysOn group, if you prefer not to create this temporary File Share. In fact,
if your databases are large I would recommend using one of the other options, in
which you would restore the databases yourself on all of the secondary replicas,
instead of having the wizard do this step. We’ll look at that step in a minute…
5.  Install the AlwaysOn Availability Group
Make sure full backups have been run on each database.
Make sure all databases are in Full Recovery mode.
Remove these databases from any tlog backup maintenance during the
installation of AlwaysOn (you can add them back later). You don’t want tlog backups
happening on these databases while the AlwaysOn group is being created.
On your primary replica, open SQL Management Studio (SSMS) and expand
the AlwaysOn High Availability folder. Right click on Availability Groups and
select New Availability Group Wizard…to open the

wizard: 
First, you will specify your AlwaysOn group name. Name it something descriptive
and

unambiguous: 
Next, you will select the databases you want to include in your AlwaysOn group. All
of the databases in your instance will show up in this list…you don’t have to include
all of them in your group… select only the ones to be included in the AlwaysOn

group. 
Also, next to each database is a blue link that signifies whether your database is
ready to be included into your group or not. If the link does not say ‘Meets
prerequisites’, then you can click on the link to get a more in-depth explanation of
what you need to

do. 
Correct any discrepancies, and then select the databases to include in the AlwaysOn

group: 
Next, is the Specify Replicas page where you will add the replicas to be included in
your AlwaysOn group. Add and connect the replicas by clicking the Add
Replica… button.
For each replica, you will need to specify whether you want Automatic or
Manual Failover, Synchronous or Asynchronous Data Replication, and what type
of Connections you will allow your end users to connect

with. 
On this Specify Replicas page, there are several tabs at the top. The second tab is
the Endpoints tab. On this tab verify that the port number is 5022. If you have more
than one instance on your server, you might need to create another endpoint. Click
here for further
explanation: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alwaysonpro/archive/2013/12/09/trouble-
shoot-error.aspx  
Next tab is the Backup Preferences tab.   This is where you will choose where you
want your backups to occur, and how you prioritize which replica will run your

backups. 
The last tab in the page is the Listener tab. Here you will select the Create an
availability group listener button.
Enter the DNS name, which is the name that will be used in your application
connection string.
Enter port number 1433.
And enter the IP address for your listener. This should be an unused IP address on

your network. 
Next page in the wizard is the Select Initial Data Synchronization page. Here is
where you will join your databases to the AlwaysOn group. The Full option is the
Microsoft default option, and is the one that uses the File Share.   The other two
options (Join and Skip) are fine too, especially if you have large databases. With
these other two options, you will restore the databases yourself, to each secondary
replica.   But this example uses the Full option, so you will browse to and select the
File Share created earlier. And remember the SQL Service account and all replicas
must have read/write permission to the File

Share. 
Next, ensure that your Validation checks return successful results. If you get any
errors, you need to stop and correct these before

proceeding. 
In the Summary page, verify that all your configuration settings are correct, and
click Finish.
The Results page will show the progress of the installation. Verify that all tasks have
completed successfully.   Because there was no quorum set up while creating the
WSFC earlier, we are seeing a warning message here….this will not cause the
installation to

fail. 
After the results are complete, and everything has finished successfully, you can
now see the AlwaysOn Availability Group created in SSMS:
The Availability Group Name: AGroup_Dev
All the Replicas, and whether they are primary or secondary
All the Databases included in the AlwaysOn group
And the Listener created for the group.
This AlwaysOn Group will also be visible on all of the replicas as well.